Rating: 
Summary: The atheist's bible
Review: Jose Saramago's "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ" does not need any reviews. The author already has a Nobel prize for literature and, if what I heard last week from a well informed source is correct, the Vatican has put the book on its "no-no" list and the author was induced to move from conservative Portugal to more liberal Spain. Need any open-minded author (or reader) better recommendations? Certainly not. And it is much better reading than Bertrand Russell's "Why I am not a Christian" (which, more correctly, should have been "Why I am an atheist"). The "Gospel..." is a readable story and an esthetic, free-flowing, beautifully written parable on the life of J.C. which slowly but surely, first in between the lines and later with gradually increasing gusto, condemns theism totally and absolutely. This indeed has been done more efficiently before in "howlers" written by British schoolboys: "Faith is when you believe something you know is not true..." but for those inclined to read good books rather than howlers the "Gospel..." will do much better. Warmly recommended to Christians, Jews, Moslems and all other theists and non-theists (for that matter).
Rating:
Summary: A mind-blowing work of genius
Review: "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" is going to offend a lot of people and one can understand on reading it why it sent the Vatican into a terminal fit and caused Saramago's excommunication by the Church. Taken on its merits, it's an awesome work of scholarship by a writer with a deep knowledge of the life of Christ, Christian and Jewish theology and biblical literature. Saramago gives us a Christ that is all too fallible; he's human, after all, as well as divine; a Joseph whose sin of omission in saving his own child from Herod's assassins while failing to warn other parents of the imminent slaughter of the innocents was expiated by his own death on a cross that foreshadowed the death son; a Mary who doubted her son's divinity, and a Mary Magdalene who relieved Jesus of his virginity and remained totally faithfully to him afterwards, bodily and spiritually, up to the end. Even more disturbing for some readers will be Saramago's depiction of God as a master manipulator, pulling the strings behind the scenes, needing the devil as a foil for his own glory because he knows that without the devil, his glory is diminished. What kind of God is this? One can't help but wonder, while reading this book, what was Saramago trying to say to us? Is the book a testimony to his own cynicism and atheism, or does Saramago believe in God and Jesus Christ in spite of himself? Because his subject, Jesus as Man/God, comes out as eminently sympathetic, likeable, sometimes irritating, always fascinating; unlike the remote, other-worldly Jesus of Sunday school, Saramago's Jesus is someone we can relate to. And Saramago's God echoes the question all of us have asked from time to time -- how can a benevolent God create a world in which the innocent are allowed to suffer? It's Saramago's suggestion that perhaps God himself can't answer that one, that may disturb so many readers of this book. Saramago's writing style has been called convoluted, but it wasn't difficult at all for this reader; his paragraphs may go on for pages, but he writes with a sweep and flow that wraps the reader up and carries him or her right along with the narrative. "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" is totally enveloping; one turns the final page and emerges slightly dazed at having been through a reading experience that blows both the mind and the senses.
Rating:
Summary: Fresh air
Review: Your other reviewers don't get it.
Saramago is an atheist lefty who enjoys lambasting the preposterousness of the Jesus story but makes of his reworking of it a love story, fable of tyranny, exploration of the forces bringing a religion into being, and commentary on the barely human existence of the poor around 0 BCE, as well as (and much more so than) a bit of Christianity-knocking. The miracles are of the same stuff as Portugal drifting off to take a tour of the Atlantic in "The Stone Raft" or the whole world going blind in "Blindness", they are lightly-weighted metaphor, candid tricks (I the author can do this, and you can enjoy or hate it, as you please, if you enter this lengthy sentence I promise I will break many other rules but thoroughly entertain you with novel conflations of the great and the small, the dire and the hilarious, so as to challenge your perceptions of great, small, dire, etc).
