With My Own Eyes

With My Own Eyes

Bo Giertz wrote this book drawing upon the exegetical insights that he received from his mentor Anton Fridrichsen before, during and after his trip to Palestine in the early 1930's. The book is a third-person retelling of the gospels that brings into account various Old Testament references and the contemporary interpretations of those passages by the Jews of Jesus' day as well as contemporary events throughout the Roman Empire, but most especially those directly affecting the Jewish people of Israel at the time, so that the gospel stories take on new life and meaning for the reader. It's both a harmonization of the gospels, and a commentary on them, but much richer. The perspectives change depending on the episode. Sometimes the perspective is from that of a disciple, sometimes from that of a person being healed or a bystander observing. The Christmas story is told from the perspective of Shepherds, the crucifixion scene dwells on the perspective of Simon of Cyrene. "The warm and humble piety so characteristic of Bo Giertzshines through in this book. Here we hear a man narrate the story with an eyetoward unobtrusively calling others to "come and see" the Messiah, the Saviorof the world in the glory of His humanity. This is a glory not divorced from theworld that his Father created, but a glory made manifest in the comings and thegoings of His life in the concrete specificities of Palestine. The wordpictures painted by Giertz are vivid and often provocative as he givesattention to the ordinariness of this life, with an eye to the detail that heobserved during his days in the holy land. His writing invites readers to enterinto the world of Jesus, imagining the sounds, the smells, and sights whilehearing His words which are "Spirit and life." -Journal of Lutheran Mission Again and again, With My Own Eyes catches the edge of something that every preacher has struggled to articulate, from the prophets to Mary Magdalene to today: the breathtaking newness of Jesus Christ. Here the novel's structure, episodic and shifting in perspective, serves the content admirably. While Hammer of God is a powerful read, it perhaps suffers a bit as a novel from lack of continuity. The Gospels are better ground for this sort of thing, as at their center stands one who, though humbly residing in human flesh and human words, exceeds every description. Giertz intentionally leaves the disciples' reports of resurrection appearances a confused matter, unable to quite agree on how many men were at the tomb or the precise sequence, their minds and speech simply overawed by circumstance. The disciples' encounters with Jesus gradually become the reader's own, which is in fact how it has always been since the days the stories were first told. "With My Own Eyes" --Mbird.com Bo Giertz (1905-1998) spent his youth as a militant atheist before his conversion in college set him to become an apologist for the Christian faith, a beloved novelist, pastor and bishop in the church of Sweden. These commentaries were written in retirement after a long life carefully studying both the scriptures and the human soul. Bror Erickson currently serves as pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Farmington New Mexico where he lives with his wife, Laura. He graduated from Concordia University, Irvine, in 2000 where he studied apologetics under Dr. Rod Rosenbladt. Subsequently, he attended Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne Indiana, and graduated in 2004. He has translated many works by Bo Giertz, but he also enjoys hunting upland game and ducks with his dog, Grinner.