So Philip Pullman, he of The Golden Compass, is preparing to disgorge The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ into an Amazon shopping cart near you. It seems that Pullman’s contribution to something called the “Myth Series” is the earth-rending idea that there was a historical Jesus but only a mythical Christ—a fantasia of legends devised by the “church” to deify a Palestinian Jew in order to foist meatless Fridays upon the world.
Yes, that tired wheeze.
If you are offended at seeing the modifier “scoundrel” touching the proper noun “Christ,” Pullman couldn’t care less:
When one man said Christians would be upset to hear Christ referred to as a “scoundrel,” Pullman replied: “I knew it was a shocking thing to say, but no one has the right to live without being shocked. Nobody has to read this book … and no one has the right to stop me writing this book.”
Edgy, edgy stuff. Because no one has EVER posited the idea that the New Testament was a redacted collection of foundation documents collated by a gaggle of power-mad men in black.
Pullman may have hit on the one revolutionary idea that tosses Christianity onto the dust heap of blithering God-hype. Just like The Da Vinci Code did before The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity did before Holy Blood, Holy Grail did. Did.
March 29th, 2010 | 12:43 pm
Going to have to add a Pullman parody to the Gospel of Zacheus site now!
;)
March 29th, 2010 | 1:32 pm
Ah the signs of spring-
March Madness, and the secular fundamentalists’ yearly attempt to rain, as it were, on the Easter parade.
One wonders how much of this is animus over the fact that his novel turned movie, The Golden Compass, tanked, and that its sequels will not be made. The actor and renowned philosopher, Sam Elliot has already blamed the (Catholic) Church for the movie’s failure. Pullman may have thought hat he could pull a Rowlings, only to have his hopes crushed.
Never attribute to grandiose plotting what can be easily attributable to weaselly vindictiveness.
March 29th, 2010 | 1:37 pm
Pullman’s writings are funny. Golden Compass wasn’t half bad as fiction but once you get into the later books, it gets pretty ridiculous about siding with anyone (including the devil) and any myth and even eternal life (he seems to think that hell is other people so eternity with others would lead to boredom) to defeat a senile “god” and achieve the joy of nonexistence.
His writing are probably the best illustration of G K Chesterton’s comment that for critics of Christianity, any stick is good enough to beat it with — even if that stick holds up their own position.
March 29th, 2010 | 2:29 pm
It’s spring and that means its time to bash Christianity. It happens every year like clockwork. Sigh. I get so tired of it, especially since they rotate the same old, same old theories over and over again.
March 29th, 2010 | 3:11 pm
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March 29th, 2010 | 9:22 pm
I actually don’t particularly mind non-believers who think of Christ as a scoundrel. If you reject his claims then that’s the only logical conclusion (unless you think he’s crazy, which I just find to be insulting). It certainly makes a lot more sense than people who say “I believe that Jesus was a great man but I don’t believe he was divine.” That position requires Jesus to have been a liar.
But as with the other commenters it’s hard to see this coinciding with Easter as being anything other than a stunt.
March 29th, 2010 | 9:39 pm
“Edgy, edgy stuff”. LOL! I expect to see him on the Bill Maher show real soon.
March 30th, 2010 | 6:47 am
Gotta love religion. The moment anyone disagrees with a Christian’s “belief” they go on the attack..”Pullman, who has received angry letters from people accusing him of blasphemy even before the short novel hits the shelves, was accompanied by security guards to the Oxford event to publicize his book”. Why can’t atheist’s beliefs be respected without fear of vindictive recourse?
March 30th, 2010 | 10:22 am
Gotta love atheism. The moment anyone defends a Christian’s “belief” (on a Christian-oriented blog – who’d have thought it would happen there?) they go on the attack. Pullman, who has never been physically attacked once despite a series of novels depicting the Church and Christianity as evil entities to be destroyed, will be accompanied by security guards to the Oxford event to publicize his book in an effort to appear the helpless victim of violent Christian nutjobs. Why can’t the defense of Christian beliefs (on a Christian-oriented blog) be respected without fear of vindictive recourse?
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