The Jesus Dynasty in German!
Die Jesus Dynastie hits the bookstores all over Germany and Austria on Wednesday, October 4th, exactly six months to the day from its release in English. The publisher, Random House/Bertelsmann is expecting extraordinary interest in the book. This past Sunday, October 1st, the newspaper Welt am Sonntag ran a nice full page story on the book which was quite positive. This initial publicity pushed the book toward the top 200 range yesterday on Amazon in Germany. Today I did an interview with the current affairs magazine, Focus, which plans a four page full-color spread. The highly regarded TV program Aspekte, which ran a segment on Die Jesus Dynastie last July, will follow up with a second piece later this month. It will be quite interesting to follow the discussion of the book in Germany which has such an rich mix of “cultural” worlds, whether secular, Roman Catholic, or Protestant, not to mention the Bavarian Pope Benedict XVI. There is great intellectual ferment in Germany when it comes to theology and the history of Christianity. Books on early Christianity regularly appear there and often sell well. Rudolf Augstein, the late and long term editor of Der Spiegel, Germany’s preeminent news magazine, wrote a famous book called simply “J” which strongly emphasized a human portrait of Jesus. It became a runaway best-seller in Germany. The challenging works of censored Catholic Theologian Hans Kung, have become subjects of national discussion all over Europe but particularly in Germany. In terms of my own book, as one might expect, there is a special interest among the public in Germany regarding the Pantera story, since the tombstone of the Roman soldier that I discuss in my book is located in the museum in Bad Kreuznach. Stay tuned for more news. I will pass along things that come to me to all of you.
