Four Gospels, Four Hearts, One Lord

Beginning with what these days have become bold claims, that there is no great historical “gap between ‘the historical Jesus’ and Paul or the book of Acts,” and that our only access to genuine knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian faith is by way of the one “Petrine-Pauline” tradition from which everything else derives (liturgy, piety, mystical theology, the creeds, even the New Testament writings themselves), Addison Hodges Hart escorts us on a tour of the four canonical Gospels as understood within the context of that incontestable, cohesive tradition. Teasing out frequently overlooked aspects of the Gospels and drawing on what can be gleaned from the “chiastic structure” employed in their composition, he reveals what lies at the “heart” of each-the core theme that provides each one’s “interpretive key.” With ample references to biblical, intertestamental, and patristic writings, Hart presents his case for how to read the four Evangelists to discern their meaning. Altogether, this short volume is an untraditional defense of the original and irreplaceable Gospel tradition.

Author Biography

ADDISON HODGES HART is the author of eleven books, nine non-fictional (theology, biblical exegesis, art history, and biography) and two fictional (a novel and a collection of short stories). His two most recent works, published by Angelico Press, are The Voyage of Life: The Sacred Vision of Thomas Cole and Patapsco Spirits: Eleven Ghost Stories (both published in 2023). A retired priest and university chaplain, he was received into the Orthodox Church in 2024. He currently resides in Norway. (He also has a lively, easy-to-access Substack page, The Pragmatic Mystic.)