Pacific Africa and the Mile East, span- hing over 5.000 yeas, cary perhaps» ite mote weight universally speaking ban the to connries of crtaity inportant ie tureof the Unted States, But hat not the ‘ain problem ofthis ‘cua istry “Though the lst ine ofthe eto prt ace announces that thelr book “enplores sth people ave eal and why’ they have ead i tl, nthe moe than 1,00 pages that oto, suppor that sceron Isat era sinplsiesupertca erary primer, simed at eaders iho need tobe tld hat aibough today the tem ‘epi often Empujed io dre Nectar Hise Ss nag ted poems hat Kore vat san comentons and that ‘Goffey Chaer ented his best Known work, The Canterbury Ts (61385- 1400) on the theme of riage Cerrinly no one will arge ith these assertions, but thelr usefulness fr sme ne seeking fo understand what people have read and why thoy have read fein be quesioned. The synoptic tinlines tthe begining of each seton sre helpful mont of the et for his reader at east isnot PEE The greatest puzzle of all A.N. Wilson. ‘Tue Good Man Jesus AND THE SCOUNDREL CHRIST by Philip Pullman Canongate, £1499, pp. 245, ISBN 9781847678256 © 11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6685 ip Pullman's eilogy, ‘PHILIP! ‘ils Dark Materials, [PULLMAN| Is one the best works nee wien’ in English in my ie Tete, He is a truly great sca storyteller, and the details Icx of is mth, as well as the Fich gallery of ‘characters, lve forever in the reader's memory. It upset many religious readers, especially in America, ‘because of the fat thatthe central villainy of the Gobbler, chil-stealrs controlled by the Magisterium, are a Blake-inspired vision of CChureh Christians. (And rather prophetic picture of whats now revealed ona daily bass {nthe papers about the activities ofthe Roman Catholic eer), No reader of his tilogy will be surprised by the fact that in his latest book, in which Pullman retells the narratives 40 THE SPECTATOR 3 April 2010 fof the Gospels (apoayphal and canoni- fa), he departs from Clristian orthodoxy ina very Blakean direction. Jesus is the Deroie visionary who gets crucified for his Dold and liberating preaching. Christ is his rather sinister elder brother. In Pullman's version, he is the elder brother in the prodigal son (old St Joseph i the father) who resents the favour given tothe sling who has broken all the rules. Jesus is bor a a result of his 16year-ld mother, Mary, allowing fan ‘ange into her bedroom while her elder ly husband is absent. Christ isthe ‘religious ‘one who has yielded to all the temptations of Dostoevaky’s Grand Inquisitor. Lurking in the Garden where his brother's crucified body i stolen from the Tomb, ‘Christ’ — before its yet light — bumps into Mary Magdalen, and fells her that she must not touch him becuse he has not yet ascended to the Father. He thereby unlooses chain of superstitious beliefs about the resurrection, ‘As you would expect from Pullman, the cexercie is conducted with great skill On the back of the bookjacket are inscribed the ‘words, picked out in gold capitals, THIS 18 A STORY. The implication is that, since most ofthe book isa retelling of the aleady-exist- ent Gospel narratives, they are no more than ‘tories. The further implication, of course, is that Christianity i a myth, worked up by the “Magisterium, which has grossly distorted the revolutionary and simple teachings of that tragic prophet, Jesus. This, very broadly, was the view of Christian ity which was taught by many Christian divines when T studied theology at Oxford. It was sumed that the 19th-century Lives of Jesus, such as Renan’ though sentimental in appeal, had more or less the Fight idea — that a in ple Jewish prophet had had his words dis torted by Saint Paul and made ino a mystery cul for geniles. This Victorian View of things resurfaces in the life-vork of the great Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, Geza Vermes, whose Jesus the Jew is really Renan rechauffé Like many reasonable’ explanations, it leaves out of account all the great puzzles (historical and interpretative) of the Bible, Puilman has invented a character, called ‘Christ to survive the death of Jesus, and to promote Magisteriumtyle fake conso- lations — that we ean feed on Jesus in the Eucharist, oF that we shall survive death. ‘While not forgetting tha this is only a story, ‘and not a piece of theological propagan- 4a, one is bound to notice that Pullman — precisely beeause he is such a good stoy-tller has only exacerbated the unbelievers difi- cal ‘We all know that Pullman's ‘Christ is an invented character. Remove him, and you are left with the puzzle, Who did meet Mary ‘Ted Hughes is all the rage once again, viding erties trom nd the grave ‘of Magdala inthe Garden on the fist Easter Day? Who appearediothe Twelve thre times? ‘Who appeared (i the testimony of Paul wit ten only 20 yeas ater the event to over 500 people in Jerusalem ater the Crucifixion? Was ita phantom? Was it a fake? Were they ving? ‘Ouite possibly, of course, But then you have to wonder why those who concocted the fake were prepared to spend uncomfortable tives 8s missionaries, undergoing shipwrecks, per- secutions and stoning, preaching this illusion ‘@ ardently; and why or how they found the ‘courage 10 die heroic marti’ deaths defend> ing this tie”) if Pullman’s version provides no answer to this puzzle, nor does his ‘story’ explain how — perhaps as early as the 40s, only 2 decade after the departure of the cart ly Jesus, Christians had a hymn in which they proclaimed that at His name every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he was lord of all. IF you think about these matters calmly and rationally, the ‘apparently reasonable explanations — that the disciples, or St Paul, for some reason fr other invented Chrstianity in defiance fof Jesus's simple Jewish faith — gradu- Ally become less and less plausible, The Gospel according to Pullman, precisely because itis so skilfully constructed, wil prompt many readers to turn once more 10 Consider whether or not they should accept the apparently bizarre testimony ofthe early Christian witnesses, testimony which they repeat insted was. not snl on a Missing link Anita Brookner THE SHADOWS IN THE STREET Dy Susan il Chto Wins £1299 9.72 ISBN 9780701179977 © £10.39(plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 ‘ntimesofansietyor Confusion the most effective. palliative a good detective story. The requirement isthatasenseof justice be restored, and, paradoxically,’ given the fetional events portrayed, a much Gesired sense of order. ‘The effect is transitory but reliable Tks also necessary that the protagonist bbe a man of principle. Such a one is the www spectator co.uk ————