>> reza aslan, author and scholar. he a muslim who was once an evan evangelical christian. >> when a muslim who starts to write about jesus, all of a sudden the knives comes out. >> the life and times of jesus of nazareth. >>> reza aslan. pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> look at the conversation you started with this book, "zealot", the life and times of jesus of nazareth. the jesus that so many of us came to know through the bible through pastors was also the jesus of your youth. >> that's right. yeah, when i was 15 years old, i heard the gospel story for the first time. it was a transformative story for me. i didn't grow up with much religious teaching. when we came to the united states to iran, we scrubbed our history, the 1980s was not a time to be of iran ian origin. i was deeply spiritual kid. didn't have much instruction. but maybe what it had to could with childhood images of revolutionary iran, the way in which i experienced in a deep and profound way the way that religion has a power to tr

. >> reza aslan, author and scholar. he a muslim who was once an evan evangelical christian. >> when a muslim who starts to write about jesus, all of a sudden the knives comes out. >> the life and times of jesus of nazareth. >>> reza aslan. pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> look at the conversation you

. >> reza aslan, author and scholar.e a muslim who was once an evan evangelical christian. >> when a muslim who starts to write about jesus, all of a sudden the knives comes out. >> the life and times of jesus of nazareth. >>> reza aslan. pleasure to have you. >> thank you for having me. >> look at the conversation you started with this book,

the life and times of jesus of nazareth" by religion scholar and writer reza aslan. reza, i'm glad the whole kerr can you feel over whether a muslim could or should write this book is over because the more interesting question is why you would write it, what attracted you to the subject in the first place. >> i have been interested in jesus for a very long time, both as a worshiper-- when i was 15 years old i converted to evangelical christianity-- and as a scholar. in undergrad i was first introduced to the historical jesus and i think having that perspective of coming at him from both of those view points, one that was as a worshiper and one unburdened by dogma and doctrine provided me with both a deep sense of respect and christianity in a way that billions of people around the world understand jesus. but at the same time gave me the impetus to try to dig through as much as possible all that layer of interpretation to get to who the man himself was if for no other reason to just know him better. >> suarez: well, you came as boy from revolutionary iran and you write