'Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian': Reza Aslan on Zealot, at the Jaipur Literature Festival, 2014

Rick.Heskey
Published on Mar 25, 2021
"I converted to Christianity when I was 15. But when I began to study the historical Jesus I began to realise most of what I knew about Jesus was incorrect. I became more interested in the historic man rather than the man of faith. It is not that I did not like anything but the central tenet of Christianity is that Jesus is God and that is a belief I could not hold any longer. I think of myself as an interpreter of religion. What I want to do whether I am writing about Judaism or Islam or Christianity doesn't matter. What I want to do is talk about the historical aspects about these religions. I want to dig through the legend, mythology and theology and try to get to the actual human beings, who were these great reformers and who they actually were and not what the religion says they were".

Iranian-American author and religious scholar Reza Aslan talks about his critically acclaimed book, "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth" and why it is not meant to offend the sentiments attached to the image of Jesus. He conducted a session at the recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival talking about the various aspects of the book and 'Jesus, the man'. Zealot... released in July 2013.

Camera: Debesh Banerjee
Editing and Post Production: Andrew Clarance