About the Author

Acclaimed as the director of such films as Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers, PAUL VERHOEVEN was born in 1938 in the Netherlands, where he took a dual degree in math and physics. After moving to Los Angeles in 1985 to pursue his film career, Verhoeven became the only non-theologian admitted into the Jesus Seminar, a group of seventy-seven eminent scholars in theology, philosophy, linguistics, and biblical history. Their activities are devoted to determining more precisely the words and actions of the historical Jesus. Verhoeven’s Jesus of Nazareth, the result of his research, was published in 2010.

Reviews

"Verhoeven turns out to be a member of the Jesus Seminar, a collection mostly of scholars devoted to reconstructing the historical Jesus, and much of what he has to say is shrewd and learned." —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker

"Jesus goes from being a follower of John the Baptist to inspired exorcist to peace-loving proclaimer of the Kingdom of God to a messianic rebel forced by the authorities and Romans into a radicalized corner to fight for his developing and somewhat desperate beliefs. Rather than forcing himself to throw out major portions of the story to make his sense of Jesus fit a given thesis, Verhoeven manages to pull together all the major threads and make narrative sense of it all." —Christopher Napolitano, Playboy

"Verhoeven has written an excellent book." —Paul Schrader, Film Comment

"Paul Verhoeven, director of RoboCop & Starship Troopers, wrote a book about Jesus … I will read this." —HTML GIANT

"Verhoeven brings a searing honesty to the Jesus debate. His cinematic eye catches nuances that scholars have often overlooked. The payoff is a Jesus released from ecclesial and dogmatic winding sheets … a human being who breathes our air, risks, dreams, imagines, and makes mistakes." —Arthur Dewey, Professor of Theology, Xavier University and fellow of the Jesus Seminar

"Verhoeven certainly knows whereof he speaks, having as a boy experienced the boot of Nazi occupation in his native Holland. His Jesus is, therefore, fresh and invigorating, and thoroughly more historical and convincing than earlier ones." —Robert Eisenman, author of James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code