Jesus rejects institutional religion, and, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says to a silent God: He wants a church, an organization, an institution. Jesus, a free spirit, embodies all the wisdom, compassion, honesty, love and courage that can be found in the gospels. Rather than a lively tale, Pullman offers propaganda. Of course, any writer’s beliefs and perspective will have a deep impact on his or her story-telling, but, here, they’ve gotten out of hand.
He’s not so much envisioning human interactions as he is noodling a version of the gospel story that fits his take on the world. Pullman has described himself as an agnostic atheist, and that’s something that seems to dominate his book. Although Jesus is a strong and vibrant personality and Christ pretty much a weakling, they bear a strong resemblance to each other. Pullman’s title alerts the reader to the tale he will weave. For instance, in “The Penelopiad,” Margaret Atwood retells the Odyssey from the point of view of Penelope and of her 12 slave-servant girls whose fate - unmerited, Atwood argues - is slaughter by a vengeful Odysseus. In this series, well-known contemporary writers re-imagine and re-tell ancient narratives from cultures across the globe. Now, here’s Philip Pullman with his 2010 book “The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ,” part of the Canongate Myth Series. But, even more insightful are novelists who bring a keen eye and ear to the job.Īnd many, great and not-so-great, have taken a shot at it, including Norman Mailer, Leo Tolstoy, Anne Rice, Reynolds Price, Jose Saramago, Jim Crace, Gore Vidal, Charles Dickens and Nikos Kazantzakis. Historians, as professionals without the overlay of theology, shed an interesting light on what is known and what can be guessed. In addition, I’ve always found it enjoyable and instructive to read what non-believers - or, at least, unofficial commentators - have to say. As a Christian, I’ve read a lot of stuff by other believers about the life of Jesus and its meaning.
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