I've really enjoyed Diana Butler Bass's other books, but this one just wasn't for me. This book was deeply personal, and I respect her courage in sharing such a strange experience, but I didn't feel like the retelling had much impact on my faith or lack thereof. I think that people who are inspired by mystical experiences will connect to this story, but it didn't hold my interest. The book was well written and I enjoyed the portions where Bass wrote about what she does best, church history and church culture.

Thank you for the chance to read this. Aside from the fact that this is something I've been wrestling with for several years it's a dynamic story of someone's untangling of what we've been given- the idea of who Jesus is. Explaining "how we got here" through history up until the modern day will be helpful for anyone religious or not.

Loved this book so much I ended up buying my own copy so I could read it and mark my favorite passages.

Grateful for Diana Butler Bass and her clear, unapologetic understanding of a loving and liberating God.

Bass wrote a book for which I believe she genuinely desired to hold its spiritual weight and biblical truth. But her concept of “freeing Jesus” rests upon a faulty and biased discretion to decide who Jesus of the 21st century is to her. When scripture is referenced in this way, it’s called eisegesis instead of exegesis—which points to understanding what the text said for the particular audience/culture/time for which it was written. In her book, experience is elevated over foundational understandings the early church held of Jesus. I’m not implying she intends to cause damage to the church but her arguments are not about the historical, biblical Jesus because she has made a new Jesus of her own mental formation.

In this era of worshiping remotely, of going to church without actually going anywhere, many have found it easy simply to leave church behind. In doing so, sadly, they may also be leaving Jesus behind as well. Diana Butler Bass makes a strong case for Freeing Jesus, releasing him (and consequently ourselves!) from the false constraints that have put Jesus in a box. She invites readers to return to the Jesus stories for primary source materials straight from the four gospels.


It’s bracing to read in Acts about Saul’s life being transformed because he experienced Jesus on Jesus’s own terms, as a “blinding light, as the risen Christ, as healer of his own broken soul.” (175) Bass shares her experience of Jesus in six different ways, as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. Coming of age as we both did in late 20th-century evangelicalism, our stories intersect at numerous points, and we share a disdain for the conflation of Jesus as Lord with a political church. Even so, it’s clear to me (and I thought it was interesting!) that we experience Jesus quite differently.

However, the point of our lives is to encounter Jesus–to be found by him and then to put his glory on display as we allow his ways to inform and to interrogate our ways. Freeing Jesus is an invitation to a deeper faith and to a wider practice of Christianity that aligns what we believe with how we actually live and work in this world.

Many thanks to HarperOne and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

Author and historian Diana Butler Bass describes 6 ways of freeing Jesus, of undoing his packaging, of letting him out of the box.

They include discovering Jesus as:

Friend
Teacher
Savior
Lord
Way
Presence

Bass organizes this book brilliantly to tell her own spiritual autobiography. But the book isn’t just about her. It’s mainly about Jesus. And about us and Jesus.

As Bass explains, it’s not a theological memoir. It’s a memoir theology. The focus is on theology; the memoir is just there to give it structure.

Here are quotes from Bass relating to six sides of Jesus that become visible as we free him from the packaging.

1. JESUS AS FRIEND

“The story of the New Testament is that the risk of friendship is the risk that frees us from fear and reshapes our lives—it is better to go together than to go alone. Jesus befriends us, opening our hearts to genuine love and the capacity to forgive each other, welcome all, and act justly in the world.”

2. JESUS AS TEACHER

“Jesus, who was complete love, the man for others, taught us to go and be likewise. He did not teach rules. He taught that love ruled. He lived what he taught.”

3. JESUS AS SAVIOR

“At-one-ment was the reason the authorities did away with Jesus. No empire can stand if the people it oppresses figure out that reconciliation, love, liberation, and oneness hold more power than the sword.”

4. JESUS AS LORD

“I had not brought Jesus to anyone. Instead, my host had brought Jesus to me as he welcomed me and invited my heart to be cleansed along with the kitchen. There was something of me that got saved that day, not the other way around.”

5. JESUS AS THE WAY

“Being a Christian is about finding or getting found by Jesus.”

6. JESUS AS PRESENCE

“Jesus as mystery is, indeed, the Christian faith’s greatest spiritual enigma. A human being who is fully God? That is what Christianity proclaims—that beyond our wildest imaginings, the ever-creating Love of the cosmos made its way into our small, hurting world, living and dying with us and for us, and promises never, never, never to leave us alone. Love is in the world, and inside of us, dwelling with us even as we dwell in it. I cannot explain one bit of that.”

Bass explains there are multiple other ways we experience Jesus, too: as Word, Wisdom, Sustenance, etc. Each way, and each person’s experience, is valuable, in both shaping their own life as well as kingdom life.

