We are pleased to publish the preprint of "Reading the Jefferson Bible: Elucidating the Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth" by James M. Magrini. This speculative essay, which will appear in its final form in The Independent Scholar Vol. 10 later this year, is focused on elucidating the ethics of Jesus as they appear in The Jefferson Bible. It offers a systematic view and analysis of Jesus' ethics as they differ from the common view associated with Christianity, which is traditionally related to Divine Command Theory and is deontological in nature. The essay incorporates Jefferson's thoughts on the subject of ethics and Jesus into a study that argues, by interpreting specific sayings and parables of Jesus, for a philosophical notion of ethics sharing a “family resemblance” with/to "agapism," "axiological ethics," and a modified form of "humanism" - an ethics that might be said to begin with what is identified as “sympathetic consensus,” which is expressed within Jesus’ reference to and philosophizing of the Golden Rule. It unfolds in four sections covering: The approach to Jefferson’s Bible; the critique of the philosophical ethics of antiquity; the analysis of the parables of Jesus; and the detailed interpretation of the ethical philosophy of Jesus, which includes the analysis of the ethics of love and dignity, the Golden Rule, and the immediate experience of God and His Kingdom.
For the full preprint go to www.ncis.org/the-independent-scholar/tis.