Jesus: A New Vision by Whitley Strieber
Well into the process of researching a work of my own what I am calling “Prototype for Christianity” about a pre-Christian monastic community in Alexandria in Egypt, I was surprised to happen upon the title Jesus, A New Vision, by, of all people, Whitely Strieber, a American writer I had last read decades ago, known then for horror novels and his equally chilling, for me, non-fiction work, Communion, about his alleged encounters with non-human entities whom I will always remember as the little gray guys. This unorthodox mix of interests of his made me just curious enough about what Strieber might have to say about Jesus that I looked up the title on Amazon, where the recent publication date (January 2021), reasonable Kindle price, and ample number of reviews induced me to risk buying a book I would not finish reading.
I was not disappointed. As someone who has spent considerable time on opposite sides of the fence of traditional Christianity and found the grazing in either pasture less than fulfilling, I was amazed, time after time, by the many insights, spiritual and historical, Strieber seeded throughout this book. Not that he provides all the answers or claims that the Gospels do either. Take this quote, for instance: “The Gospel of Thomas reveals the real Jesus in his truth, I think, as a teacher so courageous and so intent on challenging his students that he will deny his own teachings in order to make them think for themselves.”
He presents well-known gems of universal wisdom with startling freshness: “Knowing oneself is accepting oneself, including the parts that we don’t like. If you long to take what another has, for example, you certainly don’t have to do it, but on the Jesus path, you do have to accept that you want to.” Maybe it is just me, but that line made me shrink less from the shadowy parts of my own image in the mirror.
He tosses out some daring conclusions, normally well-founded, that I think will stick to my spiritual ribs: “His [Jesus’s] instruction that, if we understand his way, we will not “taste death” does not mean that the body won’t die, but that its inevitable end will become part of what we accept always and in every moment, not something that we assume is somewhere far off in an indistinct future. I don’t think that he rose from the dead so much as was able to project into the physical world what we all become after death.”
On the other hand, he does make some tantalizing assertions that he then does not follow through with: “He [Jesus] was also helped by a group of people who are almost invisible in the gospels, but not quite. They must have been incredibly learned. In fact, they must have known and understood the secret of death itself, and thus how to surmount it.” Toward the end of the book, he comments further: “Perhaps if we could learn more about that secret band who seems to have been behind his passion and resurrection, and probably his whole life, that would help, but at the present time there appears to be no way to do that.” Pardon the bit of self-promotion, but I am hoping my work, mentioned at the start of this review, will help to identify this “secret band” more precisely.
There is a lot more that is noteworthy in Whitely Strieber’s interpretation of the life of Jesus, but this and other introductory material available should be enough to give the prospective reader a taste for or against (the “true believer” may find much of the book wrongheaded) the viewpoint presented. As for me, I remain amazed that I am writing such a ringing endorsement of a book about Jesus written by Whitely Strieber!
View all my reviews