The Dark Side of Jesus: A Contrast to His Light - Exploring Biblical Themes for Study & Reflection

Atwell's book helps me confront and understand, a bit, the difference and value of both the rational mind and that so mysterious gift of faith. The book's dedication is "To all those never given the gift of faith." As an engineer, I have always placed rationality on a high plane and rather impishly wandered into the realm of faith. the struggle I have always had concerning....Is Jesus human or is he God?....has left me floundering. Most of my life I have simply given up on trying to "understand" who Jesus really is/was. When I rely on a study of the scriptures, and the historians, archaeologists, cultural anthropologists and linguists, I live in a state of confusion. Perhaps, that is as it should be, because what is left is faith. Faith is a gift and its nature is to be mysterious. It has taken me 85 years of "study" to realize that the gospel writers were not historians but were storytellers. Atwell has taken the "magic" out of Christianity for me and has done so in a short 100 pages. Jesus has become a human for me, like me, and so has a bit of the dark-side imbedded, like me, and so has become my leader, my mentor. The spark of divinity in all of us can grow, when we follow our leader, until it becomes so bright that the light side of us, like Jesus, overcomes the dark side. Thank you Tilden Atwell for your insights. Bill Hocking