"This book is about a man whom Thomas Jefferson called 'The most sublime personality of whom history has a record'," writes Dr. Fosdick.

In clear, simple and informal prose one of America's wisest ministers recounts the life of Jesus from his birth in Bethlehem, through the Crucifixion and Resurrection. As he tells the facts that are known of this most powerful story, Dr. Fosdick weaves them into the background of the times. He notes the part played in Jesus' life by various groups of Jews in Palestine, and that the Herods were rules whose tangled and often evil affairs caused much harm; and he sketches the relationship of all these to the Romans, who administered Palestine as a colony. Dr. Fosdick uses the accounts in the Bible, his own travels, and the work of other scholars, to make clear the world in which Jesus lived out his days on earth. 

The author's keynote is understanding. To read this book is like being one of a handful of people gathered for an afternoon of conversation in the study of a thoughtful elder minister, listening as he talks about Jesus—a stirring experience. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick is known over the United States and the world as the presiding genius of one of New York's great churches, Riverside, from its building in the 1920's to 1946. His Jesus of Nazareth is inspiring reading for people of all ages and all faiths.

From the dust jacket