Gospel: The Book of Matthew is a fresh view of life

In "Religion Publishing Preview: 2016 " for Publishers Weekly Lynn Garrett writes, " At the beginning of 2016, PW asked a range of publishers in the segment about ongoing issues, evolving points of view, and the big books they expect to affect the business this year. One topic for many is dealing with the rising number of Americans (especially young Americans) who have no religious affiliation and are wary of organized religion. Many publishers in the category have made reaching out to the disconnected and disenchanted a priority."

In her coverage of publishers "focusing on connecting with readers who have no religious affiliation," Garrett quotes Stuart Matlins of Jewish Lights/ SkyLight Paths:

"In this 25th anniversary year of Jewish Lights, we’ll be continuing our focus on the relevance of religious traditions to everyday life and on reaching out to the growing number of ‘spiritual-but-not-religious’ readers'. Thomas Moore’s Gospel: The Book of Matthew, A New Translation with Commentary, the first in a four-book series, 'strips the Gospels of their theological agendas and reclaims them as a radically new way of imagining human life,' Matlins says."

Spirituality & Practice shares this view of Moore's approach, evident in his Lent 2016 e-course: "This is a spiritual vision in and about the world," [Moore] notes. "It's a spirituality that does not have to be tied to a particular tradition and is accessible to anyone — people lovingly involved in the Christian tradition, lovingly involved in another tradition, not interested in religion, or somewhere in the gray areas of this spectrum."