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The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ (Myths) Hardcover – 1 Apr 2010

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Philip Pullman (Author)
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Philip Pullman (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars 215 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 245 pages
  • Publisher: Canongate Books; 1st edition (1 April 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1847678254
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847678256
  • Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 2.7 x 21.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (215 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 113,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A very bold and deliberately outrageous fable rehearsing Pullman's familiar and passionate fury at corrupt religious systems of control . . . But also introducing something quite different, a voice of genuine spiritual authority. Because that is what Pullman's Jesus undoubtedly is. --Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

A small gem or, given its explosive story and exquisite artistry, a hand grenade made by Faberge. --Sunday Times

Clever and thought-provoking. --Guardian

Pullman has a gift for creating scenes that make the reader want to put down the book and say "wow" . . . this is a book that remains in the mind days after the final page has been turned . . . The greatest story ever told has come alive anew.
--Times Educational Supplement

Book Description

The Number 1 Sunday Times Bestseller --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsAn enjoyable, simple read, for all.
By Sean Surrey on 5 Jun. 2010
Format: Paperback
The writing was very simple, in a brief Hemmingway or Cormack Macarthy style. The book has been padded to appear more substantial but it is a fascinating read for Christisan and non-christians.
When my Vicar said to the congregation after reading the nativity passages that we believe because we have faith i really felt come on, it's the fact that we believe without question that everyone else thinks we are fools.

This book examines an alternative, not as a way of debunking Christs teachings but of examining how man and the Church that followed can examine things how they have a vested interest in adding fat to the thin story and how clearly there appears other motives at hand that turned the teachings of Christ into the church that we know today. In the STORY, Jesus is a good man, who we know christ to be and who in every way should be followed as a teacher and Prophet, but the Christ we have now is divine because he has to be in order for us to continue our belief.

I do not believe in the divinity and i do not go to church anymore. I believe in Jesus, his teachings and the fallability of man.

I was saddened when Jesus was portrayed as a man even though this is what i believe. Because it is like how you confront a bully and make them humble, you are saddened that you have had to break a person and you pity them. But i am lifted by the fact that the teachings alone are truthful, even if they have become distorted with time or by time. Because i like philosophy, i like the power of the human spirit but i also like the power of the church as a collective force for good. When it behaves, as Pullman hypothesises here, as a force of selfinterest, power and politics then i also despair.

And Blasphemy is not when you question the word it is when you curse god. If god, jesus, mohammed wanted us to be blind followers without question you have to question whether you want that type of god.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA beautiful and clever story
By L C James on 9 April 2010
Format: Hardcover
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA good man Jesus
By Martin on 15 Dec. 2010
Format: Paperback
Easy to read as well as thought-provoking. Just as 'The Life of Brian' was not an attack on Jesus but a parody of the way some have chosen to follow him, this story likewise gives a positive and realistic view of the man Jesus. Using the fictional alter-ego and twin Christ, Pullman represents his view of where the Christian church has missed the point. The message that Jesus is sharing (such as that of the sermon of the mount) seems accurate and real. The miracles are not so much explained as downplayed by both Jesus and Christ leaving it to the reader to decide whether they were in fact miraculous or just seen that way. The idea that an fully structured global church was a concept from the start (by Christ) and in fact refuted by Jesus (here a slant on the temptation of Jesus after the 40 days is revealing) is putting the cart before the horse perhaps but allows the story to be told during the timeframe of Jesus's life. Just as in the Python movie this story should give pause for thought to Christians and understanding to non-Christians. Following Jesus should be seen as a dignified and noble way of life but doing what a church says blindly without thought should be challenged.
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4.0 out of 5 starsThe Gospel according to the storyteller Philip
By Olly Buxton on 3 Dec. 2010
Format: Paperback
I've read a number of retellings of the central Christian story recently: C K Stead wrote a fascinating and surprisingly faithful (irony intended) secular retelling from the eyes of Judas Hiscariot; I was fortunate enough to attend a performance of the famous, once-in-a-decade Oberammergau Passion Play in Bavaria, and now I've stumbled over the famously atheist Philip Pullman's take - which involves a fair bit more licence than Stead's but is otherwise of a similar demystifying disposition: rationalising miracles into ordinary materialistic phenomena, and rebasing Jesus from mystic to idealistic, but nonetheless political, historical figure.

Pullman's licence is to pull Jesus Christ apart into two figures: Jesus (an idealist if naive populist) and Christ, his twin, a more introverted, but more intelligent, dark inversion.

Curiously, the Passion Play - which is entirely reverend to orthodox Christian doctrine in a way that Stead's and Pullman's works are not - also de-emphasises the spiritual in favour of the political machinations of the Sanhedrin and the political dimension of Christ's mission. All three, in some way, accordingly miss what's so special and clever about the passion. But we live in rational times - or so we like our chroniclers to tell us.

All three also bring the character of Judas into sharp relief: Stead and Oberammergau by his prominence, Pullman by his notable absence.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

brilliant author

Published 11 days ago by janice campbell
3.0 out of 5 starslike Yerby, he has brought questions about the origins ...

Still to read in its entirety. Pullman seems to have kept to the basic outline of the biblical story and provided thought provoking interpretations, rather than really question... Read more

Published 27 days ago by A Allan
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Thought provoking and very well written.

Published 1 month ago by J. Feld
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

really enjoyed this

Published 2 months ago by Mrs. P. A. Quinn
5.0 out of 5 starsand this book did not disappoint. Brilliantly written

Philip Pullman - what more can I say, I am a huge fan of his works, and this book did not disappoint. Brilliantly written.

Published 2 months ago by Diseewise
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Unknown Jesus

How did Jesus, assuming he existed at all, become the figure of Christ that is at the centre of one of the world's great religious faiths? Read more

Published 7 months ago by T. T. Rogers
3.0 out of 5 starsHugely dissapointing.

I really liked the idea of Jesus and his twin brother Christ. Unfortunately, a good idea that all it is. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Aliah1985
5.0 out of 5 starsA superb quest for the true Jesus

This is an absolutely exhilarating approach to the discrepancy between pre- and post-Easter depictions of Jesus/Christ. Read more

Published 10 months ago by S. Johnson
1.0 out of 5 starsWaste of time

90% of this is just lifted from the New Teatament and retold in near identical language (plus some tokenistic bits of John clumsily added in) - if I'd known that I wouldn't have... Read more

Published 10 months ago by C Summers
3.0 out of 5 starsWell (i) to be delighted by what I expected to be an exciting and ...

This is an interesting take on the biblical story and by an author I greatly respect. I'm afraid this story didn't impact on me as I had expected. What did I expect? Read more

Published 11 months ago by Roy from Sheffield

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