Goodman Jesus
Pullman's Christ, what I liked:
- I liked the tongue in cheek analysis of the life of Christ.
- The attempt to arrive at a realistic sequence of events is fairly successful
- The naive Jesus with his passionate and instinctive way of doing things is juxtaposed by a more analytical, organised, careful Christ. By making this distinction, the need for both types of skills is high lighted when one is starting out a new organisation. Jesus here is the one with the passion, the idea, the vision of a 'Kingdom of Heaven', while Christ is the one with the skill for organisation, for marketing the Jesus - vision with 'miracles', for creating a careful documentation of the birth of the organisation. You cannot have only vision or only organisational skills for creating and running a large successful enterprise........both are vital for starting and sustaining it.
In the course of documenting the events relating to Jesus - as they unfold, Christ is guided at crucial stages by the enigmatic 'stranger'. From this perspective, it is more a modern day tale of a venture capitalist who emerges as a shadowy 'stranger', a likely dry -fruits merchant.
- I liked the simple, lucid recital- i can recommend it to my fifteen-year old son to read.
- I liked the way all the well known parables of Christianity are skilfully woven into the Jesus and Christ story - the tale of the taxes to be paid using the coins with the emporor's head, the way people are stopped from stoning the woman accused of committing adultery.
- What made me think was the part where Jesus is shown to have no attachments, no regard for his mother and brothers, for eg, at the feast where Jesus is asked to do something about the wine which was almost over, and he shouts at his mother..... but eventually finds enough wine for all the guests.
Is it necessary to withdraw from the world to find God?
What about the parable of Vishnu, where Narada finds that he is not the greatest devotee, but it is a poor farmer with a large family? The farmer is immersed fully in the interminable task of living his life but Vishnu thinks of him as being closest to him, since he finds the time to remember Vishnu at all times of his busy day.
So is salvation attained through isolation or through living and participating in life?
- I liked the tongue in cheek analysis of the life of Christ.
- The attempt to arrive at a realistic sequence of events is fairly successful
- The naive Jesus with his passionate and instinctive way of doing things is juxtaposed by a more analytical, organised, careful Christ. By making this distinction, the need for both types of skills is high lighted when one is starting out a new organisation. Jesus here is the one with the passion, the idea, the vision of a 'Kingdom of Heaven', while Christ is the one with the skill for organisation, for marketing the Jesus - vision with 'miracles', for creating a careful documentation of the birth of the organisation. You cannot have only vision or only organisational skills for creating and running a large successful enterprise........both are vital for starting and sustaining it.
In the course of documenting the events relating to Jesus - as they unfold, Christ is guided at crucial stages by the enigmatic 'stranger'. From this perspective, it is more a modern day tale of a venture capitalist who emerges as a shadowy 'stranger', a likely dry -fruits merchant.
- I liked the simple, lucid recital- i can recommend it to my fifteen-year old son to read.
- I liked the way all the well known parables of Christianity are skilfully woven into the Jesus and Christ story - the tale of the taxes to be paid using the coins with the emporor's head, the way people are stopped from stoning the woman accused of committing adultery.
- What made me think was the part where Jesus is shown to have no attachments, no regard for his mother and brothers, for eg, at the feast where Jesus is asked to do something about the wine which was almost over, and he shouts at his mother..... but eventually finds enough wine for all the guests.
Is it necessary to withdraw from the world to find God?
What about the parable of Vishnu, where Narada finds that he is not the greatest devotee, but it is a poor farmer with a large family? The farmer is immersed fully in the interminable task of living his life but Vishnu thinks of him as being closest to him, since he finds the time to remember Vishnu at all times of his busy day.
So is salvation attained through isolation or through living and participating in life?
3 comments:
Hey Usha, I've just started following your blog. Looks like interesting reading.
This particular title is quite a shocker, isn't it? If a book like this was written in India or west Asia, about characters that define Hindu or Islam faiths, the right-wing politics would have burnt the country down in weeks!!
I think it explores the story of Christ from where it has originated.....it may or may not be true, but the joy is in the speculation, as long as it doesn't cross any limits which can hurt others sentiments. This book is nowhere near such limits and it's true to the main Jesus story. In India also there are any number of Puranas about our very human gods and Demi gods which explore without being indecent.
I would assume then, that the current political discourse in the country is not very enlightened judging from the way Hussain, Taslima and A.K. Ramanujam were treated by both ends of the spectrum.
Just the use of the word 'scoundrel' as used here can have ignited passions and burnt down neighborhoods (and trains!) by the intellectually lumpen elements. Sad.
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