The Savior from Mars

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The Savior from Mars (original title: Jesus on Mars ) is a novel by the American writer Philip José Farmer . The work, which can be assigned to the genre of science fiction , was originally published in English in 1979; the German translation was published in 1984. The plot of the novel confronts the members of a Mars expedition with Jesus , who lives in human form on Mars among humans and extraterrestrials, and depicts the return of Jesus Christ with the support of extraterrestrial technology.

action

Tithonium Chasma, location of the landing point in the novel.

The novel is set in 2015, which is 36 years in the future at the time of its publication. Six years before the start of the plot, the international space agency IASA announced that their robot had discovered a spaceship of extraterrestrial origin on Mars . This led to the dispatch of the first manned Mars expedition. The crew of the spaceship Aries is international and has a diverse religious and cultural background: Captain Richard Orme, the main character in the novel, is a black Canadian of the Baptist denomination. The other members of the spacecraft crew are the Polish Jew Avram Bronski, the Iranian Muslim Nadir Shirazi and the French atheist Madeleine Danton.

After landing in the Tithonium Chasma in the Valles Marineris , the spacemen begin to investigate the alien spaceship, which appears to be a wreck. They are soon seized by strangers and initially held captive in comfortable apartments. These lie in a dome-shaped cave about 35 miles in diameter, which is illuminated by an artificial "sun" floating under the dome ceiling, and in which the settlements of the "Martians" are located. It turns out that the Martian society consists on the one hand of the extraterrestrial, humanoid people of the Krsh, on the other hand of the descendants of people who were brought to Mars by the Krsh from Roman Palestine almost 2000 years ago . The technologically far superior Krsh, who visited Earth on a research mission and invited injured people to their spaceship for treatment and exploration, got into a space battle with another, aggressive alien species and have since been hiding together with the people on the Mars. Krsh and people now form a unified society, evidently strongly influenced by the beliefs of the people. Communication with the group of astronauts turns out to be not very difficult, since both the linguist Bronski and part of the Martians Koine are proficient in Greek.

This Martian society is committed to a messianic variant of Orthodox Judaism . For example, they strictly observe the Sabbath and the Jewish dietary laws , but are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah - and lives among them. Their Christology differs significantly from Christian teaching in that they regard Jesus as the Messiah, but exclusively as a human being and an "adopted", non-bodily Son of God . The New Testament is unknown to them, as have all events on earth since about the year 50 AD due to their self-chosen isolation.

More than half of the novel is about how the Aries crew , who are allowed to move freely in the dome over time, are gradually introduced to the religious teachings of the Martians. Over time it becomes increasingly clear that Jesus supposedly lives personally, as a human being of flesh and blood, among the Martians. When it shows itself to the space travelers as part of a public ceremony and apparently works miracles , this plunges all four crew members into a crisis of faith. Ultimately, Jesus' presence is so overwhelming and convincing for them that Orme, Bronski and Shirazi convert to Martian-messianic Judaism - only the atheist Danton, who also estranged herself from her lover (or husband, since the conservative Martians had requested her marriage) Shirazi cannot come to terms with the apparent overthrow of her beliefs and commits suicide . Thanks to the advanced medicine of the Krsh, she can be brought back to life and physically restored, but has lost a large part of her memory. According to the Krsh, even Jesus could not do more - he could work miracles, but “only the Creator himself” could have given her memory back. This limited power of Jesus also corresponds to his own statements, for example in a dialogue with Orme. Jesus himself declares that in his time on earth he did not work miracles.

On the one hand Jesus lives on Mars in a conventional house with his wife Miryam, on the other hand he also spends a lot of time in the nuclear reactor of the “sun”. In a conversation with Orme, who was internally converted and still doubting, Jesus further unsettled him by presenting a rational explanation of his presence and power as a “thought game”, perhaps also as a test of faith: It could be that the Krsh went unnoticed by a curious one "Captured" energy beings that have taken possession of a human body. If he was this energy being and if it fed on radioactivity, this could explain why he was spending so much time in the reactor.

