The good Lord Jesus and the villain Christ

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The good Lord Jesus Christ and the villain (Engl. Original The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ ) is a novel of British writer Philip Pullman in 2010.

In this book, Pullman takes up the life story of Jesus as it is presented in the Bible and also in the Apocrypha . But he retells it by describing Jesus and Christ as two people, twin brothers, who have different views on a religious proclamation of the Kingdom of God: Jesus is emotionally involved, approaches people, speaks to them with clear words, becomes sometimes abusive, and rejects any personality cult . Christ is the distant observer who wants to build his brother's faith movement into a mighty church. By himself and with the help of informants, he writes reports about the work of his brother and urges him to perform effective miracles , which Jesus rejects. Christ is encouraged and guided in his approach by a mysterious stranger who predicts that one day the name Christ will shine even brighter and more magnificently than the name of his brother Jesus.

Pullman connects this novel in his relatively long afterword with his own religious development and his interest as a narrative writer in the writing of the evangelists: Why did they write it this way and not another?

action

On the instructions of the priest Zacharias , the widower Joseph, who already has sons, marries the young Maria , daughter of Anna and Joachim . One night when she is sixteen years old and Joseph is away, an angel in the form of a young man knocks on her window and reveals to her that God wants her to have a child that night - and that he is in charge of it.

Months later: Because of a census, Joseph and the heavily pregnant Maria move to Bethlehem . Once there in a stable, Maria gives birth to a strong son, but the midwife finds out that they are twins, and another boy is born. While the first boy (Jesus) is strong and healthy, the second (Christ) is weak and sickly, which is why Mary breastfeeds him first. When the shepherds arrive, they find Christ, who has already been taken care of, but weeping loudly, in the feeding trough - and they pay homage to the Messiah .

Even when Mary later had more children, Christ remained her darling, whom she always looked after particularly well. His brother Jesus is a loud and funny child and does a lot of stupid things, which Christ miraculously fixes again and again. The adults admire Christ for his mature behavior - while the children prefer Jesus.

The brothers grow up and Jesus leaves the house to preach the Kingdom of God to the people. Christ observes his charismatic brother and advises him to work miracles in certain situations in order to put more emphasis on his words and thus start a great movement. Jesus vehemently rejects this. Christ, in the background, now records the words and deeds of his brother - and he also adorns them with his own feelings.

At this time a stranger comes to Christ, confirms his vision and gives him explanations on how to proceed. Jesus is only the beginning, but the name Christ could shine much brighter and more magnificently in the future. There are worldly truths and truths that stand the test of time. Christ recognizes the clarity in the words of the stranger who leaves him afterwards - but visits him again and again at intervals.

In a situation in which Jesus' listeners discover Christ taking notes on Jesus, mistaking him for a Roman spy and trying to kill him, the stranger saves Christ through clever argument. From then on Christ wrote his reports about the work of Jesus much more carefully and paid informants, including disciples of Jesus, to do this for him. He is regularly visited by the stranger who picks up these reports. Whenever Christ asks his name, the stranger changes the subject - and evades him.

The stranger flatters Christ - “You have a real talent for this task.” - and explains to him the difference between “history” and “truth”: “History belongs to the time, but the truth belongs to the things that are beyond time lie. By writing about things as they should have been, you are letting the truth into the story. You are the word of God. ”Christ is particularly impressed when the stranger casually mentions:“ We who we know ”- and then disappears into the darkness.

While Jesus goes on his way, the stranger visits Christ again, this time in glistening white clothes, so that Christ thinks he is an angel. The stranger is preparing him for the Kingdom of God to come to Jesus very soon. When Jesus also used this phrase while on the way to Jerusalem , the stranger visited Christ again. He explores Christ's faith by asking him about the severe trial God imposed on Abraham with the sacrifice of his son Isaac . Christ replies that he would do whatever is God's will - and the stranger asks him not to forget these words.

Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and Christ's informant, an unnamed disciple of Jesus, reports that events are turning over. The stranger visits Christ again and demands that he betray Jesus to the Romans. Christ is desperate and wants to die in place of Jesus himself so that he can complete his work. But the stranger explains to him that the way into the kingdom is only possible through Jesus' death. Jesus bear this burden - and Christ must bear the burden of betrayal.

Christ does what he is told and betrays Jesus with a brotherly kiss . Before the brothers can speak to each other, the guards lead Jesus away and Christ is driven away. Jesus is brought before the Jewish high priest Kajaphas and then the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate and sentenced to death. During the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ is in the crowd looking for his informant and the stranger - but cannot find either.

After the body of Jesus has been brought into the cave, the stranger reappears. Christ accuses him of betraying Jesus not having a happy ending, as was the case with Abraham. But the stranger assures him that the betrayal was necessary and that much good will now result from it. This leads to the following dialogue:

Christ: "So will he rise from the dead?"
The stranger: "Without a doubt."
Christ: "When?"
The stranger: "Always."

