Yet when you consider the loneliness, sorrow, personal struggles, and broken relationships that haunt this brightest of holidays for so many people, and the consumerism that taints it, you have to wonder: If this is as good as it gets, what ...

Dennis MacDonald shows how Gospel stories parallel many Greek and Roman epics--from walking on water to visiting the land of the dead--to compel first-century readers into life-changing decisions to follow Jesus.