The Jesus Advantage: A New Approach To A Fuller Life

Bruce manages a huge department in an electronics company. He cares about his job and makes continuous efforts to do his work more effectively. He participates in company-sponsored training programs and retreats. He has studied the effects of various leadership styles.

Bruce, an active Christian, was asked how Jesus Christ affected his way of managing.

"Not in any way I am aware of. I believe in him. I pray to him. But I must admit I have never thought of him specifically in how I act at work".

Paul Donoghue asks the questions to Bruce and all other "committed" Christians, Why not look to Jesus for help in your work? in your relationships? for your emotional and physical health?

There are plenty of other self-help contenders and pretenders out there -- gurus, new age prophets, and even unfamiliar eastern religions -- all attempting to provide us with "the answer".

What about Jesus? How can Jesus speak to us when our career is stagnant or flowing, our marriage suffering or growing?

Drawing from the gospels and the stories shared in his real-life experiences counseling many searching adults, Donoghue brings Jesus into the grit of modern human life. He leaves the meek, mild, and forgiving Jesus aside for a time in order to provoke the reader to put aside old lenses and recast Jesus as the challenging and attractive model of spiritual and emotional maturity that he really is.

In The Jesus Advantage, Paul Donoghue suggests that, in the midst of the "self-help" publishing explosion, people with Christian roots take a new look at Jesus Christ as a model of wholeness. He points out how Jesus too often is seen as only meek, mild, and forgiving or has been appropriated by political groups to bash those who are different or who hold different views And he carefully helps the reader to recast Jesus as who he really is: an attractive model of spiritual and emotional maturity. Jesus was a strong person who was not timid about pointing out the faults of others nor unwilling to speak his mind. Jesus was never afraid to go against the tide, especially if it meant embracing those considered to be on the fringe of society: the poor, the sick, and the sinner.