The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ

This was a re-read for me with the help of a gospel synopsis. Since I'm not Christian and my Bible knowledge, while decent, isn't detailed, I wanted to see what Pullman was doing with the story. He does a lot with it. A wonderful take on the creation of the Christ myth and on storytelling, in general. As a writer, I couldn't help but relate to Christ's desire to "give [Jesus's tale] a better shape... knot the details together... [and] make a better story." ( )

This beautiful alternate version of the story of Jesus Christ reads like a lost Gospel - one that no orthodoxy would have ever allowed to see the light of day. Rarely has such a gentle book been so challenging. Much, much better than an aggresively anti-religious polemic. ( )

Philip Pullman's book based on the life of Jesus has garnered quite a lot of angry reviews and controversy. Some people have even decided that they don't need for him to die and be judged by their god to know that he's "going to hell" -- they can judge that for themselves, in their infinite wisdom! The problem seems to be that Pullman, like many people in the modern world, doesn't believe the stories of the Bible are anything more or less than the stories that come to us from Ancient Greece or Rome. The series he's writing for, Canongate's myth series, has touched on those mythologies before, which are often (but not universally) considered to be fictional now: it is a bit of a step from that to doing this.

If anything, I think Pullman sticks too close to the source material. He has an intriguing idea: Jesus had a twin brother, and when he 'rises from the dead', it is that twin brother, still living, who actually speaks to his followers as though he is Jesus. I suspect that was the germ of the story, though a whole commentary about truth and history, and the purpose of rewritten history, is built around it.

Still, despite this idea, he sticks very close to the words of the Bible. His writing has a parable-like quality, here: it's clear and easy to read, but with some beautiful imagery. One of my favourite quotations is copied below, in which Jesus speaks to a God who does not seem to answer, about what he believes a church should be.

"Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should be not like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil, that shelters every kind of bird and beast and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place. Does the tree say to the sparrow, 'Get out, you don't belong here?' Does the tree say to the hungry man, 'This fruit is not for you?' Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?"

Passages like this are the reason I rated this book so highly.

Pullman is critical of the church, mostly the Catholic church, with some very specific digs at it, including the abuse of children by priests. But his words stay close to those of the Bible, often repeating it almost word for word, like it's just a more colloquial translation. There wasn't enough of the new frame story, I think.

I don't think Pullman's views are so insensitive. If your religion can't bear criticism and opposition, then you need to think about why that is. His portrayal of Jesus as a good, human, doubting man ends up being a lovely one, a tender one. He never claims that what he's saying is truth, only that this is one way it could have happened: this is clearly fiction. ( )

Absolutely riveting re-imagining of the Jesus story, with lots of recourse to the Gnostic Gospels. The conceit here is that Jesus and Christ are twins, and Jesus is the guy with the message- the guy who heals the sick, the guy who has that no-nonsense spirituality one might recognize from parts of the Gospels. Christ, OTOH, stands in for the church, for the status quo, for the massaging of information.

Really well done, says this non-believer. ( )

The current argument in the store is where to shelve this book. It states on the back cover that it is a work of fiction. It is also part of the Canongate myth series (#15 in fact.) My argument is that the bible is also a work of fiction, and we keep that in religion. My decision: keep the Pullman book in comparative religion.