{"product_id":"life-of-christ-isbn-9780385132206","title":"Life of Christ","description":"\u003cp\u003eWidely proclaimed a classic work of Christian faith, \u003ci\u003eLife of Christ\u003c\/i\u003e has been hailed as the most eloquent of Fulton J. Sheen's many books. The fruit of many years of reflection, prayer, and research, it is a dramatic and moving recounting of the birth, life, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ, and a passionate portrait of the God-Man, the teacher, the healer, and, most of all, the Savior, whose promise has sustained humanity for two millenia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith his customary insight and reverence, Sheen interprets the Scripture and describes Christ not only in historical perspective but also in exciting and contemporary terms -- seeing in Christ's life both modern parallels and timeless lessons. His thoughtful, probing analysis provides new insight into well-known Gospel events.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn appealing blend of philosophy, history, and biblical exegesis, from the best-known and most-loved American Catholic leader of the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eLife of Christ\u003c\/i\u003e has long been a source of inspiration and guidance. For those seeking to better understand the message of Jesus Christ, this vivid retelling of the greatest story ever lived is a must-read.\u003c\/p\u003eFULTON J. SHEEN (1895 – 1979) was one of the most prominent Catholic leaders in American history. He was bishop of Rochester, national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and television’s first religious broadcaster, hosting “Life is Worth Living” on the ABC network. Sheen’s cause for canonization is currently under consideration.\u003cb\u003eOne\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Only Person Ever Pre-Announced\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e History is full of men who have claimed  that they came from God, or that they were gods, or that they bore messages from  God--Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Christ, Lao-tze, and thousands of others, right  down to the person who founded a new religion this very day. Each of them has a right  to be heard and considered. But as a yardstick external to and outside of whatever  is to be measured is needed, so there must be some permanent tests available to all  men, all civilizations, and all ages, by which they can decide whether any one of  these claimants, or all of them, are justified in their claims. These tests are of  two kinds: \u003ci\u003ereason\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003ehistory\u003c\/i\u003e. Reason, because everyone has it, even those without  faith; history, because everyone lives in it and should know something about it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Reason dictates that if any one of these men actually came from God, the least thing  that God could do to support His claim would be to pre-announce His coming. Automobile  manufacturers tell their customers when to expect a new model. If God sent anyone  from Himself, or if He came Himself with a vitally important message for all men,  it would seem reasonable that He would first let men know when His messenger was  coming, where He would be born, where He would live, the doctrine He would teach,  the enemies He would make, the program He would adopt for the future, and the manner  of His death. By the extent to which the messenger conformed with these announcements,  one could judge the validity of his claims.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Reason further assures us that if God  did not do this, then there would be nothing to prevent any impostor from appearing  in history and saying, \"I come from God,\" or \"An angel appeared to me in the desert  and gave me this message.\" In such cases there would be no objective, historical  way of testing the messenger. We would have only his word for it, and of course he  could be wrong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If a visitor came from a foreign country to Washington and said  he was a diplomat, the government would ask him for his passport and other documents  testifying that he represented a certain government. His papers would have to antedate  his coming. If such proofs of identity are asked from delegates of other countries,  reason certainly ought to do so with messengers who claim to have come from God.  To each claimant reason says, \"What record was there before you were born that you  were coming?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e With this test one can evaluate the claimants. (And at this preliminary  stage, Christ is no greater that the others.) Socartes had no one to foretell his  birth. Buddha had no one to pre-announce him and his message or tell the day when  he would sit under the tree. Confucius did not have the name of his mother and his  birthplace recorded, nor were they given to men centuries before he arrived so that  when he did come, men would know he was a messanger from God. But, with Christ it  was different. Because of the Old Testament prophecies, His coming was not unexpected.  There was no predictions about Buddha, coming was not unexpected. There were no predictions  about Buddha, Confucius, Lao-tze, Mohammed, or anyone else; but there were predictions  about Christ. Others just came and said, \"Here I am, believe me.\" They were, therefore,  only men among men and not the Divine in the human. Christ alone stepped out of that  line saying, \"Search the writings of the Jewish people and the related history of  the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.\" (For the moment, pagan writings and  even the Old Testament may be regarded only as historical documents, not as inspired  works.