Books and Cooks August 1999

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

Our rating: 4.43 cups of tea!

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Discussion date: August 29, 1999, 7:00 PM

Discussion place: Thomas' place

Menu: Biblical food and wine: eggplant/lamb dish, . . .

From Amazon.com:
This is a skeptic's journey into the meaning of God and of human existence. At once an ironic rendering of the life of Christ and a beautiful novel, Saramago's tale has sparked intense discussion about the meaning of Christianity and the Church as an institution.

From Booklist , January 15, 1994:
As provocative as The Last Temptation of Christ and already as controversial in its native Portugal, this fictional life of Jesus is as haunting as a dream and as real as a baby's cry. From the opening scene, in which an angel, dressed as a beggar, comes to announce the birth of Jesus, to the last moment of Jesus' life when the voice of the Lord seems to mock him as Jesus' blood drips into a bowl, Saramago mixes magic, myth, and reality into a potent brew. Among the most eyebrow-raising depictions in the book is that of Mary Magdalene as a prostitute to whom Jesus surrenders his virginity in a scene that is both erotic and tender. More than his mistress, Mary becomes the catalyst that allows Jesus to see the world in a new way. With little paragraphing and no quotation marks, the text is at times difficult to follow. But there is method to Saramago's formlessness. This is a book that can't be read quickly. The typographical density forces us to reread sentences and conversations, and in the course of rereading, we find multiple levels of meaning in the narrative, leading us in turn to ponder the larger questions Saramago's tale elicits.

From Kirkus Reviews , October 1, 1993
Now making its US debut, a novel from noted Portuguese writer Saramago (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1990) that-- despite its provocative conclusions and sometimes irreverent tone- -is a profoundly different but no less significant life of Christ. Here, the Christian story is told from the point of view of Jesus, a young man very much of his time and place in spite of his great destiny. And it is this emphasis on Jesus's appreciation for the ordinary joys and virtues of human life--sexual love, family, nature, friendship, honor--that make the conflict between the desires of God, here indeed His father, and what He himself perceives to be earthly virtues, so tragic. All the familiar stories--the Annunciation, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Miracles, and the Crucifixion--are related with a nod to postmodern sensibilities, but they're secondary to Saramago's main purpose--to suggest that Jesus had to live and die as much for the benefit of God as for the Devil, both of whom appear in person. Saramago's God, who resembles a successful CEO, wants to use Jesus and the church He will found to expand His dominions; and when Jesus wants to know, ``How much death and suffering Your victory over other gods will cause?'' God answers with a long list of martyrs, wars of faith, and institutions like the Inquisition. Even the Devil, an ambivalent figure who often intervenes positively in Jesus's life, is moved to repentance, but God rejects his offer: ``Because I cannot exist without the evil you represent. Unless the Devil is the Devil, God cannot be God.'' Jesus goes on to His destiny, but with a caveat: in the hope of averting the bloodshed implicit in the founding of Christianity, he asks to be crucified as King of the Jews, not as the Son of God. Fiction that engages the mind as much as the spirit as, in eloquently supple prose, it seeks to understand faith.

Jose Saramago won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Nobel Prize Internet Archive keeps a collection of links and information about him.

The Books and Cooks The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Informal Reading Guide
(member-generated questions in no particular order -- coming after the meeting)

• Is this book purely blasphemous or satirical, or does it lay out coherent problems with Christianity? (Or, is it somewhere in between?)

• God, a variety of angels, and Satan make appearances in this book. Is it clear which ones were which? Particularly, at what point did you understand that Pastor was Satan?
  
• Were you satisfied with Saramago's answer to the question of why God "started" Christianity, when that brought a lot of suffering to the world as well?
  
• Which deviations from the standard story worked the best?
  
• There are a variety of narrative shifts in this book, including a few to first person. Any reactions to this?
  
• Did you like the use of the present tense? What effects did it have?
  
• How is the text a 'gospel according to Jesus Christ'?
  
• At the end of the story, when God appears and declares that Jesus is his beloved son, why does Jesus believe that he has been "tricked"? After all, he knew he was going to be crucified.
  
• Is this book blasphemous? (Note: The Vatican objected to Saramago's being awarded the Nobel Prize -- the Inquisition lives!)
  
• What did you like most about the book? What did you like least about the book?
  
• Does anyone know, of the stories related by Saramago about the life of Jesus that don't appear in the New Testament, are they told in other gospels that didn't make it into the canon or did he make them up himself?
  
• Do the people in the novel have free will?
  
• One of the (many) difficult issues to come to grips with in the Christian faith is the notion of Jesus as 'fully God' and 'fully man' during his time on earth. Did Saramago do a good job at exploring this dichotomy?
  
• How do you explain (or what is your opinion) of the problematic relationship between God and Satan, and between God and the other gods, as revealed in the conversation in the boat?
  

This Page Last Revised: November 21, 2000.