The Good man Jesus and the scoundrel Christ

[Grabaspoon]

I have just finished reading this book - am on a bit of a book marathon at the moment - and quite enjoyed it.

It made me think abit - am not a practising Christian - but know the stories and have always wondered if there was more to it than the story that we've all been told.

So has anyone else read it? What did you think? :)

I have not read this book or even heard of it before today.But I believe if you really want to know if it is true read one or all of the gospels and/or Acts and see how you feel after that.

I read this book last year, I thoroughly enjoyed it (think I finished it in about 2 days).

I pretty much knew the story IYSWIM but found the whole idea really thought provoking.

It's a shame it's not a better known book, would be a great choice for a bookclub.

There were a couple of times especially at the begining when I def preffered Christ to Jesus.

I thought that but then swung back the other way as the book went on.

Although I can also see it from the sibling side and think Christ was an annoying little git

I read this for book group last year and loved it - found it thought provoking and a little bit cheeky

Well, Pullman was trying to be provocative as well as examining a figure he finds fascinating, but I don't think it's that good a book. For a start the text consists of his words but half of them are basically the words used in any modern translation of the gospels, so I would think he owes royalties or a debt of some kind.

The story is an interesting way of him examinining how the gospels were written, and what is "truth" in story-telling and what are its purposes, but I think Pullman's tale is still fundamentally dishonest itself. I really dislike his clever-clever back-cover "This is a story" quote. What a "gospel" is, is far more complex than the notion of "story".

I agree it would be a good choice for a bookgroup but only if there were some folk in it who were at least a little knowledgeable about the history of the New Testament and the inner workings of the gospels themselves and their writers.

If you like this try The Kingdom of the wicked by Anthony Burgess, cracking book.

MurkyTurkey - have you read Earthly Powers? I'm thinking of getting one or the other but Earthly Powers seems to have better reviews.

PS - op I also have this book. It's fairly straight forward in scope and I think doesn't bear too much analysis but I liked it - follows a basically cute idea.

Not tried Eartly Powers, thanks for the tip.