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e It is true that the prophecies of the Old Testament can be best understood  in the light of their fulfillment. The language of prophecy does not have the exactness  of mathematics. Yet if one searches out the various Messianic currents in the Old  Testament, and compares the resulting picture with the life and work of Christ, can  one doubt that the ancient predictions point to Jesus and the kingdom which he established?  God's promise to the patriarchs that through them all the nations of the earth would  be blessed; the prediction that the tribe of Juda would be supreme among the other  Hebrew tribes until the coming of Him Whom all nations would obey; the strange yet  undeniable fact that in the Bible of the Alexandrian Jews, the Septuagint, one finds  clearly predicted the \u003ci\u003evirgin\u003c\/i\u003e birth of the Messias; the prophecy of Isaias 53 about  the patient sufferer, the Servant of the Lord, who will lay down his life as a guilt-offering  for his people's offenses; the perspectives of the glorious, everlasting kingdom  of the House of David--in whom but Christ have these prophecies found their fulfillment?  From an historical point of view alone, here is uniqueness which sets Christ apart  from all other founders of world religions. And once the fulfillment of these prophecies  did historically take place in the person of Christ, not only did all prophecies  cease in Israel, but there was discontinuance of sacrifices when the true Paschal  Lamb was sacrificed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Turn to pagan testimony. Tacitus, speaking for the ancient  Romans, says, \"People were generally persuaded in the faith of the ancient prophecies,  that the East was to prevail, and that from Judea was to come the Master and Ruler  of the world.\" Suetonius, in his account of the life of Vespasian, recounts the Roman  tradition thus, \"It was an old and constant belief throughout the East, that by indubitably  certain prophecies, the Jews were to attain the highest power.\"\u003cbr\u003e China had the same  expectation; but because it was on the other side of the world, it believed that  the great Wise Man would be born in the \u003ci\u003eWest\u003c\/i\u003e. The Annals of the Celestial Empire  contain the statement:\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the 24th year of Tchao-Wang of the dynasty of the Tcheou,  on the 8th day of the 4th moon, a light appeared in the Southwest which illumined  the king's palace. The monarch, struck by its splendor, interrogated the sages.  They showed him books in which this prodigy signified the appearance of the great  Saint of the West whose religion was to be introduced into their country.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The Greeks  expected Him, for Aeschylus in his Prometheus six centuries before His coming, wrote,  \"Look not for any end, moreover, to this curse until God appears, to accept upon  His Head the pangs of thy own sins vicarious.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e How did the Magi of the East know  of His coming? Probably from the many prophecies circulated through the world by  the Jews as well as through the prophecy made to the Gentiles by Daniel centuries  before His birth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Cicero, after recounting the sayings of the ancient oracles and  the Sibyls about a \"King whom we must recognize to be saved,\" asked in expectation,  \"To what man and to what period of time do these predictions point?\" The Fourth Eclogue  of Virgil recounted the same ancient tradition and spoke of \"a chaste woman, smiling  on her infant boy, with whom the iron age would pass away.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Suetonius quoted a contemporary  author to the effect that the Romans were so fearful about a king who would rule  the world that they ordered all children born that year to be killed--an order that  was not fulfilled, except by Herod.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Not only were the Jews expecting the birth of  a Great King, a Wise Man and a Savior, but Plato and Socrates also spoke of the Logos  and of the Universal Wise Man \"yet to come.\" Confucius spoke of \"the Saint\"; the  Sibyls, of a \"Universal King\"; the Greek dramatist, of a savior and redeemer to unloose  man from the \"primal eldest curse.\" All these were on the Gentile side of the expectation.  What separates Christ from all men is that first He was expected; even the Gentiles  had a longing for a deliverer, or redeemer. This fact alone distinguishes Him from  all other religious leaders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A second distinguishing fact is that once He appeared,  He struck history with such impact that He split it in two, dividing it into two  periods: one before His coming, the other after it. Buddha did not do this, nor any  of the great Indian philosophers. Even those who deny God must date their attacks  upon Him, a.d. so and so, or so many years after His coming.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A third fact separating  Him from all the others is this: every other person who ever came into this world  came into it to live. He came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to Socrates--it  interrupted his teaching. But to Christ, death was the goal and fulfillment of His  life, the gold that He was seeking. Few of His words or actions are intelligible  without reference to His Cross. He presented Himself as a Savior rather than merely  as a Teacher. It meant nothing to teach men to be good unless He also gave them the  power to be good, after rescuing them from the frustration of guilt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The story of  every human life begins with birth and ends with death. In the Person of Christ,  however, it was His death that was first and His life that was last. The scripture  describes Him as \"the Lamb slain as it were, from the beginning of the world.