I met Jesus

What do you do when you meet Jesus?

Charlotte Rørth has “written a captivating and moving book that has long – and deservedly – been on the top 10 list”, writes Johs. H. Christensen in his review of “Jeg mødte Jesus” in Jyllands-Posten.

According to the former priest, the book’s success is explained by the fact that when Charlotte Rørth, as an “ordinary, secularized Danish woman”, encounters “something extremely unusual”, she retains her journalistic virtues: “open-mindedness, curiosity and observation skills”.

Journalist Charlotte Rørth was neither a religious nor spiritual seeker when the Son of God literally appeared to her and spoke to her in a sacristy in the city of Úbeda, Spain. The experience was a mental and physical lightning bolt that forced her to reconsider her modern rational life.

In the book, we follow Charlotte Rørth on a journey back into the literature and history of the historical Jesus, and we join her as she seeks out researchers in epilepsy and psychiatry, priests and spiritual guides to find knowledge, clarification and understanding of what happened to her.

“I met Jesus” is a personal, existential story about faith and taboo in a Denmark where religious experiences are some of the most private things – something you keep to yourself if you want to avoid being seen as either unbalanced or crazy.

“I met Jesus” hit the bestseller list immediately after publication, where it remained for more than a year and then returned the following spring.

June 2015 “Jeg mødte Jesus” was published in Norwegian by Paradigmeskifte. www.paradigmeskifte.nu
2017 published in Spanish by Maeva. www.maeva.es
2017 published in Dutch by Wereldbibliotheek. www.wereldbibliotheek.nl
2017 published in Swedish by Polaris.
2018 Finnish publisher Tapasin Jeesuksen.
2018 “Die Frau, die nicht an Gott glaubte und Jesus traff” was published by the German publisher Gütersloher.

Table of contents (pdf)
Professor Steen Hildebrandt’s foreword (pdf)
The chapter “Time to talk about faith” (pdf)

Reviews of “I met Jesus”:

“… so convincing that there is reason to read.“
Sørine Gotfredsen in Kristeligt Dagblad.
Read the full review.

“First and foremost, this is an admirably brave book. Rørth writes confidently and effortlessly, knowing that the drama of her story would only be weakened by effects. Years of turmoil and fear shine through clearly, but under it all bubbles a joy that is neither exclusive nor overbearing, just believable, and which therefore cannot fail to make an impression and provoke reflection.”
Jens Bærentsen in Weekendavisen.

“The book is a treasure of the wiser.“
**** Bettina Heltberg gave four hearts in Politiken.
Read the full review (requires subscription to politiken.dk).

“Enthusiasm shines from the well-written pages.“
**** Hans Gregersen gave four stars in NORDJYSKE Stiftstidende.

“It is a beautiful and powerful book, a brave book from a woman who could not keep silent about her encounter with Jesus and her knowledge about the nature of Jesus. A fine and clean sharing of that knowledge with a world that can then take it to heart, hesitate, doubt, reject or mock. Regardless of your position in the field, you can get a powerful experience of what it can be like as a human being to share in the divine. A powerful, powerful document.”
Torben Wendelboe on litteratursiden.dk
Read the full review.

“About her surprising journey to a partial understanding or at least acceptance of her experiences with the religious”, she has written a “riveting and raw book” that “you have to be exceptionally stubborn and have a heart of stone not to be moved.“
***** Johs. H. Christensen gave five stars in Jyllands-Posten.

“There is nothing ‘willful’ and missionary about the story – rather a sober journalistic description. (…) And it is her straightforward description of the enormous dilemma that arises in her life that gives the book so much credibility – and meaning. It seems impossible to read this book without the reader encountering the dilemma in herself.”
Jørgen Aagaard on kristenspiritualitet.net
Read the full review.

“It has both the high-pitched, insistent sentence structures of the Baroque with hyperbole and emphatic parallelisms and the insistent whisper to the heart of Pietism.” (…) “It is too much.“
Priest Sarah Thorngreen Auken in Præsteforeningens Blad, 29.5.2015.