Freeing Jesus

Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence

By: Diana Butler Bass

Narrated by: Diana Butler Bass

The award-winning author of Grateful goes beyond the culture wars to offer a refreshing take on the comprehensive, multi-faceted nature of Jesus, keeping his teachings relevant and alive in our daily lives.

How can you still be a Christian?

This is the most common question Diana Butler Bass is asked today. It is a question that many believers ponder as they wrestle with disappointment and disillusionment in their church and its leadership. But while many Christians have left their churches, they cannot leave their faith behind.

In Freeing Jesus, Bass challenges the idea that Jesus can only be understood in static, one-dimensional ways and asks us to instead consider a life where Jesus grows with us and helps us through life’s challenges in several capacities: as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence.

Freeing Jesus is an invitation to leave the religious wars behind and rediscover Jesus in all his many manifestations, to experience Jesus beyond the narrow confines we have built around him. It renews our hope in faith and worship at a time when we need it most.

©2021 Diana Butler Bass (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Wonderful and Insightful!

Hearing Diana Butler Bass share her faith journey took me back into my own. Her thoughtful and often humorous account helped me to embrace the Jesuses I have known, the ones I am meeting now and appreciate each and every experience along the way.
The act of “Freeing Jesus” is now a regular part of my personal liturgy!
I will certainly listen again and again!

A Full Account of Finding Jesus(es)

What a fresh look through the eyes and the words of a gifted writer about her journey to explore Jesus and to find as many full living, breathing, beings and dimensions of the man whose teachings still provide a model for what the best of humanity can look like and one who was never afraid to call out and cast out the worst”demons” in us.

Insightful

Makes you smile, laugh and cry. But most of all: makes you think!
Pertinent to today’s “religious churchgoing culture.”

Sharing so candidly what she didn’t want to share

I admire how Diana wrote about the time in her life that she didn’t want to revisit - when she was an active part of the evangelical world, striving to conform. It gave even greater meaning to the other parts of her spiritual journey.

Questions answered

I love this book very much. Many questions have been answered. Thanks for this book.

Exquisite writing! Honest, Intelligent, Healing.

Whether you are a person who wants to explore the person of Jesus in a deeper way, or whether you have been hurt by institutional Christianity and unhelpful ways of understanding the person of Jesus, you may find this new book, “Freeing Jesus” by respected author Diana Butler Bass to be a safe guide for exploring anew, for finding personal spiritual freedom and for freeing Jesus himself from cultural-religious perspectives that have hindered full understanding and expression in our world today.

Truly enjoyed this book

Listening to this book blessed me. It was well written and thought provoking, vulnerable and a good example of faith adapting over the years. I want to read some of the authors she referenced in her book too.

It felt freeing yet restricted

I really enjoyed the book and the audio performance reading of the book there was just a couple of things that I felt like I was missing or restricted. The development of Jesus the judge. I think the author didn’t centered the theology around Christ’s return as part a book of revelations. Is Jesus the God of judgement or not? Is the question she didn’t address thoroughly.

Great Book

Freeing Jesus describes many of the pauses and pondering of my own “spiritual Jesus” and renewed understanding of Jesus. Thank you for this book!

Best book I’ve read perhaps ever in the realm of Christianity and religion

Life changing and wonderful to listen to the experience within her soulfully crafted book. Thank you for writing this book DBB!