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The media is in love with Reza Aslan’s new book Zealot, which claims to provide a ‘historical’ look at the life of Jesus. NPR called it ‘Christ in context,’ while the Seattle Times wrote, ‘Zealot looks at the age Jesus lived in to expand what's known about this historic figure.’
Over the last week or so, the book shot from obscurity to number one on the Amazon bestseller list. It is always curious when the media decides to trumpet a book based on Jesus, and the situation becomes even more suspect when you begin to uncover who Aslan really is.
“The name of the book is Zealot. The guy who has written it – in no way controversial. There's no controversy attached to this at all in the mainstream media, which is strange,” Glenn said on radio this morning.
Aslan is Muslim, and while that has little to no impact on his ability to write a book about Jesus, the media and Aslan have sought to minimize that fact. During an awkward interview with Fox News, religion correspondent Lauren Green attempted to broach the subject with mixed results.
GREEN: Well, this is an interesting book. You are a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the funder of Christianity?
ASLAN: Well, to be clear, I'm a scholar of religions with four degrees, including one in the New Testament and fluency in biblical Greek, who's been studying the origins of Christianity for two decades, who also just happens to be a Muslim? It's not just I'm a Muslim writing about Jesus. I'm an expert with a Ph.D. in religions, but I have been obsessed --
GREEN: It still begs questions why would you be interested in the founder of Christianity.
ASLAN: Because it's my job as an academic. I am a professor of religion, including the New Testament. That's what I do for a living actually. So it would be like asking a Christian why they would write a book about Islam; I'm not sure about that, but honestly, I have been obsessed with Jesus for really 20 years. I have been studying his life and his work and the origins of Christianity, both in an academic environment and in a personal level for about two decades. Just to be clear, this is not an attack on Christianity. My mother is a Christian, my wife is a Christian, my brother-in-law is an Evangelical pastor. Anyone who thinks this is an attack on Christianity has not read it yet.
In reality, a little bit of research into Aslan and his past shows that the motives behind him writing this book have very little to do with religion.
“Zealot is the latest in the progressive attempt to rewrite history,” Glenn said. “The amazing thing is, it's working. It's working… It's not that he's a Muslim. It's the fact he's a liar and a progressive.”
Aslan went out of his way to emphasize his academic background in order to claim authority on the subject, but there has been very little said about the nature of his education.
“Okay, he has four degrees and here they are,” Glenn said. “1995: BA in Religion from Santa Clara University. 1995: Master of Theological Studies from Harvard. Then in 2002, he got Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa. Then in 2009, he got his only Ph.D. He's a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. So where is the Ph.D. in the history of religions? He doesn't have one.”
“Well, the problem is, he's not a historian. At least according to his credentials,” he continued. “He does not have a Ph.D. in the history of religions. He has a Ph.D. in Sociology. What he does for a living? He teaches creative writing. That's what he does. He teaches creative writing.”
Considering how much pride he seems to take in his degrees, it is surprising to learn that Aslan’s credentials are not exactly as he described. On tonight’s Glenn Beck Program, Glenn will take a deeper look at some of the passages in Zealot that contain fairly obvious factual errors to anyone who has read the Bible, in addition to some of Aslan’s affiliations and funding.
“This is a rewriting of our history. This is a shedding of our traditions and our beliefs and our history. That sounds familiar. And the press is doing it and most of America is going gleefully down that road,” Glenn said. “Why? Because nobody's pointing it out. And even when we point it out, the rest of the media is not going to pick up on this. [They] won't make a big deal out of it.”
“Tonight we are going to do a half hour on this guy that you don't want to miss,” he concluded. “Facts on this man that the media is not going to give you. And when you hear and you will ask, ‘Why? Why haven't I heard that?’”
Don’t miss the Glenn Beck Program, tonight at 5pm ET only on TheBlaze. Not a subscriber? Sign up for your 14-day free trial HERE.
Morningstar via Investopedia