Jesus Christ. Life and Teaching. Book I: The Beginning of the Gospel

The book “The Beginning of the Gospel” is a new work by Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Hilarion (Alfeev) and the first in a series of six books under the overall title “Jesus Christ. Life and Teaching.”

The entire series is biographical in nature, because its central theme is the human story of Jesus Christ. One of the main tasks of the book is to recreate a living image of Jesus based on the available sources and to present His teaching as it is reflected in the Gospels. Special attention in the first book of the series is given to the features of His character and worldview, and to the specifics of how He communicates with people.

“The Beginning of the Gospel” opens with an introductory section devoted to the main directions of modern research in the field of the New Testament. A critical assessment is offered to searches for the “historical Jesus” outside of Church tradition, and a different method of Gospel study is proposed—one that is then consistently applied in the sections of the book devoted to the opening chapters of the four Gospels̆. Difficult questions of biblical studies, including the so-called “contradictions” in the Gospels, are not ignored; on the contrary, they are examined consistently and carefully.

The series “Jesus Christ. Life and Teaching” will be continued by the following books: “The Sermon on the Mount,” “The Miracles of Jesus,” “The Parables of Jesus,” “The Lamb of God. Jesus in the Gospel according to John,” “Death and Resurrection.” The monumental six-volume work is intended to answer the main questions about Jesus Christ: “What did Jesus bring to people and why is He needed by the modern person? Two thousand years have passed since He lived and taught—why do His image and preaching remain relevant? What can Jesus offer us, who live in the 21st century, with all its complexities, challenges, problems, and tragedies?”