The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Canongate Myths) [Paperback]

I'm disappointed that so many people here have got stuck arguing about whether this is `blasphemous' or not. I'm a Christian and I think this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. Pullman, whatever his own beliefs, knows his bible (Including the apocrypha) extremely well and has written what I think is an extremely clever story. Many people know how the story ultimately ends; with the death of Jesus on the cross and claims of his resurrection, but along the way Pullman retells some of the most profound stories of our Christian life in an enlightening, and I would even say, a revelatory, way.

The book is a quick read, with short chapters detailing particular bible events. But readers should not think that a quick read makes it a "light" read. There is much to ponder in the writing. The book invokes questions about how history and story are interlinked as well as considering the difficulty of discerning truth from history. That truth can be discovered in story is self evident in the reading of this story.

I don't think this is an anti-Christian book; although it is, very definitely, an anti-church book; but Christianity and the church are two different things. Pullman's description, spoken through the mouth of Jesus in this book, of what the church is and what the church should be, is one of the most finely tuned expose of where we (Christians) have gone wrong.

TGMJATSC is essentially a re-telling of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew (there's bit of Luke: no John) i.e. the Jesus story. The miracle of the clay sparrows is also included, showing that Pullman is at least passingly familiar with the apocrypha. The significant point of difference is that Jesus now has a twin brother called `Christ'. The Jesus character is familiar: an itinerant preacher held in suspicion by both the Romans and Jewish elders. Christ is his less-gifted but loving brother who follows Jesus, secretly writing down his teachings so that others may learn about Jesus' ideas. (The lit. theory dorks amongst you might call this an inter-textual narrative: as the story that Christ is writing on his journey is supposedly the exact one you're now reading centuries later).

Poor Christ is soon corrupted by a mysterious stranger (whose identity is never revealed; possible contenders include: the Devil, a Sanhedrin elder, a Roman spy or even an angel) who insists that in order for Jesus' teachings to flourish, Jesus must die. Christ unwittingly fulfils the role of Judas, betraying his brother so that Jesus' word will become immortal. Pullman stringently plays-down the supernatural aspects of the story: and so instead of Jesus rising from the dead, Christ pretends to be his brother risen: creating a doppelganger scenario that explains the resurrection without any supernatural or divine impetus. It's the Jesus story mythologized for a secular audience.

The real controversy lies behind Christ's motivations: the `mysterious stranger' convinces Christ that everyday folk are too stupid to make moral decisions or to be their own masters: only an all-powerful church can be responsible. So, if anything, TGMJATSC is a dig at the precepts of organised religion, rather than the spiritual nature of religion itself. A firm criticism of the church as establishment is about as contentious as this book gets. Aside from a re-imagining of some of Jesus' miracles, Pullman makes no attempt to destroy the foundations of religion with scientific determinism; which is refreshing, coming as this book does from a writer famous for his atheism.

Jesus' message of love and humility remains completely intact, and Pullman's own telling of the Sermon on the Mount is especially striking for its faithfulness to the original. Jesus is sacrosanct, it's the church that Pullman attacks: "Under its authority, Jesus will be distorted and lied about and compromised and betrayed over and over again".

The prose is charmingly understated; monosyllabic words and single-clause sentences are the name of the game (think: Good News Bible rather than King James). And the majority of the characters perform their roles adequately, if without any real charisma or depth. Doubting Thomas is doubtful because the Bible says he is; similarly John the Baptist baptises and Mary Magdalene is maudlin (that was a little etymology joke for you linguists). In fact, in terms of the Pullman-to-Bible ratio, I'd say about 90% of TGMJATSC is just a straight-faced and unembellished paraphrasing of the gospels. This is a shame, because the book is most interesting when Pullman deviates from his sources.

The changes that he does make to the Bible account for such a tiny percentage of the book that most of the novel feels underdeveloped. The unidentified stranger who corrupts Christ does so with some baffling and unexplored theology, which is so brief and poorly articulated that I didn't really understand what Pullman was getting at, despite taking pains to re-read the passage multiple times: "He is the history and you are the truth, but you will have to be wiser. You will have to step outside time, and see the necessity for things that those within time find distressing."

Equally as frustrating is the fact that Pullman takes great pains to humanise the figure of Jesus; but only at the very end of the novel. On the eve of his execution, Jesus prays in the garden of Gethsemane. At this juncture, the writer takes a dramatic schism from his sources, and gives Jesus a ten-page soliloquy in which he questions the nature of God, sacrifice and belief. It's beautifully written and thoughtful, filled with poignant self-doubt and, in context, is deeply moving:

"No answer, naturally. Listen to that silence. Not a breath of wind; little insects in the grasses, a dog barking on some farm beyond the hills, an owl in the valley; and the infinite silence under it all. You're not in the sounds are you? If I thought you were, I could love you with all my heart. But you're in the silence. You say nothing.

If I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, powerless and modest."

It's the best (and longest) scene in the novel; but the only one in which the writing really comes alive and gets to grips with the issues at hand. If the whole text were as probing or as full of ideas as the final act, then TGMJATSC would be something special. But most of this book is nothing more than a paraphrasing of the gospels, injected with the occasional original short scene or comment.

Unfortunately, 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ' never manages to transcend the novelty of its premise. The basic idea that Jesus had a twin brother is the most interesting thing about the book: but it isn't developed to its full potential. On the rare occasion that Jesus and his brother interact, the tension rises and my interest piqued. But these scenes are few and far between. The book was also over-hyped to a preposterous degree: and that the media misrepresented the novel as being a religion hating atheists rant didn't help matters either. I don't think I've ever accused a novel of being too short before; but Pullman should have given these ideas room to breathe and develop; when Pullman hits his stride things get really good; I just wish there was...more.

The tension between the realities of historical facts and the way those facts are interpreted lies at the heart of the latest book by Philip Pullman. Arguably, Jesus Christ has had a more powerful influence in Western civilization than any other historical figure, and yet everything we know about him comes from second-hand sources. To what extent were the evangelist naively recording the life of Jesus for posterity, or embellishing it according to their (or someone else's) agenda?
Pullman draws here on a long tradition that sees little or no relationship between the Church as an institution and the teachings of its founding figure. To symbolize this, he splits him in two: Jesus, a somewhat naive preacher that wanders around Judea warning about the imminent arrival of the Kingdom, and Christ, his twin brother who follows him from a distance and keeps a record of everything that Jesus says or does. Initially committed to be a faithful witness of historical fact, this Christ gradually changes his attitude and starts introducing subtle changes to the events that eventually become complete fabrications. The irony that Pullman wants to highlight is that it is precisely these fabrications that later become the official gospels what would allow the Church to become organized and thrive. But to his credit, he doesn't make his Christ a cardboard villain, and his attitude to Jesus remains always ambivalent (suggesting that there is a subtle irony in the title of the book). Christ is haunted by the moral dilemma of founding the Church based on a lie, and ask himself whether the potential benefits for mankind should outweigh his qualms. Jesus, on the other hand, comes off as well intentioned but also annoyingly self righteous and his message is rife with contradictions that Christ struggles (unsuccessfully) to smooth out in his writings.
The book is certainly an enjoyable read, and Pullman has fun providing versions of famous episodes from the canonical gospels with slight (but significant variations), which is sort of the point. The darts are obviously directed at organized religion, but it can also be understood as a general statement about the responsibilities of those who witness a fact and are then in charge of communicating them to the society at large, and it manages to get the reader to consider some uncomfortable questions about this issue. Brief, thought-provoking and often moving, the Gospel according to Pullman is worth checking out.