Seeing Jesus: Visionary Encounters from the First Century to the Present

Jesus ascended to heaven. End of story. But then how do we explain the many Christians, in nearly every century since, who claimed to have seen, heard, met, and touched Jesus in the flesh?

In Seeing Jesus, Robert Hudson explores the larger-than-life characters throughout Christian history who have encountered the actual face or form of the resurrected Christ--from the apostles Thomas and Paul in the first century to Charles Finney in the nineteenth and Sundar Singh in the twentieth. Hudson combines history, biography, spiritual reflection, skepticism, and humor to unpack awe-inspiring and sometimes seemingly absurd stories, from a surprise sighting of Jesus in a cup of coffee, to Christ appearing to Julian of Norwich during a life-threatening illness to assure her that ""all manner of thing shall be well."" Along the way, he uncovers deeper meaning for us today.

Through Hudson's quirky and lyrical prose we get to know people of unflinching faith, like Francis of Assisi, Teresa of Avila, Silouan the Athonite, and Sojourner Truth--those who claim radical encounters with Jesus. The result is a fascinating journey through Christian history that is at once thoroughly analytical and deeply devotional.

Robert Hudson was a book editor for Zondervan for thirty-four years and is the author of the industry-standard Christian Writer's Manual of Style. He has written several other books, including Kiss the Earth When You Pray; The Monk's Record Player; The Art of the Almost Said; and The Poet and the Fly. In addition to being an editor and writer, he has been a teacher, a bookstore clerk, a book designer, and a translator. He and his wife, award-winning poet Shelley Townsend-Hudson, live in Ada, Michigan, where they play fiddle and banjo in the old-time string band Gooder'n Grits.