There are more than fifty books on Jesus that fall in the categories: "autobiography, biography." The authors writing the autobiographies are varied, from Norman Mailer, to Richard Patton.

The autobiographers who claim to be Jesus reincarnated, are few. Those who claim to channel Jesus are increasing. This may be viewed objectively as a sign of increasing freedom of expression. Of course, as that freedom increases, personal discretion and judgment come more prominently into play.

Here we would like to remind the reader to read Maury Lee's notes on Jesus of India. He has made it very clear that his work was a personal exploration of what might have been, had Jesus traveled the Silk Road and gone to India. He makes no claim of special insight, channeled information or reincarnation. Maury Lee would not want to be pulled into the ranks of those that claim special knowledge from sources not generally available to all.

But, Maury Lee believes that all the works on Jesus that enlighten the struggle for understanding should be listed for those interested in this subject. If you know of a book that should be listed here, please email us so we can post it.

Autobiographies:

The Gospel according to the Son,Mailer, Norman. 1997.
Random House, hardback (0-679-45783-6); Ballantine, paper, (0-345-42132-9). For once, Mailer lets the tale overshadow him as the teller by turning narrative duties over to a well-realized historical figure--Jesus himself, who offers his autobiography to offset the exaggerations of Mark and the misrepresentations of Matthew, Luke, and John.

The Autobiography: of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing Years, by Richard G. Patton

The Last Temptation of Christ by Kazantzakis, Nikos, Translated. by P. A. Bien. 1960. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, paper, (0-671-67257-6).
Before it was an exceedingly controversial movie, the vision of a Jesus who declined to be crucified and who married and raised a family--the whole catastrophe, as Kazantzakis' famous creation Zorba said--was first a highly imaginative novel, just as controversial.

The Hidden Years, by Peter de Rosa ( Neil Boyd)
a novel about Jesus, Published: 1984 -- 251 pages
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Setting: Judaea circa 25-30 AD. The English edition appears under the name of Neil Boyd, the German under Peter de Rosa. Tells the story of the three years of Jesus? life prior to his public ministry.

The Nazarene, by Asch, Sholem, translated by Maurice Samuel. 1939. Carroll & Graf, paper, (0-7867-0379-2).
The soul of the Roman soldier in charge of Jesus' execution inhabits the body of a crusty Christian scholar in the early twentieth century and through him starts to tell what really happened in popular novelist Asch's majestically paced 1940s best-seller.

The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple . Carse, James P. 1997. Harper San Francisco, (0-06-061576-1).
Like the biblical Gospels, Carse's provocative work is made up of parables, remarks, and minimally described motions and reactions. The eyewitness who relates this Gospel is a Samaritan woman, a feminine personification of wisdom who is Jesus' bosom companion and the primary influence on his teaching.

King Jesus, by Graves, Robert. 1946. Farrar, paper,
(0-374-51664-2). The author of I, Claudius (1934) dramatically explains Jesus' life and impact in terms of the politics as well as the religion of his time in a genuinely historical novel provocatively informed by the
controversial ideas about ancient religion that Graves most famously expressed in The White Goddess (1948; rev. ed., 1958).

Lawrence, D. H. The Man Who Died. 1929. Ecco; distributed. by Norton, (0-88001-353-2); paper, (0-88001-429-6); in St. Mawr and The Man Who Died, Vintage, paper, (0-394-71171-6). Reviving from his execution, Jesus no longer cares about his mission, except that he feels he over stressed the giving of love. Taking love is necessary, too, as Lawrence demonstrates in Jesus' love affair with a priestess of Isis. This parable-like novella is Lawrence's last major fiction.

The Gospel of Joseph. Meyer, Gabriel. 1994. Crossroad, (0-8245-1406-8). Cast as a translation of writings attributed to the husband of Jesus' mother and commentary about them, Meyer's unconventional
fiction presents Jesus' early life as one of privilege and relates the effects reputedly sacred documents have on those who come in contact with them.

