The Gospel of Jesus Christ, Volume I

By M.-J. Lagrange, O.P.

When the Modernism crisis at the end of the nineteenth century threatened to lay an axe to the root of Catholic scholarship, Pope Leo XIII responded unflinchingly. “The Church,” he wrote, “has nothing to fear from truth.” Encouraging the growth and expansion of Catholic intellectual life, Leo XIII called in particular for the re­vitalization of biblical exegesis to oppose rationalist misinterpretations of Scripture.

As an answer to this call came the work of Marie-Joseph Lagrange, O.P., including his two-volume The Gospel of Jesus Christ. A running commentary upon the life and teaching of Christ, it is neither pious biography nor abstruse textual analysis; instead, it allows the Gospel texts to speak for themselves as the revelation of the living God and then adds commentary on cultural, historical, and topographical details and the harmony and differences between the four evangelists’ accounts. Written with great care and clarity for the sake of the non-expert, The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both a detailed study of and a loving meditation on that sacred text which, in the words of Lagrange himself, is “our light, our strength, and our life.”

Volume I of The Gospel of Jesus Christ covers from the Annunciation to the moment of Christ’s public ministry at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, when He reveals himself as the Good Shepherd.

This gospel of the kingdom must first be preached all over the world, so that all nations may hear the truth; only after that will the end come. (Matthew 24:14)

M.-J. Lagrange, O.P. (1855–1938) was a French Dominican priest and scholar. Founder of the École Biblique in Jerusalem, a school for biblical studies, Lagrange also established the journal Revue Biblique and the series Études biblical—all of which were instrumental in elevating the use of the historical method in Catholic theology. His best-known work is L’évangile de Jésus-Christ (1928).

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Paperback: 368pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953911