Taking Jesus Seriously

A book review of Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith

Radical Jesus cover

Here’s a book you might be interested in getting. It is a comic book called Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith. This book surprised me with its ability to inspire and encourage through the medium of graphic art in a classic comic book style. The book is unapologetically tilted towards a radical Christianity in the spirit of Jesus’ own life and teaching.

Edited by Paul Buhle, this Herald Press resource strings a series of stories together that once you’ve finished, it has challenged you as a reader to recalibrate your own faith along the lines of the radical witness testified about within its pages. There is a really cool progression to the artwork as you progress through history. It begins with the gospel story in black and white, but by the time you are up to the present era at the end, you are in vibrant colors. The artwork itself is also thought provoking, providing stimulating images to go along with the commentary. As an example, the Jesus story, in black and white, has a unique way of blending Jesus’ life with contemporary issues, forcing the readers to connect dots between Jesus’ teachings and the societal realities that are present in our own time.