Books about Jesus and The Passion that are more "accessible "

Great Debates
1

Before I start my OP, I would ask that this thread not become mired in Witnessing. This is a threat asking questions about and discussing modern literature written with a very specific point in mind.

Last year I read The Shack.

Last night, in a nonstop marathon of about 5 hours of reading, I read The Man Who Met God In A Bar.

Both essentially discuss encounters with God in the modern world. The Shack is not the Passion per se, but instead explores an encounter with God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit in the present day (s.i.c.).

The Man Who Met God In A Bar is a modern day parable that is The Passion, and the few last years leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The Shack moved me philosophically, though I must admit that I detested the premise that this is a real life story not a novel. In Jr. High I read Go Ask Alice. Purportedly a real life diary. Ahh, not so. Now, whether The Shack truly occurred or not is the core question. Accepting it as truth requires the fundamental leap of faith. Did this occur? DID a murder occur? Was the journey into the cold snowy woods and the subsequent events the real result? I can accept that it’s a novel, a modern day parable. To me, it’s design is identical to that of The Man Who Met God In A Bar.

Also a modern day parable. It appears to me- having finished it 24 hours ago- that it is not intended to be taken as a true story but as a novel whose point is to modernize The Passion and the few years of the adult life of Jesus that led up to The Passion.

Both novels irk me. Here’s why. I’m 50. I don’t need the Golden Key Book of Jesus. I understand nuance and more to the point, if I am a spiritual person whose spiritual life includes embracing Jesus and the New Testament, then I don’t need modern day accessability to embrace those ideas and feelings.

It is somehow dismaying that The Shack was an insanely popular publication. The Man Who Met God In A Bar, not so muc in terms of volume of copies sold. I was touched by The Shack because of the level of thoughtful articulation of what are sometimes incredibly ethereal concepts. Fair enough. But enough of it is ham-handed that it left me feeling as though I’d been preached at hard and loud.

I wasn’t touched by The Man Who Met God In A Bar. I was faintly amused and thought it a clever bit.

I’m not sure that The Passion should be presented as a clever bit of artifice. Similarly, I’d be quite put off to find that a zany Mel Brooks-esque musical of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr was in the works. The movie Gandhi was not a laugh-fest.

The Shack wasn’t disrespectful, IMHO. The Man Who Met God In A Bar was.

Thoughts? Who’s read either of these? Who has read other modern parables that are basically more accessible tellings of The Passion ? How’d they sit with you?

ETA: Yeah, I’m posting this on Good Friday. After having the book on my nighttable for 3 months, I was moved to take The Man Who Met God In A Bar and read it yesterday. Why… I dunno

2

Not too “accessible,” not at all, but Robert Graves’ King Jesus is well worth the time to read.

3

If you like Sci-fi, try The Godhead Trilogy by James Morrow. Definitely a parody in characterizations but a fun read.

4

On that note, Michael Moorcock’s Behold the Man.

5

Is that his pen name or his porn name?

6

Behold the Man is very famous and all, but if Cartooniverse found The man who met God in a bar disrespectful (and didn’t like it for that reason?) … well, BtM is that in overdrive. Likewise Jim Crace’s Quarantine - another book about tortured souls who do stupid shit for no apparent reason (my biases may be showing there - but then again I couldn’t stand BtM for that reason even when I was an atheist)

To approach the question from left field, there’s a series by Dave Duncan which basically involves the transformation of an ordinary English man into a “Jesus” on another world - I’ll spoiler-box the title in case anyone’s currently reading it, because that’s kind of a big plot giveaway:

The Great Game series

The great thing about that approach is that it really freed the author to make the main character a real person - without all that “zomg I’m having to write dialog for JESUS!!!” issue that seems to freeze people up and turn most of the Jesus characterisations out there into Robo-Christs. And yet, the main character did authentically end up being the sort of man you could legitimately imagine choosing to die for a whole world, and people looking back on him later might plausibly characterise him as never doing wrong in his life (though he didn’t think that)

The best “straight” rendition of the Passion I’ve ever read is Dorothy Sayers’ The Man Born To Be King - dated and 40’s English though it may seem now. Most “Christian Fiction” is total tripe - I say this as a Christian, it’s glurge city out there - but Sayers was a real writer who understood how to do plot and characterisation without Whacking You Across The Head With The Point.

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Both, I think.

8

“The Shack” is told like a true story because THAT’S HOW FIRST-PERSON NOVELS ARE TOLD. I never heard there was any “Blair Witch”-like deliberate conceit that it was supposed to be based on or relate a true story.

It’s been on the stack of “Books I mean to read but just can’t get around to” for a couple of years. I bought William Paul Young’s new one “Cross Roads” today.

To the actual topic, I recommend Anthony Burgess’ “Man of Nazareth”- his novel written as he did the screenplay for NBC’s “Jesus of Nazareth”.

9

I do understand the concept of First Person narrative. I do.

My bone to pick is the Go Ask Alice syndrome. Presenting a First Person narrative as a true document. In both cases, they’re ficticious.

I must say that if The Shack is 100% truthful, I have a lot of work to do inside.

10

You might find The Davidson Affair (and its sequels) interesting.

11

The Shack is not supposed to be 100% truthful. I’ve never heard anything suggesting it was anything but a novel.