The author’s unique approach intersperses Scripture accounts with the commentary of an incisive narrator who sifts and judges from the span of hundreds of years. He draws from the obvious as well as the obscure, and finds supernatural meaning in the most mundane actions that surround the suffering Christ. In the hands of this writer, the Lord’s few words, accompanied by the author’s commentary, challenge contemporary believers as much as they did those who first followed in the footsteps of Christ and his apostles.
The author was born in 1869 in Lancashire, northern England and educated at the prominent Catholic college, Stonyhurst, which has been the source of many English Catholic politicians, intellectuals and business people. After a degree from the University of London, he was ordained a Jesuit in 1903. He served as archbishop of Bombay from 1919 to 1926 and returned to England to write and serve as a chaplain until his death in 1939.