195 Quotes by Reza Aslan

But what is most desperately needed is not so much a better appreciation of our neighbor’s religion as a broader, more complete understanding of religion itself.

Paul’s lack of concern with the historical Jesus is not due, as some have argued, to his emphasis on Christological rather than historical concerns. It is due to the simple fact that Paul had no idea who the living Jesus was, nor did he care.

The very term “theocracy” was coined specifically to describe Jerusalem.

Luke means that Jesus is the new David, the King of the Jews, placed on God’s throne to rule over the Promised Land. Simply put, the infancy narratives in the gospels are not historical accounts, nor were they meant to be read as such. They are theological affirmations of Jesus’s status as the anointed of God. The descendant of King David. The promised messiah.

Mark’s audience was in Rome, where he himself resided. His account of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth was written mere months after the Jewish Revolt had been crushed.

When you’re a brown Muslim from Iran talking about Jesus on TV, you need to keep your cool at all times, OK? That’s not rocket science.

The idea of literalism in the Bible is a very new phenomenon. In many ways, it’s a product of the scientific revolution.

Religion doesn’t make people bigots. People are bigots and they use religion to justify their ideology.

Those who did know Jesus – those who followed him into Jerusalem as its king and helped him cleanse the Temple in God’s name, who were there when he was arrested and who watched him die a lonely death – played a surprisingly small role in defining the movement Jesus left behing.