“Our frame is so narrow, and Jesus’s is so wide. If only we knew all the Jesuses who have been hidden from view, all the Christs never heard. Thankfully, more voices count now—the experiences of many are arising to bring every Jesus to light the world.”

I highly recommend this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and HarperOne for the review copy of Freeing Jesus.

As Lent started this year, I wasn't feeling my normal excitement. It was the second Lenten season I would need to pastor through a pandemic that forced me to place physical distance between myself and my congregants for their safety. Reading this book, was a balm to my soul. I think the church is often guilty of watering down who Jesus is or creating a Jesus that meets their needs, expectations and desires. Each chapter brought me deeper into another aspect of who Jesus was and is and continues to be. This book is written in a way that is both inviting and accessible to both those who are just starting to learn about Jesus and people who have known him for years.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Many of us had our first exposure to Jesus while singing “Jesus Loves Me” in Sunday School or VBS. He is shown to be loving, wise, and a great teacher and friend. Then when we are old enough most of that is lost in layers of fear, threats, and conditional love, the complete opposite of where we started.

Diana Butler Bass strips these layers away in Freeing Jesus and starts on the foundation we had so long ago when love was so much simpler. Jesus isn’t reimagined, but seen from what is actually in the Bible, not all the extrapolations that come across the pulpit.She gives very detailed accounts from her own life over time to show her own development as a Christian and how her perspective of Jesus changed over time.

I believe this book can bring hope to many of us, helping us to not only love Jesus, but also to love and accept ourselves as we are.

Thanks to HarperOne and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm always curious to read religious memoirs and books by theologians as someone who studied religion in college and grew up in the Christian church. Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting to Diana Butler Bass's story and struggled to get into the cadence of her voice and writing style. I kind of wanted this book to be either memoir or theology; the line that Bass walks between the two was not always an easy one to follow. The concept of Jesus as six different figures in Bass's life and the idea that Jesus is a different person to us based on our life experiences is an easy enough one to understand, but it just didn't resonate with me. I hesitate to leave any kind of critical review of a memoir--I do think this book is well written and there is an audience for it, but I'm just not in that target audience.

My thanks to NetGalley and HarperOne for an advance reader's copy.

Anyone who has been walking with Jesus for more than a few years likely knows the feeling of marking their journey in seasons. God is present to us in different ways throughout the course of our lives. Freeing Jesus is Diana Butler Bass’ reflection on six ways she has encountered Jesus. Part memoir, part theological study and another part history. I found the book very readable, and recognized much of my own journey in its pages.

Thanks to HarperOne and NetGalley for the early review copy. This review is my own opinion freely given.

This is a beautiful memoir about one woman's relationship with Jesus over time and the complex, multidimensional theology. Diana Butler Bass in fact calls the genre of this book "memoir theology", which is an apt description because this is a book about how her (our) theology and understanding of Jesus arises out of her (our) lived experiences and the myriad ways that Jesus shows up in our life, both the miraculous and the ordinary. I found both the memoir and theological elements of this book moving and fascinating in equal measure, and while I'd particularly recommend this book to Christians exploring their own ever evolving relationship with Jesus, I think anyone with an interest in religion would find it informative. Although I read it as an ARC, I plan to purchase it once it's released, there is much I want to go back and reread, underline, and think about more deeply.

Having read a couple of Diana’s book, I’m somewhat familiar with her story. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about her starting out with her childhood. Later I wanted to know more about her relationship with Jesus as this is something I’ve always really seemed to struggle with and this book was perfect for that. It doesn’t come across as holier than thou like so many. It was refreshing and at times, hard, but still great.

Diana Butler Bass introduces the reader to six aspects of Jesus - Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence - using her experiences as well as the voices of theologists, Biblical scholars, and the Bible to provide insight into each facet. The book wasn't what I was expecting, especially as compared to other books of the same vein, and it didn't resonate with me in a deep or meaningful way. I had a difficult time connecting to the author's writing style, however, there were several places that I bookmarked and highlighted for future reflection and will definitely be reread as time allows.

“Freeing Jesus” makes Christians uncomfortable, but in a good way. In today’s society, believers are pushed back and forth. Life circumstances, medical issues and worldly events make the believer question their faith. However, as Diana Butler Bass beautifully states in her new novel, Jesus is there with us through it all. This novel challenges the believer to look deep into their faith. Who knows, we may even be able to recognize and see Jesus in the mundane, daily happenings of our lives.

Diana Butler Bass’ “Freeing Jesus” is an inspiring adventure into the Kaleidoscopic nature of Jesus. Her wise and poetic words help burn away the myopic conservative view of Jesus and opens up vast new insights into the beauty and wonder of this liberating Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. It is wonderfully enriching and I know folks will be talking about this book for some time to come.