Jesus on the back of a polar bear? Pullman to present his own “Story of Jesus”

Depending on who you speak to some things are better left untouched, especially when it comes to something as sacrosanct as the Gospels. Speak to author Philip Pullman however, and you’ll discover a man who’s set on reworking the writings of the Gospels and presenting his own version of the life of Jesus, in an astonishing new work entitled The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ (Can you hear the alarm bells sounding already? Me too but read on)

Pullman, best known for the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, may look like he’s setting himself up to ruffle a good few Christian feathers, but according to him he has good reason to (aside from more fame and fortune):

“By the time the gospels were being written, Paul had already begun to transform the story of Jesus into something altogether new and extraordinary, and some of his version influenced what the gospel writers put in theirs. Paul was a literary and imaginative genius of the first order who has probably had more influence on the history of the world than any other human being, Jesus certainly included. I believe this is a pity … The story I tell comes out of the tension within the dual nature of Jesus Christ, but what I do with it is my responsibility alone. Parts of it read like a novel, parts like a history, and parts like a fairy tale; I wanted it to be like that because it is, among other things, a story about how stories become stories.”

So a modern-day retelling of the story of Jesus? I guess I could buy into such a thing, if only for the sake of curiosity, but someone who really has bought into it is Canongate Books, who have secured the world rights to The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Here’s what Canongate’s Jamie Byng had to say:

Philip Pullman has written a book of genuine importance, a radical and ingenious retelling of the life of Jesus that demystifies and illuminates this most famous and influential of stories. It strips Christianity bare, exposes the Gospels to a new light and succeeds brilliantly as a work of literature because it is convincing, thought-provoking, profoundly moving and beautifully nuanced throughout. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ throws down a challenge and does what all great books do: make the reader ask questions.

In timely fashion Canongate will be publishing The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ in the UK for Easter 2010 as part of their Myths series (publication will also be licensed to various other publishers around the world), so we don’t have long to wait to see how big a can of worms this is going to open. We can only hope and pray that Pullman doesn’t have Jesus hitching a ride on the back of a polar bear at any point, or we’re all in even bigger trouble.