The Gospel of Everyone
A Poetic Retelling of the Gospel of Luke
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2017
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Publisher's Description
This poetic retelling of the Gospel of Luke imagines how the people surrounding Jesus--including the "minor characters" who appear only once or twice--reacted to this man. Rather than discuss the history, the politics, or the theology surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, these poems enter into the human experiences of what it might have been like to walk side-by-side on the dusty roads to Emmaus, Jericho, or Jerusalem, feeling the heat of the day while hearing what this man has to say and watching him perform simple acts of kindness as well as miracles that confounded, confused, and inspired those around him. As you read these poems, you'll also see the struggle the apostles and others felt as they tried to determine just who was this man. Enter into their amazement, hope, despair, and more as they fall in love with a man who gives them hope for a better way to live and for a better world. Enter into the minds, too, of those who opposed and betrayed him to see their struggle. Finally, read these poems as a way to connect your own humanity to Jesus' humanity, in part, to transform him from icon to flesh and blood.
Endorsements (3)
“In reading Paul Totah's poetic celebrations of characters in the Gospels . . . I found myself marveling at Totah's take on each of them--so much like my own in many respects, and yet so new and fresh to me in other ways. . . . It was the kind of teaching that not only enlightened my mind; it enkindled my heart and triggered in me new flights of imagination. . . . For lovers of Jesus, this is a new kind of treat.”
“Paul Totah reads the Gospel of Luke in a poetic version that reveals his own spirituality with very human takes on individual figures and stories. These short poems would be useful for personal meditation, as they draw out our own fears, joys and longings. Totah puts the well-known gospel into an engaging modern narrative.”
“Based on Luke's Gospel, the book gives voice to the main players of the Gospel, but it also tells stories from the perspectives of minor characters--people Jesus healed and those who watched his ministry. Totah bases his writing on the imaginative practices of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, and this shows in the richly detailed scenes Totah presents. All those in the narrative, including Jesus, come off feeling fully human. The paralytic, who was lowered before Jesus by his friends, says that this allowed him to see himself as "a man loved, still able to love.”
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