A Thousand Words: Andrew Letby

Piazza by the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti is Andrew Letby’s choice in our Thousand Words interview in March’s podcast, chosen after Andrew had seen the sculpture at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

Andrew is Superintendent of the Edinburgh and Forth Methodist circuit and also a keen artist. You can hear why this sculpture means a thousand words to Andrew in conversation with Anne from 23.30 minutes into the podcast. Photograph copyright GuggenheimMuseums.

The book mentioned by Andrew in the interview is The Shadow of the Galilean by Gerd Theissen. No greater source than Amazon tells us that,

“First published in 1987. Here, in narrative form, is an account of the activity of Jesus of Nazareth, scrupulously constructed so that it does not undercut the insights of New Testament scholarship. What makes it different from other such attempts is that Jesus never actually appears. What we find everywhere is his shadow, his effect. Such an approach avoids the usual pitfalls of the genre and lends this story – attributed to a fictitious narrator – an attraction, freshness, and power all its own. Tension and interest are maintained to the end, even for those sated with books about Jesus. Careful documentation in the footnotes shows how much of the narrative is based on ancient sources.”