Review Excerpt:

The former minister of social justice at Riverside Church in New York Kolbell (What Jesus Meant) here offers an intriguing meditation on the last days of Jesus, using as examples witnesses seen in the Gospels, e.g., Peter, Caiaphas, Judas, Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, and Thomas. According to Kolbell, we can see ourselves in each of these witnesses, whether they believed, doubted, loved, or wronged Jesus. The result is an interesting kind of revival in words of medieval paintings of the Crucifixion; Kolbell aims to make the salvation story a timely and timeless narrative.