"The most important scholarly book about Jesus in decades."-- Marcus Borg, author of "Jesus: A New Vision""Lively and idiosyncratic in the great tradition of the historical Jesus genre begun by Schweitzer."-- "The Christian Science Monitor""[Crossan] argues that Jesus. . .became a wisdom teacher using Zen-like aphorisms and puzzling parables to challenge social conventions."-- "The New York Times""Adds color to the interpretation of faith."-- Martin Marty, author of "A Cry of Absence""Elegant . . .masterful. There is nothing like [Crossan's book] for thoroughness, readability, fairness, and clarity."-- Harvey Cox, author of "The Secular City" and"Many Mansions"