Key ideas from Paul Johnson

• "Jesus was, in terms of his influence, the most important human being in history" - Paul Johnson establishes Jesus' unparalleled historical impact with over 100,000 English biographies
• "Love your enemies. Do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you" - Jesus taught radical compassion that had no equivalent in ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature
• "No prophet is acceptable in his hometown" - Jesus' teaching immediately provoked violent rejection in Nazareth, nearly resulting in his death by mob
• "He was philanthropy incarnate" - Jesus introduced the concept of loving all mankind universally, a revolutionary idea absent from his era's intellectual climate
• "There's more agreement in the sources about the death of Jesus than there is about the assassination of Julius Caesar" - Paul Johnson on the historical documentation of crucifixion
• "If Jesus were to appear again today, we can be sure not only that he would find countless followers, but equally that he would be persecuted and killed" - Johnson on the timeless relevance of Jesus' alternative to cruelty