Dr. Holly Harlayne Roberts actively connects with readers, listeners, and scholars through podcast interviews, blog articles, and book discussions. She is committed to creating a community where people can explore the historical Jesus, the Zealots, gospel truth, and Christian history without fear of controversy. Her book is now available worldwide in print, eBook, and as a religious history audiobook on Amazon, Audible, iTunes, and 30+ platforms, making her message accessible to a global audience.

Dr. Roberts Story:

I never imagined I would become a writer. From early childhood, my dream was to become a physician — quietly envisioning myself walking the streets of some forgotten, impoverished city, tending to the sick, offering water to the thirsty, food to the starving, and hope to the hopeless. My inspirations were Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Father Damien of Molokai, and Mahatma Gandhi.

I was blessed to fulfill that dream. Thanks to the opportunities at Brooklyn College night school, with its open enrollment and affordable tuition, and later at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in Missouri, I became a physician — and I loved every moment of it. I fulfilled some of my dreams by serving as a medical missionary physician in third world regions, but my greatest joy was serving as an obstetrician-gynecologist, sharing the skills passed down to me by other physicians and helping bring new life into the world.

As a young doctor, I followed my longing to heal by volunteering in Honduras, Mexico, and Peru. Yet, I discovered that this was not my destiny; I was uniquely vulnerable to illnesses such as malaria and tuberculosis, which led me to return to the United States. Just three days after coming back to the U.S. from Peru, I met the man who would become my husband — a young Indian engineer. He embraced my calling and even chose to become vegetarian, despite not being raised as one, so we could build a home where no weaker beings were harmed. Together, for nearly fifty years, we raised three children and lived lives filled with meaning and fulfillment.

In my practice, many expectant mothers came to me after being told they needed to eat meat for a healthy pregnancy. I knew this wasn’t true, but I also realized that no Board-Certified obstetrician had written a book on vegetarian pregnancy. At first, I wondered, “Why doesn’t someone write this book?” Then I understood — that someone must be me. So I wrote Your Vegetarian Pregnancy: A Month-by-Month Guide to Health and Nutrition. That book was an overwhelming success, and a blessing to many vegetarian women. It became the seed of my second vocation: writing.

Over time, my interests deepened. I wanted to understand how the values of vegetarianism and nonviolence had developed through history. I began to question, within myself, why our Abrahamic traditions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — seemed silent on vegetarianism, while Eastern faiths such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism revered it. This search led me back to school, where I earned a Master’s degree in Christian Theology and a PhD in Asian Religion and Philosophy. The insights I gained were profound, and I felt compelled to share them, writing on both vegetarianism and world religions.

Along this path, I uncovered many hidden pearls of wisdom, one of which inspired my current book, Jesus the Holy Zealot. In my studies, I came to see Jesus as both a man of peace and as a man of self-sacrifice — someone who could not simply stand by while others suffered. His holiness and His willingness to give of Himself by becoming the spiritual leader of an insurrection, knowing Imperial Rome would crucify Him, reveal His true greatness. It is my hope that Jesus the Holy Zealot will reveal to you the hidden, seldom-heard truth, that Jesus was not only a holy man, but also the brave spiritual leader of a conquered people.