Reza Aslan in conversation with Rainn Wilson at Live Talks Los Angeles

Reza Aslan in conversation with Rainn Wilson at Live Talks Los Angeles
discussing new book, ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

This video is from an event on July 25, 2013.

Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and named by Blackwell as one of the hundred most important books of the last decade. He is also the author of How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror (published in paperback as Beyond Fundamentalism), as well as the editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East. Born in Iran, he lives in New York and Los Angeles with his wife and two sons.

In ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, Reza Aslan sifts through centuries of mythmaking and sheds new light on one of history’s most enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction: a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

Rainn Wilson is best known for playing “Dwight” on NBC’s Emmy winning, “The Office.” He has also acted in “Super”, “Hesher”, “Juno”, “Monsters Vs Aliens” and “The Rocker” among other movies. He co-founded SoulPancake, a website and production company that seeks to tackle “Life’s Big Questions.” He’s the spokesperson for The Mona Foundation and works on educational initiatives in Haiti.