To find this treatment of Jesus "blasphemous" is funny, we may be thankful that most of civilization finds blasphemy as quaint as Baal and other vicious antique gods, but it is also scary, America the secular state is still very much under attack, and freedom of-and from- religion are hardly assured. The Inquisition and the awful Hibernian royalty of Saramago's "Baltasar and Blimunda" are mocked by the author so that we laugh at the horrendous and ridiculous antics of tyrants and villainous monks that so appall us. In his Gospel "liberated" from Matthew, Mark and the other incriminants, Saramago loves his very fallible Jesus and all the Mary's, mocks and mourns everything from our credulity and slavery to religion to even our notion of what is funny, and has a heck of a good time doing it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent view of Jesus life according to Saramago...
Review: I love Saramago's writing, it was my first book from this author. 'The gospel according to Jesus Christ' is just wonderful, I am catholic and think that anyone no matter what's their religion should buy it, in no way this book could change my point of view, but definitely got me thinking and wondering the Jesus that we all know. Many won't read it and that would be a shame; you just have to take it for what it is, a novel. The famous conversation between Jesus, God and the Devil was very good, but highly overrated, I liked the way Jesus questions his 'father' and demanded answers about his life, most importantly the fact that he was destined to die crucified like his father Joseph 'The carpenter'. The way José Saramago portrayed Jesus as a human being just like us, worried about earthly things but equally sensitive of life's issues, was pretty amazing. I personally found weird reading a Jesus in love. The end of the book was perfect, simple but at the same time shocking. 'The gospel according to Jesus Christ' is so good that you would read it again and again and every time you can be sure you'll find something new and great.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult Novel Challenges Faith, But Can't Defeat It
Review: As a practicing Roman Catholic, I approached this book with trepidation and unease, but a sense of curiosity at what I thought would be an intelligent challenge to the Christian faith. That it is. Unfortunately, for an author of such intelligence and erudition, Saramago employs old, time-worn arguments to build his case against God, not Jesus (make no mistake, in this novel Saramago is aiming for the top of the pyramid, he's just using the Son as a means to an end). But his weapons are as old as this material, they are simply boxed up in a fancy literary package. It is difficult to criticize Saramago's work. He is obviously a gifted writer, with a remarkably sharp eye. He hacks away at the core of man's frail soul with deft strokes. A master satirist, the Nobel Laureate and atheist seems to subscribe to the Freudian idea that God and religion are an illusion we create to satisfy human needs and urges. In all of the work I've read, not just this novel, our religious impulses are made to seem ridiculous and weak. But the skill with which he wields his words, even in translation, demands some respect. My three stars are on the basis of literary prowess and expressed ideas with scathing lucidity. There are several blasphemous scenes and suggestions in Saramago's novel. These run the gauntlet from Jesus' loss of his virginity to Mary Magdalene (the most scandalous) to the devil being named 'Pastor' to Joseph's weird death by crucifixion before Jesus' own. These are obviously offensive, but deliberately so, and in my opinion not worth much protesting. They are based on nothing other than Saramago's unbelieving imagination and are obvious efforts to get under the skin of Christians. My own suggestion is not to take the bait. These make the effect of the novel seem as though it's merely someone else's story, some guy with Jesus' name. They are of little consequence. The author's truly dangerous, though somewhat daring, work is in the large dialogue towards the end between Jesus, God and the devil in a boat on the sea, and in the very final paragraph when Saramago twists the words of Jesus on the cross to his own ends. Without revealing the meat of these scenes, which form the true core of this bitter novel, Saramago essentially resorts to the tried and true argument that points fervently to the blood that has been shed over the centuries 'in the name of God'. Christians may find themselves sighing in frustration to hear the Crusades and the Inquisition incurred yet again as examples of the damage religion causes. Saramago takes particular glee in body counts in the name of Christianity. What you never hear such nonbelievers counting are the number of people comforted by faith, the number of souls made clean and saved, which is too high to quantify as it is. Much less the tremendous contributions to culture, art, science, etc. of Christians across the centuries, as my brother suggested to me. I recently heard a scholar refer to Melville's Ahab, who, in his bitterness towards God, utters this powerful line: 'Who's to doom, when the Judge himself is dragged to the bar?' This man went on to suggest that unbelieving men have a tendency to put God on trial, because if God's on trial, they are not. It's easy to decide that God is to blame for the failures of man. You just wouldn't expect a Nobel laureate to reach such a convenient and overdone conclusion.
