The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Myths) ebook

by Philip Pullman

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is a novel by Philip Pullman. Published in 2010 by Canongate Books, as part of the Canongate Myth Series, it retells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, brothers, "Jesus" and "Christ," with contrasting personalities; Jesus being a moral and godly man, and his brother Christ a calculating figure who wishes to use Jesus' legacy to found a powerful Church.

Part of Canongate Myth series by Philip Pullman. The Birth of Jesus, and the Coming of the Shepherds. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Chapter 1. Mary and Joseph. This is the story of Jesus and his brother Christ, of how they were born, of how they lived and of how one of them died. The death of the other is not part of the story. As the world knows, their mother was called Mary. Joseph lived in Nazareth in Galilee, but his family had come from Bethlehem in Judea, some days' journey to the south.

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England, in 1946 His title however is confusing to me, "The Good Man Jesus and Scoundrel Christ"

Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England, in 1946. He has won many awards, including the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. The Amber Spyglass, the trilogy’s astonishing finale, was the first children’s book in history to win the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. His title however is confusing to me, "The Good Man Jesus and Scoundrel Christ". In this story it is Jesus who causes trouble as a youth, who denounces his parents, is cruel to his twin brother Christ, and appears to act cruelly to those who are not of the Jewish faith. Then one day in Christ's hearing Jesus told a story that disturbed him more greatly still. There was a man who had two sons, one quiet and good, the other wild and unruly. Chapter 7. Pharisees and Sadducees.

Canongate Myths Series. It is in the person of the scoundrel Christ that Pullman pours most of the energy of his narrative. 18 books - 48 voters. Can't Wait Books of 2010. I would describe Pullman’s Christ as a passionate, though easily corrupted, believer that Jesus is the Messiah. Pullman's book captures this difference between the evangelical Jesus and the ecclesial Christ by the simple device of Mary, wife of Joseph, having twins, one called Jesus, the other Christ. Jesus is more or less the figure we know from the gospels: human, uncertain, complex, sometimes contradictory, but always on message.

Philip Pullman's reimagining of the New Testament is fierce and beautiful, says Richard Holloway. I am certain that the good man Pullman would say amen to that. Richard Holloway was bishop of Edinburgh 1986-2000 and is the author of Between the Monster and the Saint (Canongate).

Published at Easter 2010 by Canongate Books, it tells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, "Jesus" and .

Published at Easter 2010 by Canongate Books, it tells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, "Jesus" and "Christ," with contrasting personalities; Jesus being a moral and godly man, and his brother Christ a calculating figure who wishes to use Jesus' legacy to found a powerful Church. The book has attracted controversy, as well as hate mail sent to Pullman by Christian fundamentalists threatening him with damnation. Pullman's historical understanding has been criticised by Professor Gerald O'Collins.

Scoundrel Christ" is the remarkable new piece of fiction from best-selling and famously atheistic author Philip Pullman.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" is the remarkable new piece of fiction from best-selling and famously atheistic author Philip Pullman. He is the author of The Book of Dust, volume 1. He has received numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award for Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature in 2002, and the Astrid Lindgren Award in 2005.

Christ is Saved by the Stranger. Jesus Debates with a Lawyer; The Good Samaritan. 7. Jesus Continues his Sermon on the Mountain.

Philip Pullman’s retelling of the Gospels distinguishes between the human and the divine nature of Jesus, with Mary giving birth to the twins of the title. This little book is part of a series of contemporary retellings of myths. It is not merely a reweaving of the synoptic Gospels with the supernatural dimension left out. It is an attempt by an experienced storyteller to show how even the best-plotted stories can get too far out of hand. I said earlier that Pullman was a Protestant atheist. Even so, he may well have been annoyed at the welcome given to his book by the clerical establishment in the person of the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev.

This is a story.

In this ingenious and spellbinding retelling of the life of Jesus, Philip Pullman revisits the most influential story ever told.

Charged with mystery, compassion and enormous power, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ throws fresh light on who Jesus was and asks the listener questions that will continue to reverberate long after the final word is spoken. For above all, this audiobook is about how stories become stories.