Behold the Man, Moorcock, Michael. . 1966. MoJo Press, P.O. Box 140005, Austin, TX 78714, $12.95 (1-885418-05-1); Carroll & Graf, paper, (0-88184-369-5). Weary of the modern, scientific world, Karl Glogauer time-travels to Jesus' era, cannot find him, and winds up standing in for him, all the way to the cross, in a serious and philosophical novella that is a
science fiction classic.

The Gospel of Corax. Park, Pau1996. .Soho; dist. by Farrar, (1-56947-061-8); Harcourt, paper, (0-15-600517-4). Corax is a runaway slave who travels from Palestine to the Himalayas, accompanied by a certain Jeshua of Nazareth. Park uses historical shards, legends, and speculation to account for the many philosophical and theological strains evident in early
Christianity.

The Gospel according to Jesus Christ. Saramago, Jose. Tr. by Giovanni Pontiero. 1994. Harcourt, (0-15-136700-0); paper, (0-15-600141-1). Perhaps the most controversial novel about Jesus since The Last Temptation of Christ represents Jesus' seduction by Mary Magdalene as crucial to his world view. Mixing magic, myth, and realism, the book's style is dense, its levels of meaning multiple.

Live from Golgotha. Vidal, Gore.1992. Random,
(0-679-41611-0) op..; Penguin, paper, (0-14-023119-6).
Jesus shows up late, obese, and insane in habitual bad boy Vidal's satirical Gospel ostensibly according to Timothy, in which Paul and proselytizing come in for the most lumps. Funny, sometimes dumbfoundingly perspicacious, and always blasphemous.

The Thomas Jesus (Recent)
Steven Fortney tells the story of Jesus in a new way - from the unusual perspective of a doubting Thomas. Beautifully illustrated by Richard Fendrick, The Thomas Jesus is a modern look at the traditional story.

Here's what people are saying about The Thomas Jesus:
"Fortney reveals a side of Jesus hinted at in the Bible; a Jesus who breathes, sweats and acts like any other man but who answers a higher calling to serve." -- The Library Journal, April 1, 2000 issue.

"The Thomas Jesus is a bold and intellectually challenging work, the story of Jesus told through the eyes of Thomas the Apostle.... The novel is amazing in its sweeping scholarship
and refreshing in its passion. Based on the work of the much ballyhooed (by some) and belittled (by others) Jesus Seminar, The Thomas Jesus resonates with spiritual weight for anyone who has ever grappled with issues of faith and doubt." -- Madison Magazine.

"Steve Fortney has contributed a vital new addition to the volume of work on the life of Jesus. The difference here is that Jesus is a believable portrait of a man full of life and caught up in something beyond himself, something other authors have strived for but Fortney has achieved in striking clarity." - Steven Hoffman, director of Youth and Family Ministry, Zion Lutheran Church, Stewartville, MN

"I was mesmerized by this profound new version of the story of Jesus. It's depth and simplicity made me feel as if I were gazing into The Well of Truth." - Keith Voos, pioneering teacher and poet-novelist

Biographies:

The Aquarian Gospel, Levi Dowling

Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, by John Dominic Crossan

The Gospel of Jesus: According to the Jesus Seminar, by Robert Walter Funk, editor

The Historical Figure of Jesus, by E. P. Sanders -Penguin, 1993.

A Marginal Jew (2 volumes), John Meier--Doubleday, 1991,1994.

Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, by Marcus J. Borg -Harper & Row, 1994.

The Passover Plot-a new interpretation of the life & death of Jesus-Hugh Schonfield

Jesus: A Life, by A. N. Wilson
Paperback, 288 pp. ISBN: 0449908070
Publisher: Faucet Book Group, September 1993

Author portrays Jesus in bold novel fashion

I, Jesus, Stories from the Savior, by Robert Darken (Summit Publishing Group, 1996). 194 pages, hardcover. You may order this book from Books Now by calling (800) 962-6651 ext. 150 or at the Website http://www.booksnow.com.