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Summary: A Very Thought Provoking Look at the Life of Jesus
Review: Some topics always provoke controversy even though they shouldn't. Religion and religious convictions are one. If one has faith, then that faith, by its very definition, should be able to withstand a work of fiction even though that work of fiction is very well written. Jose Saramago's THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST has, I think, provoked much more controversy-and condemnation-than it ever should have. But the very fact that it has, I think, is testament to its greatness and its ability to provoke thought. I think there is much to admire in this beautiful book...and it is quite beautiful. The prose is lyrical and poetic and, at times, magical and heartbreaking. People who say Saramago is "difficult reading" may just not like his style of writing. The only punctuation he uses are commas and periods and his sentences and paragraphs go on for pages and pages and pages. Saramago tells his stories in torrents of words...wonderful words...and if a reader lets himself get caught up in those words, they carry him along, effortlessly, through the book. Saramago is far too good a writer to be "difficult." He's so good-a definite master-that his writing appears to be effortless. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST tells the story of Christ from Christ's own point of view. This causes him to be supremely human, something that is missing from most other accounts of Christ's life. Jesus, in this book, is a fully realized human being, one who has desires and temptations, one who sometimes fails and one who, above all, questions his life and its meaning and even comes to doubt Judaism and its intense focus on sacrifice and suffering. Saramago, himself, has said that he writes to understand and to question and so, it makes sense, at least to me, that he would question the institution of organized religion and the gospels in this book. I'm Catholic and the book only deepened my faith; I wasn't in the slightest bit offended by it. I do think, however, that some more fundamentalist Christians might be offended and perhaps they should simply skip this book and read something else, instead. In THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST, Saramago lavishes much empathy on Jesus as a fellow human being who is filled with doubts and suffering. The author's view of Jesus and his contemporaries is quite compassionate and almost tender. I don't know how people can object to Jesus' love for Mary Magdalene; Saramago portrays this love as very sincere and very deep. One can see that, above all, Saramago was trying to understand how Christ felt, not as God or as the son of God, but as a man, a man who lived as a human being and interacted with his fellow human beings. Saramago is not, however, so generous and compassionate in his portrayal of God. Saramago's God is a vengeful one, one who causes the men He created to sin and then punishes that sin without mercy. In fact, in this book, Jesus doesn't choose to become a martyr and the salvation of all mankind; he is tricked into it by God, Himself. There are two lovely set pieces in which we can see just how much Saramago questions God's mercy: one in the desert and another that occurs years later in a boat surrounded by fog. In those set pieces, God goes to any length to trick Jesus into becoming a martyr so that He, God, can widen His realm and become, not only the God of the Jews, but the God of all mankind. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST is the most compassionate, human and profound look at the life of Jesus I have ever encountered, surpassing even Nikos Kazantzakis's THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST. I found this book very human and very compassionate and both heartbreaking and healing as well. I would definitely recommend THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS CHRIST to anyone who would not be offended by a look at Christ that questions, but not necessarily contradicts, that found in the gospels of the bible.
Rating:
Summary: Jesus from another perspective
Review: This novel has to be one of the best books I have ever read in my life!
Saramago's writting is fantastic! The content of this novel will definetely amaze you. I found myself saying out loud !wooowwwww!!! so many times when i was reading it.
You will definetely enjoy this book. This novel is by far one of the best ones out there.
5 stars to José Saramago.
