Simply Christian : Why Christianity Makes Sense

by N.T. Wright

Review forthcoming. I've finished the first chapter, and I'm hooked already. Here's a teaser:

"When the early Christians told the story of Jesus - which they did in a number of ways to make a number of different points - they never actually said that he laughed, and mentioned only once that he burst into tears. But all the same, the stories they told of him constantly hinted at laughter and tears in fair measure...It isn't so much that Jesus laughed at the world, or wept at the world. He was celebrating with the new world that was beginning to be born, the world in which all that was good and lovely would triumph over evil and misery. He was sorrowing with the world the way it was, the world of violence and injustice and tragedy which he and the people he met knew so well."