JESUS CHRIST: Our Saviour's Person, Mission, and Spirit

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First published in France in 1890, this kindle edition is the 2-volume English translation published in 1891 by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY . It is fully edited with linked footnotes and includes several maps.

Henri Didon was a French preacher, writer, and educator. At the age of eighteen he left the seminary to enter the Dominican Order. Four years later he went to Rome to complete his studies. Returning to France a lector of sacred theology he taught Scripture for a brief time, and began at Paris in 1868 a brilliant career as a preacher. Frank, straightforward, and sympathetic, he readily won the hearts of his hearers, whom he dominated by his presence and startled by his boldness.

As summarized by Cardinal James Gibbons in his introduction: “In the present work [Jesus] is shown to us principally as the Son of Man—that is, in His human aspect, and as He appeared to His contemporaries. Combining the abundant materials collected by so many others with his own personal observations among the unchanging physical and social features of Eastern countries and Eastern customs, he succeeds in bringing up before us a vivid picture of Judea and Galilee: of the Jewish people with their various religious divisions and their common aspirations and hopes; the galling yoke of the Romans which they so impatiently bore, and their readiness to grasp at any means of deliverance—in a word, their whole political, religious, and moral condition when Christ appeared amongst them. A familiar knowledge of such details is invaluable, for it enables us fully to account for many things which seem inexplicably missing in the sacred narrative. Didon writes neither as an apologist nor as an exegete, but rather as a Christian philosopher and moralist. To the habitual readers of the Gospels—and we ardently wish that the number of such may steadily increase—it will prove most helpful, by the clear light it throws on the actions and teachings of the Redeemer, while it may lead back others unfamiliar with the sacred text itself to draw directly from that inexhaustible treasure of divine truth."