Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Jesus in Novels: Your Thoughts
I am thinking of revamping some aspects of my Jesus and the Gospels course. And I was considering ending the semester (next time I teach it) with a representation of Jesus found in a modern novel. What novels do you think would be particularly good for this? Either because it is a good piece of writing, or because it would stimulate conversation, or because it is a fun read, etc.?
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2 comments:
Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation is interesting, not least for the way he interweaves elements from the canonical and apocryphal gospels.
There is a book ABOUT all the novels whose plots feature the discovery of fictitious "new scrolls" that mention Jesus and challenge church dogma:
Secret Scrolls: Revelations from the Lost Gospel Novels by Robert M. Price
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Scrolls-Revelations-Gospel-Novels/dp/1610970756/ref=cm_wl_huc_item
Price's book mentions Kazantzakis' Last Temptation but does not devote a chapter to it, because K. did not mention the discovery of any additional ancient scrolls.
Aside from Kazantzakis' work, one might try The Prophet by Gibran, that has been translated into many languages, and even parodized in a little book titled The Profit.
There's also a true story about a psychiatrist who was treating three people in the same asylum who all thought they were Jesus Christ. The Three Christs of .... (I forget the rest of the title).
And speaking of people who think they are Jesus look up "Jerusalem syndrome."
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