What Jesus Meant: The Beatitudes and a Meaningful Life

I'm an agnostic and started to read this book because it was given to me as a gift. I ended up reading every page and found it not only beautifully written but very inspiring. It is hard to read this book and not reflect on how you live your life - what is truely important and what is not. It really brought into focus values that I think everyone would agree are worthy to strive toward.I strongly recommend this book to any thoughtful person.

I love this book! I'd never really thought of how to translate lessons of the Bible into everyday life (especially Jesus' teaching as I'm Jewish), and this book gives me inspiration and real examples of how to do that. It helps me figure out how to make my own life more meaningful by the way I think about things that affect me, and how I think of (and do for) others. I'm a better person for it. I also read somewhere the author is the inspiration for the minister on the tv show "Seventh Heaven" - based on this book, I can see why.

If world political leaders read this book, they would offer peace instead of war. If religious leaders read this book, congregants would be offered love instead of fear. If all world citizens read this book, we would live lives of purpose instead of materialism.

This is a beautiful, thoughtful book; I know I will always keep it nearby. I hadn't realized how little thought I give to these famous teachings of Jesus. Erik Kolbell brings them alive and makes them relevant in the most personal and pleasing way. I was carried away by his words and his stories and his ideas. What a thrill. But even better; I simply felt good after reading the book! I felt revived, hopeful, and - calm. This book is a kind of mental health medicine; or a soothing massage; or an encouraging pat on the back. Definitely a bedside table must-have for a daily dose!

I enjoyed this book on two levels. First, Kolbell does an excellent job on analyzing the Beatitudes. He puts them into historical context, compares then to other Biblical passages, discusses the origin of words used, and most importantly, he helps common folk like me understand the meaning of each Beatitude by putting it into simple language. Secondly, Kolbell makes each Beatitude relevant in today's world. He refers to current events, uses anecdotes about every day people,and shows parallels to "real" life. His language is beautiful. He writes wonderfully. His writing is profound in parts, poetic in others, simply stated at other times. A gem of a book. I am buying one for all my family and friends for Christmas!