But in order for this miracle to happen, Christ must stand in for his brother.

The stranger: "Without you his death will be nothing more than one of thousands of public executions."

After Christ's appearance - as Jesus - the Holy Spirit would take over and Jesus' disciples would become “like lions”. When Christ asked why the Holy Spirit could not do this immediately, the stranger replied that the Holy Spirit was internal and invisible, but that men and women needed something external and visible in order to believe.

Christ: “I will play my part. But I do it with a bad conscience and a heavy heart. "

Very early in the morning, it is still dark, Mary Magdalene visits the grave, but the stone in front of it has been rolled away. She runs to the disciples and reports them. After Peter and John have convinced themselves of their statement, they leave the place of the grave again. Only the weeping Mary Magdalene remains. Christ comes up and speaks to her. In the dark she thinks he is Jesus. She tells the disciples about it - and they believe her.

On the way to Emmaus , Christ joins the disciples as a wanderer. They are so engrossed in conversation that they don't look at him. Only in the evening does Cleopas think he recognizes his master Jesus in Christ. Before Christ has to prove that he is Jesus, he leaves the group. From a distance he watches over the next few days how the disciples, inspired by the Holy Spirit, preach and add Jesus' death, resurrection and the evidence through the stigmata to their stories. The name also changes in their stories: “Jesus” becomes first “Jesus the Christ” and then “Jesus Christ” - and they interweave more and more new details.

In the last chapter, Christ now lives under a different name as a net maker on the coast and is married to Martha. When the stranger visits him one last time, Martha invites him to dinner. When Christ breaks the bread , the stranger observes: “This little ritual that you invented has turned out to be a great success. Who would have thought that the invitation to Jews to eat meat and drink blood would become so popular. ”When the stranger mentions that it is now“ the Church that will keep the vessel of love and the teachings of Jesus ”, compare Christ gave him the "appearance of a successful dealer in dried fruit or carpets". Christ gets bad when he thinks about what happened to his brother, but at the same time he also has other ideas of how to embellish and expand his life and deeds. The stranger now leaves Christ and Martha forces her troubled husband to eat - but he realizes that the stranger has eaten all the bread and drunk all the wine.

Structure and style

The novel comprises 54 short, titled chapters on 245 pages. The chapters largely follow the chronological order of the four canonical Gospels according to Matthew , Mark , Luke and John . The story is developed further in additional chapters, the contents of which have no direct reference to the Bible, but certain topics of the Gospel are also omitted.

The typological model of the narrative situation is authorial narration combined with direct speech . The sentences are usually short. Formulations are based on the narrative style in the Bible. Some word usages - in English for example prostitute , sir , lottery , informant - are anachronistic .

The plot is followed by a 19-page epilogue by Pullman, longer than any chapter in the novel, in which he explains his thoughts on his narrative of the story.

epilogue

Pullman's religious development

Pullman is generally of the opinion that as a writer he should not interfere with how readers perceive and understand his novels (want to). In The Good Lord Jesus and the Rogue Christ , however, he makes an exception because the protagonist (s) are part of a 2000 year old culture - and Pullman explains "what he did with history".

With regard to his religious upbringing and his beliefs as a child ("I believed every single word of it.") Pullman brings the analogy of equator baptism , which he had already experienced several times at the age of nine: adults perform strange rituals, make a god ( Neptune ) and pay homage to him. By trustingly believing in the invisible longitudes and latitudes and following them, they navigate the ship in a confident manner - and thus always brought it safely to shore themselves.

Furthermore, Pullman was enthusiastic about "the music of language" at an early age: He didn't care about the meaning of hymns or verses as long as the word sequence sounded delightful to him .

As a teenager , after learning “a little about science,” he first lost faith in miracles, then faith in God: “Although I had a rather painful, one-sided conversation with Him for some time, the silence was upon His Page complete. ”Regarding the status quo , he states:“ I am as sure as it is possible that there is nothing in this god-shaped space. I am an uncompromising materialist . "He comments on religious doctrines with" cobwebs, dusty, small scraps, crumbly remnants of faded fabric: They do not hide anything, they do not decorate anything, and to me they mean nothing. "

Literary preparation

In preparation for the novel, Pullman took three versions of the Bible: the King James Version , the New English Bible and the Revised Standard Version , which included the four Gospels, in the 4th century by the third Synod of Carthage canonized were . In addition, he looked at apocrypha, which from his point of view - as from a general point of view - are of inferior literary quality. Pullman also mentions the point of view of Elaine Pagels , who wrote The Gnostic Gospels (1979) after the discovery of the Nag Hammadi scriptures in 1945 : “Why were these other scriptures excluded and banned as heresy ? What made it so dangerous? ”But he didn't want to pursue this aspect any further. He was primarily interested in the narrative aspects of the Gospels: why were they written one way and not another? Why was the central protagonist Jesus not described? Why are there hardly any landscape and weather descriptions (“Scriptures love weather and use it frequently”)? The main concern of the Gospels is to say what is to be believed - and there are diametrical contradictions, which Pullman responds to with examples.

