At first sight this book might easily be dismissed as no more than a coffee-table book: A4 in size, with hundreds of beautiful colour photographs and most subjects taking up a single spread. But it is much more than that. JR Porter is Professor Emeritus of Theology at Exeter University and his text is both authoritative and very readable, written for the general reader rather than the specialist. The sub-title of the book indicates that this is not a simple pastoral work for believing Christians: "The Jesus of History, the Christ of Faith". Throughout the book Porter makes it clear that the two are not the same. First, he is careful to place the historical Jesus firmly in his setting, describing the geographical, political, religious and socio- economic background of 1st-century Palestine. Only then does he go through the life and teachings of Jesus as described in the Gospels, showing through basic scholarly analysis that a simplistic acceptance of their accuracy and supposedly inspired nature cannot really be countenanced. And yet his approach, while not reverential, is certainly sympathetic to the Christian faith. This book should not offend any but the most fundamentalist Evangelicals and should be of great value to Christians of all persuasions. --David V. Barrett