Jesus on Mars [Mass Market Paperback]

The first manned mission to Mars discovers a civilization living underground on Mars. About half are human, the other half are an alien race. They speak ancient Greek and Hebrew, and live by Jewish law!

The visitors learn that two thousand years earlier, an alien spacecraft visited Earth and collected many samples of Terran flora & fauna, including humans, some of whom were early Christians. Soon after settling on Mars, Jesus appeared and everyone, including the aliens, became Christians.

Jesus lives with the Martians still, and performs miracles for the visitors.

But is he really the same Jesus described in the Bible? He he really the Son of God? Or is he an alien masquarading as the human religious figure to gain trust and take over? Or all of above?

That's what the visitors and all of Earth must decide as they examine their own religious beliefs as Jesus prepares for his return to Earth.

I found this a fascinating book that I still often think about years later. I hope it is brought back into print.

Jesus on Mars is a 1979 science fiction novel by Philip José Farmer, author of the magnificent Riverworld series. The title is also the premise: An expedition from Earth lands on Mars to investigate a crashed spaceship, and discovers a large society comprised of aliens and Jews, whose ancestors were brought to Mars around the time of Christ. The leader of this group claims to be Jesus Christ, has miraculous powers, and has been with them for two thousand years. Is this Jesus real, an impostor, or the antichrist?

Farmer's Jesus and his Martian society reject the traditionally accepted Christology - that Jesus was fully God and fully man. This Jesus is man only, an imperfect "adopted son" of God. This Jesus says he did no miracles during his life on Earth (the biblical Gospel writers made that up afterward), he died, was resurrected and appeared on Mars, where he gained his miracle-working powers. For this and other reasons, Farmer's Jesus doesn't ring true, nor does his society of Martian Jews. They are billed as a God-fearing, good people, but it never feels like there's much love in them. As such, the reader is never in much danger of accepting Farmer's Jesus as the "real" Jesus. And somewhere, Saint Paul is rolling over in his grave.

Farmer's writing has some problems. The main character's romance doesn't feel natural. None of the characters are particularly well-developed, and Farmer missed a wonderful opportunity to explore his themes more deeply by not including a committed Christian in the crew. Everyone comes to faith in this Jesus rather easily - all it takes is a few tossed-around allegations that the biblical Gospels were fabricated and a circus performance by Jesus, and everybody's on the wagon. Further problems - every female character in the entire book is specifically described as having a large bust. Busty women are well and good, but come on, Farmer. And if you want to play a Jesus on Mars drinking game, your word is "aquiline".

Farmer does raise some valid issues as he pursues his theme of skepticism versus faith. Certainly, if Jesus appeared on Mars as he does in this novel, then yes, Christianity as we understand it would be bogus. But that isn't really the issue - the real issue is the nature of Jesus himself, and by implication, God. The fundamental issue of who Jesus is is relevant to anyone, something that Farmer makes abundantly clear in Jesus on Mars (whether he was trying to or not).

Any way you slice it, Jesus on Mars discredits the biblical Jesus. Farmer's Jesus, his Martian society, and the ship's crew all endorse and/or buy into the idea that the Gospels were tampered with they were initially written, a concept that Farmer throws out as accepted fact but offers no real evidence for.

Jesus on Mars is hardly Farmer's finest work, as his writing and execution of the premise are both somewhat lacking. And while the novel raises some legitimate questions on faith and skepticism, Farmer doesn't handle these weighty issues as well as he might have, or as thoroughly.

This is probably one of the better examinations of religion to be found in the sci-fi universe, but it's only partially fulfilling. Philip Jose Farmer does a fine job here integrating theological exploration with space exploration, via a pretty interesting premise. In the story, the first manned mission to Mars finds that the planet is inhabited, by humans and some affiliated aliens, in large underground cities. And amazingly, these Martians are Orthodox Jews who live in a highly structured and ethical Old Testament society. It turns out that aliens visited Palestine in A.D. 50, perhaps explaining some of the more supernatural stories in the Bible, collected some of the revered Jewish and early Christian personalities of the time, and took off for Mars. Also, the underground Martian city is ruled by an all-powerful immortal who claims to be Jesus Christ. But is He the real deal, or some alien impostor?

Farmer utilized this interesting premise for many ruminations on the nature of Jewish and Christian belief. There are some especially good discussions on how Christianity has severely diverged from its original tenets and how its modern aspects are flawed by conjecture and misinterpretation. However, Farmer's explorations of these intriguing topics run out of steam in the second half of the book and start meandering. Another problem here is the characters, especially Danton, a cloying and stereotypical mouthpiece for unyielding intellectualism; and Bronski, the conveniently-placed science fiction standby – the mission member who just happens to know ancient languages and multiple scientific disciplines, in order to conveniently explain things to other characters and to the reader. Meanwhile, several main characters tend to speak in portentous monologues that keep going for paragraphs and paragraphs. And finally, the novel ends in a rather unsatisfying "decide for yourself" fashion (as other reviewers have noted), but in the end you are left with some pretty good food for thought. [~doomsdayer520~]