Tow #8: Zealot by Reza Aslan

Though Reza Aslan tries to uncover the real Jesus Christ by using sources other
 than the Gospels, the above quote makes an excellent point: as He lived two
thousand years ago and has had His identity twisted, we'll never truly
know who He was or what He was like.

In his new and controversial book Zealot, religious scholar Reza Aslan tries to uncover and describe the "true" Jesus Christ that has been lost throughout the centuries.  He does an excellent job of doing this without relying on traditional sources, such as the Gospels, that historians know are probably not accurate.  Instead of rewriting the story of Jesus, Aslan merely disproves beliefs about His life that people typically hold.  The portrait he paints of Jesus is a believable mixture of Biblical Jesus and the one described by other sources, and Aslan really makes him come alive.  Despite this apparent tameness, Zealot is not a book for anyone who identifies as Christian or anyone who finds religious debates boring or trite, as the traditional Jesus story is continually refuted. 
Although Zealot is a biography of Jesus Christ, and biographies do not often get "up close and personal" with a reader, Aslan often addresses the reader as "you" and has them pretend to be witnesses to history.  This is a very striking style of writing for this genre, and it stands out more than anything else in Zealot.  For instance, he writes, "This is as close as you will eve be to the presence of God... The stink of carnage is impossible to ignore. It clings to the skin, the hair, becoming a noisome burden you will not soon shake off... Picture the high priest Jonathan standing at the alter..." (Aslan 5, 8).  Aslan goes on in this passage to describe the grisly murder of the high priest, a turning point in Jerusalem's history.  This methods of addressing readers allows them to better picture historical scenes of which there are no photographs or accurate drawings and helps them to understand the emotional effects of certain events.  Though pathos is not necessary to make an argument, it helps to round one out when logos (provided by historical facts) and ethos (provided by Aslan's background) are already present.  Aslan charmingly chose titles for the chapters of Zealot that give hints as to what each chapter is about; these are epigraphs of sorts except for the fact that they are not always quotes.  For example, chapter seven is entitled "The Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness".  Upon further reading, one discovers that that section is about John the Baptist, renowned for preaching new ideas about baptism and forgiveness of sins an for roaming the wilderness of Israel.  In this case, and many others, chapter titles are hints (noticed mostly by more attentive readers) as to what direction the book is now heading.