Jesus Rediscovered

Probably fairly radical in its day, this book now seems long-winded and - in places - somewhat tedious. It's mainly transcripts of talks he gave in various church or college settings in the 1960s.

Muggeridge attempts to find the real Jesus, without the trappings of the church - something many people are doing in the 21st century; yet his attempts seem dated, and his description of the church bears little relation to the problems of today.

There are a few gems, so I'm glad I did eventually finish it; the interview with the author in the final section is quite revealing and makes good reading.

Malcolm Muggeridge, longtime journalist for the Manchester Guardian, speaks to us from the position of a profound disillusionment with institutional Christianity and with regret over the present and future course of Western Culture. Raised an agnostic, with a belief from his father in the coming of the utopian socialist state, now in the 1960s he is thoroughtly convinced that there will be no utopia created on earth. He did rediscover Jesus, however, and became an unexpected apologist for the Christian religion in his country and through his books and BBC broadcasts, to the world. He was 65 when he published this book of articles, interviews and addresses and is able to reflect upon his lifetime of extracting as much pleasure as show more possible from all that the world has to offer. Now, like Solomon, he finds that he has been chasing the wind. He condemns the "pursuit of happiness" embodied in the US Declaration of Independence which he translates into a pursuit of pleasure as epitomized in the present Swedish and American lifestyles. Muggeridge, who became a Roman Catholic late in life, cuts to the essentials of the Christian failth and is not personally bothered by the fine points of institutionalized Christian creeds. He has both witnessed in others and experienced himself the peace and joy of relationship with Christ through dying to self and following Christ. And nothing else matters. show less