Review By LOS CONE -- 8/7/97

According to author Robert Darken I, Jesus is "an exercise in creative imagination." He has told the stories as he wanted to read them.

Mr. Darken has tackled an ambitious undertaking in this book. Few authors choose to risk putting words into the mouth of Jesus, to say nothing of putting thoughts into his mind.

However, Mr. Darden does both in a fashion seemingly unlikely to offend most readers. He is considerably less bold than Taylor Caldwell was with her character Judah/Judas and his relationship with Jesus in her book about the Master.

In contrast to Ms. Caldwell's and other recent bold portrayals of Jesus, Mr. Darden portrays Jesus and the disciples in a fashion to which most readers are unaccustomed. Perhaps "innocent radical" is good as a description as any for his characterizations.

For example, the reader may find it interesting that the author thinks of Simon Peter as the "James Bond" of the twelve -- not as womanizer but as spy.

When Mary, Martha and Lazarus prepare dinner in Bethany to honor Jesus after he raised Lazarus from the dead, it is Peter who learns every shortcut and back-alley escape route. In the author's view, Peter seems to be the "intelligence officer" for the twelve.

The author paints the days of Jesus and the disciples as a time not of milk and honey but as a time of intrigue, not for evil, but for good.

The author leads the reader to conclude that Jesus as a teacher may also have had some classroom discipline problems. Witness the fiasco of James and John, who allowed their mother, with utter disregard for the feelings of the other disciples, to ask special favors of Jesus (Matthew 20:20-28). This passage reminds us that although Jesus performed many miracles, he did not always keep peace in his family nor among his other disciples.

Another surprise is that Mr. Darden's Jesus has a streak of humor.

For instance, on a cold and stormy night, the disciples and a few Pharisees -- one of whom Jesus has rather disrespectfully nicknamed "twitchy-eye" -- seek shelter in the same inn. Jesus uses the occasion to answer the Pharisees' question regarding the coming of God's kingdom.

Perhaps brought about by Thomas' suggestion that the storm sounded like the end of the world, Jesus takes advantage of the intensification of the storm to tell the equivalent of a ghost story. Turning the tables on those who had been trying to trap him, he frightens the Pharisees to the extent that they seek shelter elsewhere (see related book review).

Research, History, Archeology:

Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After the Crucifixion, by Holger Kersten

The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, by Nicolas Notovitch Jesus
and The Lost Years of Jesus: The Life of Saint Issa - Notovitch

King of Travelers: Jesus' Lost Years In India
by Edward T. Martin
Publisher: Jonah Publishing
Trade Paperback 244 pages

Saving the Savior, Christ Survived the Crucifixion by Conrad Doherty

The Search for Jesus: Modern Scholarship Looks at the Gospels by John D. Crossan, et all

The Historical Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan

The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus, by Robert Walter Funk, editor

The Way of the Essenes: Christ's Hidden Life Remembered by Anne Meurois-Givaudan, et al

The Birth of Christianity: Discovery What Happened in the Years Immediately After the Execution of Jesus, by John Dominic Crossan

Teachings of the Essenes from Enoch to the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely

The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus, by Lee Strobel

The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus' 17 Year Journey to the East, by Elizabeth Clare Prophet

The Life Of Jesus by Ernest Renan - 1861

The Doubters Sites:
Here are sites with information that Christ may not have been a real person at all, but a myth many have taken as literal truth.

How Jesus Got A Life -- The Probing Mind

Jesus, a historical reconstruction

Did Jesus Christ Really Live?

Truth Be Known by Acharya S

Jesus of India

by Maury Lee

Jesus of India was published October 23, 2000 by Xlibris, Inc. It is available directly from the publisher as a trade paperback or e-book. You may also purchase online from the major online book retailers. ENJOY!

You Can Order Jesus of India from:

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http://www.xlibris.com/jesusofindia.html

Xlibris is the publisher, and books ordered from them directly may ship faster. Click any link above to go directly to the purchase form for Jesus of India.

Contact Information

Electronic mail: maurylee#swbell.net

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