Frlas

I am a big fan of Philip Pullman's writing. He he easy to read, clear, concise, and just generally a very talented writer. Pullman maps out many of the popular biblical stories as having plausible non-miracle explanations to how they may have come about as Jesus and Christ move through their lives. His title however is confusing to me, "The Good Man Jesus and Scoundrel Christ". In this story it is Jesus who causes trouble as a youth, who denounces his parents, is cruel to his twin brother Christ, and appears to act cruelly to those who are not of the Jewish faith. It is Christ who is the obedient child, who spends his life defending his brother's actions and words, who shows kindness and reverence to others, who shows respect and love to their parents, and who in the end begs to be able to die in his brother's place. I do not understand from the story how Christ is a scoundrel. My only other confusion was in Pullman's use of the term "gentile" when refering to the Romans who were not Jewish. I always had equated the term with Christianity, which would not have existed prior to the Crucifiction. Upon further research have learned it often refers to any non-Jewish faith. If you can have an open mind about God and religion it is a great story and can also be a great tool as an accomanying text to any "Contemporary view of Christ" college course.

Qusicam

This rewrite of the story about the itinerant preacher who grew up in Nazareth and spoke of a supernatural kingdom that was never to come should be given to all children by age 12 to make them wonder about the unreal dictates and stories they had pushed on them since they were very young. Pullman does a great job of distinguishing the reality from the myth and proposing that the outcome was being arranged and manipulated from the very beginning. A good read!

LØV€ YØỮ

Pullman has pulled off (no pun intended) a small scale tour-de-force of mock parable style. It seems that few either on Amazon or in the press realize how thoroughly he has pondered the ins and outs of the Grand Inquisitor, (book 5, chapter 5) the 'poem' Ivan invents for the edification of his kid brother, Alyosha, in Dostoevsky's Karamazov. Pullman's slim volume doesn't miss a beat in recapturing the thesis of the Dostoevsky's Inquisitor as he assails a silent Christ with his superfluity now that the church has taken over 'his message.' This is made clear in Pullman's chapter recounting the Three Temptations, and brought back more earnestly much later with Jesus's questioning of an either deaf, inscrutable, or non-existent god right before he is handed over to the soldiers by his 'Judas' (who turns out to be his twin brother, Christ.) The inability of a pathetic humanity to take Christ's path without miracles, bread and violence is retooled here in a simple narrative form, jettisoning the difficulties many contemporary readers will find when they wrestle with the original Dostoevsky.
Judas's (Christ's) role, (like the snake in the garden,) is recognized by a gifted writer for what it is; the facilitator in the narrative. Naturally, it is Judas who makes it possible for Christ to realize his destiny, ie. to die as a man so that he may live as a god. Judas is what makes 'it' go; and could easily be construed as God's instrument, if God is indeed an all-knowing deity. (Yahweh probably planted the snake in the Garden as well; again, without which the Bible would end on page two.)
Pullman takes the sine-qua-non of 'Judas' and sews it directly into Jesus's very flesh, by inventing his doppelganger, his twin brother, Christ. He takes what heretofore can be understood as a metaphorical truth and makes it literal. The modern stance of Dostoevsky is given a neat post-modernist twist here, and serves up new food-for-thought from the original recipe. -- Geoffrey Dorfman

Karon

Having read most of Pullman's work, I was pretty confident that I'd like his next project. I'm an atheist, so in a sense I wasn't going much outside my safety net in picking this book up, but good grief, did I get a treat! Pullman's style in the book is decidedly hands-off, and very rarely did I remember that I was reading what is technically a "novel," and not an addendum to the actual Bible. Pullman doesn't add any unessential language or prose, instead focusing on what the message is that is being conveyed, and I found this consistently refreshing and enlightening to read. I'm looking forward to Pullman's next project.

TheJonnyTest

Publication of this book caused a deal of controversy, with some offended readers labelling it as blasphemous. That such readers took offense is understandable. In Pullman's version, "Jesus" and "Christ" are brothers, and the former is manipulated into dying so that the latter can leave writings that can be used to establish a new religion. The plot stays close enough to the traditional biblical tales that it takes relatively small changes for the author to weave an entirely different (and secular) account.

In understanding the author's intent, it is worth noting that this book was published as #14 a series on ancient myths. While interpretations may vary, I take the author's account as a way of capturing the dual nature of the historical Jesus as viewed from today's perspective -- not the man vs. the god, but the itinerant faith- healer vs the unwitting founder of a new religion. I found the book neither offensive nor particularly interesting, but am glad if it opens some reader's eyes to possibilities more likely than the supernatural myths of 2000 years ago.

Kaghma

The only other Philip Pullman stories I've read are His Dark Materials, which I completely loved. This is entirely different in how it is written and the type of story being told. I found the most interesting part of the story the epilogue where Pullman discusses his own meaning behind the text and the background of why he wrote this. It's a strange read but offers a fascinating, very different take on the Gospels. It's also a very quick read so I think it's worthwhile.