After Jesus and the Martians had informed themselves comprehensively about the development of the earth in the time of their isolation, they decided to make contact with earth, even more: Jesus wants to return to earth as savior . He does this with a fleet of Krsh ships that were hidden on Mars, and in the company of the terrestrial space travelers. He promises the inhabitants of the earth the cure of all diseases, immortality in their physical form and, for the distant future, the resurrection of the dead. The Krsh ships distribute small machines around the world that produce a substance known as " manna " to feed the hungry. Jesus' actions cause considerable unrest on earth. The Pope declares him an antichrist , nation states protest against interference in their internal affairs, while part of humanity is ready to accept Jesus from Mars as their Savior and others resolutely reject this idea.

Richard Orme himself is still plagued by doubts and also wonders whether Jesus might not be the Antichrist. He devised a plan to assassinate Jesus when he landed in Israel . Before he can do this, he reflexively throws himself into the path of a hand grenade that is thrown at Jesus by another assassin. After the explosion, he appears to be unscathed - Jesus resuscitated and fully restored him, just as he raised other assassins from the dead. The novel ends with Jesus forgiving Orme (whose intentions he knew) and the other assassins and sets off for Jerusalem with his companions .

reception

Darrell Schweitzer in Science Fiction Review considered the starting position and the enigmatic figure of Christ to be remarkable; however, the human figures lack liveliness. Farmer is able to write a "first-class" novel, but in this case he did not. Jesus on Mars is entertaining ("fun"), but not a brilliant achievement.

In Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review James Patrick Kelly came to a similar conclusion as Schweitzer: Farmer had gathered the raw material for a good novel, but did not complete the “product”. Kelly criticized the "static" middle part of the novel between the rapid developments of the beginning and the end, in which the astronauts the Martian culture is explained. Tension gave way to boredom long before Jesus appeared after two thirds of the novel. In the same issue of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review, George H. Scheetz took the dissenting opinion that Farmer in this book was at the height of his narrative and philosophical art; it deserved a Hugo Award . A recurring theme in Farmers' work is the trickster ; In Jesus on Mars , Farmer presented the readers with Jesus, the “most sophisticated of a long line of tricksters”.

Similar to Scheetz, Edgar L. Chapman makes reference to the figure of the trickster in The Magic Labyrinth of Philip José Farmer . Chapman adopts the possible explanation of his nature as an extraterrestrial energy being presented by Jesus "hypothetically" in the novel, which has seized the opportunity to become Jesus in the Jewish-influenced Martian society, and describes him as the "ultimate trickster hero on a mission, to save mankind from itself ”. It is noteworthy that in Jesus on Mars Farmer does not portray the return of Christ in an apocalyptic way . The book thus stands in the American tradition of “messianic fables” such as AE van Vogt's Slan and Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange World . Farmer's story, however, is closer to the Christian tradition than this and is significantly more differentiated in its ethical awareness.

expenditure

First edition:

German edition:

The novel has been translated into several other languages, including French (Un martien nommé Jésus) in 1981 , Italian (Cristo marziano) in 1984 and Polish (Jezus na Marsie) in 1992 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Darrell Schweitzer: Review in Science Fiction Review . No. 33, November 1979. Quoted from: Reviews: Jesus on Mars ( English ) In: The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page . Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b James Patrick Kelly, George H. Scheetz: Reviews in Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review . Vol. 1, no. 11, December 1979. Quoted from: Reviews: Jesus on Mars ( English ) In: The Official Philip José Farmer Web Page . Retrieved October 31, 2017.
  3. ^ Edgar L. Chapman: The Magic Labyrinth of Philip José Farmer (=  The Milford series. Popular writers of today . Vol. 38). Borgo Press - Wildside Press, San Bernardino, Calif. 1984, ISBN 0-89370-158-0 , pp. 68 (English): "(...) the ultimate trickster hero on a mission to redeem humanity from itself."
  4. ^ Edgar L. Chapman: The Magic Labyrinth of Philip José Farmer (=  The Milford series. Popular writers of today . Vol. 38). Borgo Press - Wildside Press, San Bernardino, Calif. 1984, ISBN 0-89370-158-0 , pp. 68 (English): “Farmer's fable is much closer to Christian tradition than these earlier messianic works, and its ethical awareness is a good deal more sophisticated.”

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