\" He  was slain in intention by the first sin and rebellion against God. It was not so  much that His birth cast a shadow on His life and thus led to His death; it was rather  that the Cross was first, and cast its shadow back to His birth. His has been the  only life in the world that was ever lived backward. As the flower in the crannied  wall tells the poet of nature, and as the atom is the miniature of the solar system,  so too, His birth tells the mystery of the gibbet. He went from the known to the  known, from the reason of His coming manifested by His name \"Jesus\" or \"Savior\" to  the fulfillment of His coming, namely, His death on the Cross.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e John gives us His  eternal prehistory; Matthew, His temporal prehistory, by way of His genealogy. It  is significant how much His temporal ancestry was connected with sinners and foreigners!  These blots on the escutcheon of His human lineage suggest a pity for the sinful  and for the strangers to the Covenant. Both these aspects of His compassion would  later on be hurled against Him as accusations: \"He is a friend of sinners\"; \"He is  a Samaritan.\" But the shadow of a stained past foretells His future love for the  stained. Born of a woman, He was a man and could be one with all humanity; born of  a Virgin, who was overshadowed by the Spirit and \"full of grace,\" He would also be  outside that current of sin which infected all men.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eTwo\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Early Life of Christ\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e A fourth distinguishing fact is that He does not fit, as the other world teachers  do, into the established category of a \u003ci\u003egood man\u003c\/i\u003e. Good men do not lie. But if Christ  was not all that He said He was, namely, the Son of the living God, the Word of God  in the flesh, then \u003cbr\u003e He was not \"just a good man\"; then He was a knave, a liar, a  charlatan and the greatest deceiver who ever lived. If He was not what He said He  was, the Christ, the Son of God, He was the anti-Christ! If He was only a man, then  He was not even a \"good\" man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But He was \u003ci\u003enot only\u003c\/i\u003e a man. He would have us either  worship Him or despise Him--despise Him as a mere man, or worship Him as true God  and true man. That is the alternative He presents. It may very well be that the Communists,  who are so anti-Christ, are closer to Him than those who see Him as a sentimentalist  and a vague moral reformer. The Communists have at least decided that if He wins,  they lose; the others are afraid to consider Him either as winning or losing, because  they are not prepared to meet the moral demands which this victory would make on  their souls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e If He is what He claimed to be, a Savior, a Redeemer, then we have  a virile Christ and a leader worth following in these terrible times; One Who will  step into the breach of death, crushing sin, gloom and despair; a leader to Whom  we can make totalitarian sacrifice without losing, but gaining freedom, and Whom  we can love even unto death. We need a Christ today Who will make cords and drive  the buyers and sellers from our new temples; Who will blast the unfruitful fig-trees;  Who will talk of crosses and sacrifices and Whose voice will be like the voice of  the raging sea. But He will not allow us to pick and choose among His words, discarding  the hard ones, and accepting the ones that please our fancy. We need a Christ Who  will restore moral indignation, Who will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity,  and love goodness to a point where we can drink death like water.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Annunciation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Every civilization has had a tradition of a golden age in the past. A more precise  Jewish record tells of a fall from a state of innocence and happiness through a woman  tempting a man. If a woman played such a role in the fall of mankind, should she  not play a great role in its restoration? And if there was a lost Paradise in which  the first nuptials of man and woman were celebrated, might there not be a new Paradise  in which the nuptials of God and man would be celebrated?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the fullness of time  an Angel of Light came down from the great Throne of Light to a Virgin kneeling in  prayer, to ask her if she was willing to give God a human nature. Her answer was  that she \"knew not man\" and, therefore, could not be the mother of the \"Expected  of the Nations.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e There never can be a birth without love. In this the maiden was  right. The begetting of new life requires the fires of love. But besides the human  passion which begets life, there is the \"passionless passion and wild tranquility\"  of the Holy Spirit; and it was this that overshadowed the woman and begot in her  Emmanuel or \"God with us.\" At the moment that Mary pronounced \u003ci\u003eFiat\u003c\/i\u003e or \"Be it done,\"  something greater happened than the \u003ci\u003eFiat lux\u003c\/i\u003e (Let there be light) of creation; for  the light that was now made was not the sun, but the Son of God in the flesh. By  pronouncing \u003ci\u003eFiat\u003c\/i\u003e Mary achieved the full role of womanhood, namely, to be the bearer  of God's gifts to man. There is a passive receptiveness in which woman says \u003ci\u003eFiat\u003c\/i\u003e to the cosmos as she shares its rhythm, \u003ci\u003eFiat\u003c\/i\u003e to a man's love as she receives it,  and \u003ci\u003eFiat\u003c\/i\u003e to God as she receives the Spirit.","brand":"Image","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303651758309,"sku":"NP9780385132206","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385132206.jpg?v=1767731436","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/life-of-christ-isbn-9780385132206","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}