the good man jesus and the scoundrel christ by philip pullman

Also, the concept behind the book, of presenting Jesus Christ not as a single person but as twins, is not nearly as simple as it may seem at first glance. It’s a story in which religion and theology are taken seriously – not necessarily for themselves, but because they have mattered and continue to matter to people, and because they have real consequences in real human lives. I’m no expert in theology, but this struck me as a book written with respect for Scripture. And this will likely upset some people-but more on that at the end. However, it does remove the divine from the equation by giving concrete explanations to all the passages where the intervention of God is clear in the original narrative. Believe it or not, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is not actually inflammatory in tone.

There isn’t much more I need to tell you about the plot, as mostly everyone, even those who like me are only passingly familiar with the New Testament, will recognise the main events presented here. The obvious implication is that the stories we know today are a direct result of his editorial decisions. One goes out to become the revolutionary speaker the Bible tells us about, while the other thinks of himself as a historian: he records what his brother says and what he sees him do, sometimes “letting truth from beyond time into history”. In Pullman’s version, Jesus and Christ are two different people: they are twin brothers born to Mary. ‘This is the law and the prophets, this is everything you need to know.’ The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, the latest addition to the fabulous Canongate Myth Series, is a retelling of the life of Jesus Christ according to the New Testament. ‘And this is the final thing I’ll say to you: do to others as you hope they would do to you.

The good man jesus and the scoundrel christ by philip pullman