For decades now, Andrew Greeley has entertained, provoked and even angered many Catholic readers with his murder mystery novels (featuring Nuala Anne McGrail and Bishop Jackie Ryan) as well as his often controversial writings on race, gender, class and the Catholic Church. Greeley's book, "Jesus: A Meditation on His Stories and His Relationships with Women," is sure to please some readers more than others. Though not nearly as controversial as some of his writings on, say, sex abuse in the church or matters related to church doctrine, Greeley is nevertheless reinterpreting the Jesus we read about in the Bible. For some people, Greeley is playing with sacred dynamite. Don't forget, not too long ago, the Martin Scorsese movie Last Temptation of Christ revisited Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene. Anger and protests followed. Many may disagree with Greeley, but few have ever doubted his sincerity or reverence for Jesus. That certainly comes through in this book, which focuses on Jesus' relationship with various biblical women, while reminding readers that the church is often criticized for its male dominance. Interestingly (from an Irish standpoint), Greeley places great emphasis on Jesus and the power of storytelling. Meanwhile, Greeley will never be accused of dabbling merely in biblical research from 2,000 years ago. He uses Jesus and the Bible as a lens through which to discuss controversial religious films such as "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Passion of the Christ," as well as current events such as the Iraq War, and violence in Dufar. All in all, Greeley does yet another fine job of showing us the relevance of Jesus, not because He is some static figure offering one single truth, but because His stories and messages can be read by so many diverse people in so many illuminating ways. ($10.95 / 176 pages / Tor-Forge)