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Summary: OF GLITTERING DUST, GUILT AND SACRIFICE
Review: Ever wondered what Jesus was really like, as a kid, a teenager, a young man? Portuguese writer Saramago did, and by making use of his fertile imagination and his undisputable writing skills, he wrote this book. The first thing to keep in mind while reading the "Gospel" is that this is a NOVEL, a work of fiction. If you are a catholic and/or a believer, be prepared; some readers may be shocked and outraged with some of the stuff they'll find in here. Although Saramago's prose is slow and difficult at times, (A sentence and a comma, another sentence, another comma, an so on), this book is very well worth your time. Bottom line: If you are a grown up, or think like one, you can't go wrong with "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ". Very highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: An alternate perspective that magnifies irreverence
Review: Saramago deftly embraces historical facts, myth and reality and juggles them in this extraordinarily fictitious account of Jesus Christ. The novel is an in-depth psychological portrait of a savior who possesses a touch of humanity so much more substantial than the Bible claims. Jesus who is at once the Son of God, the beginning and the end, men's destiny, and a young man of the earth is an interweaving of letters, irony, spirituality, irreverence, humanity, and foible. The novel hinges on the fact that Jesus' father, Joseph of Nazareth, out of cowardice and selfishness of the heart, failed to alert the parents that King Herod had issued a decree to kill boys under the age of 3. He could have spared the lives of 27 children had he spoken up. Joseph felt the scruple of running off to save his own son but had forfeited the lives of others. The guilt he felt was exactly guilt a man may feel without having sinned or committed the actual crime himself. It was the sin of omission. To assuage his remorse that incessantly plagued him, Joseph, as he truly believed he was acting out of his own accord and obeying God's will, made strenuous effort to beget more and more children to compensate for the 27 lives. When Jesus learned about Joseph's crime, Jesus felt poignant for his father but asserted that his father was to blame for the deaths of innocent children. Joseph's sin was illustrated to full actuality as Jesus envisaged infants dying in perfect innocence and parents who had done nothing wrong. Jesus was embittered and broken at the fact that never was a man more guilty than his own father, who had sinned to save his life. Joseph's death, which was rather dramatic and undeserving, bore the scruple of his own conscience and arose the question of what awaited him after death. Would it be possible than everything ended with death? What would happen to the life's sorrow and sufferings, especially the sufferings right before the last breath? What about the memory if time is such an undulating surface than can only be accessed by memory, would memory of such suffering linger at least for a short period of time? Saramago has repeatedly made claims to explore the notion of after-death and its correlation to human existence throughout the novel. Jesus under Saramago's pen is not as perfect, impure, and righteous as the Bible portraits him to be. One sees that the savior succumbs to temptation, to not receiving the cup of death, to choose to remain on earth and not to be crowned with glory. The most provocative and controversial aspect of the book is when Jesus intervened the stoning of an adulteress, which brought him to awareness that he was living in sin with Mary Magdalene, and thus living in defiance to God's will. The sin of adultery (sexual immorality as the Bible claims) brought Jesus into open conflict with the observed law. The book is not deprived of interesting dialogues in spite of the serious overtones of theology. My favorite is the conversation in which the Devil pleaded with God to admit him into the kingdom. God curtly denied the request asserting than the good God represented would cease to exist without the evil Devil represented. In regard to the meaning of human existence and the pursuit of holiness, Saramago does leave us with an enlightening thought (with such sober dignity) that the soul, in order to be able to boast of a clean and blameless body, has burdened itself with sadness, envy and impurity. 2004 (8)
Rating:
Summary: Enforce your faith and enjoy great writings
Review: Yes, after reading it you enforce your faith in God only if you are really a beleaver. I couldn't leave it as soon as I take it because the vision of Jesus with a real human life, falling in love, looking for answers, etc is very interesting. Most important is to know that we have the right to think in different ways about the life of Christ, not only the way that is presented to us the Bible. Jesus is going to be now and for ever the great man that ever lived in earth and other points of view only gives him more greatness and glory (even though the goal of God is the one presented by Saramago here). Read this book like if you were the one that wrote it and you will be wondered with the result, and the end you will conclude that Jesus has more reasons to be loved.
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