the good man jesus and the scoundrel christ

He's gone away' – subtly paraphrasing the 'Be silent and come out of him' in the gospel. When he relates the story of Jesus healing a demon-possessed man in the synagogue, his Jesus responds to the shouts of the disturbed man with, 'You can be quiet now. Time and again, when Pullman offers his version of a familiar biblical saying or narrative, he achieves a pitch-perfect rendering in modern idiom, carrying something of the shock and compelling attraction of the original gospel text. Because that is what Pullman's Jesus undoubtedly is. 'Christ' is tormented by the knowledge that he is distorting and betraying, but accepts the stranger's assurance that all this is necessary to stop Jesus being forgotten and to create the church in which God's authority among men and women will be secured once and for all.Ī very bold and deliberately outrageous fable, then, 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.

This shadow figure takes hold of Jesus's identity, recording and editing what he says and does, encouraged by a mysterious stranger who eventually prompts him to betray his brother to death and stage-manages the 'resurrection' appearances by presenting 'Christ' as Jesus risen from the dead.

He is in love with miracles, with the dream of an unanswerable human authority sanctioned by God, with the mirage of a world forever safe from doubt and permeated by the benign if somewhat capricious presence of a God who reinforces his commands with – well, magic. The nickname conceals what is never said in the text: 'Christ' is in fact Judas.

The good man jesus and the scoundrel christ