Pullman questions how events in which Jesus was alone - the temptation in the wilderness and in the garden of Gethsemane - could be described so precisely that words of a silent prayer, the appearance of an angel, or the drops of sweat described in detail came down on paper without fiction . From the name transition and the numerical use of "Jesus" and "Christ", Pullman concludes that Jesus was the man and Christ was fiction, and with "If it had really been two people, how would that have changed history?" his retelling.

execution

In the novel, Jesus appears as “the good man” and Christ is “the scoundrel”, who analytically observes what can be done based on the words of Jesus in order to create a great church. While Jesus is talking to the people (and not writing anything down), Christ documents meticulously and even hires other informants. The stranger who encourages him in this is the totality of the doctrines of the Church, which always knows beforehand what truth is and will always be truth (“we who know”). The club plays a role here - Pullman calls it branding . H. Trademarks - and the death of Jesus an important role, which one has to take full advantage of. The third important element is the resurrection , which, according to Pullman's observations, is not directly portrayed as a dramatic element (like the crucifixion), but only portrayed in its effects: “The portrayal of how a dead body comes to life again and walking away from the cemetery would be pathetic, grotesque, trite. The confused, contradicting, almost breathless stories of what happened the morning after the Sabbath ... are narrative considerably better. "

Pullman's thought experiment

Regarding the death of Jesus, Pullman imagines a “ghost-like procession of visitors” marching into Jerusalem a week before Passover - all past and present priests, preachers, patriarchs and even popes - “in all the glory of their positions, with silver crosses the chest, jewel rings, mitres, tailored clothes, Cadillacs, sparkling white teeth and well-groomed hair. ”And everyone would have the power to save Jesus with willpower alone and to bring him to safety with a brotherly kiss. And neither does it for a thousand reasons and in terms of history and the “profound spiritual retreats”, the “majestic intellectual constructions”, the “grandeur of my cathedral” that would be obliterated by this act - and then return to their comfort and their rituals.

This is the thought experiment that Pullman offers every Christian: If you could do it, would you save this man from his terrible death, or would you watch him die on the cross? And if you let him die in spite of this possibility, how would you differ from Judas ?

reception

Pullman, who had received threatening letters alleging blasphemy even before the book was published, was escorted by security guards when the book was unveiled in Oxford .

Pullman's (church) historical understanding was criticized by the Australian Jesuit and theology professor Gerald Glynn O'Collins in the book Philip Pullman's Jesus . O'Collins goes so far as to refer to Pullman himself as a scoundrel . Both books were juxtaposed by the Jesuit Brian B. McClorry, Director of Spiritual Exercises at St Beuno's Spirituality Center in North Wales, who preferred O'Collins in his rating.

Christopher Hitchens , the author of The Lord Is No Shepherd , had praised Pullman's His Dark Materials , but he was more critical of The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ . He accused Pullman of being a "Protestant atheist", of positively presenting the teachings of Jesus, but then of criticizing organized religion.

Diarmaid MacCulloch gave the book a positive review: “It draws a glance at the Jewish prophet of Nazareth who is both satirical and serious, who knows the canonized gospel, ancient apocrypha, modern critical commentary, and the wit and subtle inventiveness of a great storyteller brings together. "

The book is mentioned in Harnessing Chaos: The Bible in English Political Discourse since 1968 .

The original English edition of the book has also been translated into Catalan , Danish , German , French , Malayalam , Polish , Portuguese , Russian , Swedish , Slovenian and Spanish .

literature

Explanations and individual evidence

  1. ↑ In English the good man means 'the good (honest) man', but also the good (honest) person , s. Euree Song: Ascent and Descent of the Soul: This-sidedness and otherworldliness in Plotin's Ethics of Care , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (2009), ISBN 978-3-525-25290-1 , p. 78 . Scoundrel is an ancient name that goes back to the Scottish scunner and means 'a cowardly, worthless person' or 'a virtuous and dishonorable person'.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t The quoted is a free German translation of the English text.
  3. ↑ Mike Collett-White: Pullman risks Christian anger with Jesus novel , Reuters, March 28, 2010; Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  4. ↑ Gerald O'Collins: Philip Pullman's Jesus , Darton Longman and Todd (2010), ISBN 978-0-232-52806-0 .
  5. ↑ Brian B. McClorry (Thinking Faith): Philip Pullman's Jesus ; Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  6. ↑ Christopher Hitchens: In the Name of the Father, the Sons ... , The New York Times, July 9, 2010; Retrieved July 19, 2017.
  7. ^ Diarmaid MacCulloch: All Too Human , Literary Review, April 2010; Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  8. ↑ James G. Crossley: Harnessing Chaos: The Bible in English Political Discourse since 1968 . A&C Black, August 28, 2014, ISBN 978-0-567-65551-6 , p. 29.
  9. ↑ WorldCat: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. ; Retrieved July 20, 2017.