“What’s in a name?” when it comes to a new “biography” of Jesus
I haven’t read Reza Aslan’s book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, so I can’t weigh in on its factual veracity or the quality of the conclusions Aslan draws from the facts he does assert. This Jewish Review article certainly suggests that Aslan is, if not all hat, no cattle, at least short a few cows. As for me, I have a bias that leaves me suspicious about Muslim-authored books that seek to re-write Jesus and then are embraced by the Leftist mainstream media. Suspicions, of course, are neither fact nor proof.
But here’s one thing I can say with absolute certainty: Reza Aslan’s given name is a brilliant, ironic joke in this context. You see, for me, there is now and always will be only one Aslan:
C.S. Lewis’ Aslan is, of course, an allegorical stand-in for Jesus — the very same person Reza Aslan seeks to deconstruct.