The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful reading up to page 305, then...
Review: I am a believer raised in the Roman Catholic tradition. However I am also a History scholar, although this is not strictly my field of expertise, and I have always know there is a difference between the Christ of the Gospels and the real man who walked this Earth 2000 years ago.
In these days I am trying to explore more of the human side of Jesus, and reading books about the matter. This is my first one and, as I said in the title I found it wonderful up to a certain point, when something happens which ruins, in my modest opinion, everything.
I was not scandalized by Mary not being a virgin and I loved the idea of Jesus being in love with Mary Magdalene and living with her. The greatest truth of Christ's teaching is Love, and I find nothing wrong in Him sharing it with a woman, especially because, He was the Son Of God made man, which include, as this book beautifully points out, experiencing all the weaknesses, the doubts, the fears, the temptations we poor mortals experience in our life. In truth I am one of those believing Jesus and Magdalene were married ...but this is another story.
However, what I cannot accept is the author's portrait of God and the reasons for He decided to generate a son. This God behave like a spoiled child. He behave like the most selfish man you can think of. He generated His Son just because Jesus' death will bring further glory to Him, God, no matter how much sufferance "this great plan of grandeur" will cause to His son or mankind. He is an egoist, someone nobody in his or her mind would ever worship because He thinks only about Himself...
This is not the God I believe in and Saramago's description offends me and, ultimately Jesus' Christ's sacrifice, so, no matter how engaging the book is, how much I enjoyed reading it and how much challenging but in the end satisfactory was to master his peculiar style (especially if, like me, you had to write it in a language which is not your own- I am Italian but I read it in English), I cannot give it more than 3 stars...and it is a real pity, for up to page 305 I would have given it 10 stars...


Rating:
Summary: Hmmm The Gospel According to Jesus Christ???
Review: If this is the first book someone picks up and reads about Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and think this is how He was, it is sad that Jesus is being "portrayed" as a sexual being with earthly and worldly priorities thrown in, the complete opposite was true of Jesus. He came here to teach, and eventually died on a cross that we might gain forgiveness for sins that could not be forgiven otherwise and those were His priorities. It's sad the author wasn't more sensitive in a Christian way and wrote of Jesus love for all. Jesus was a man without sin so it is most important for people to know Jesus did truly love Mary Magdalene but never in the sense of a sexual way, but loving her so much more than this, to lead her to turn away from her life of sin and prostitution and become what God intended for her to be.
Angie

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book--for everyone to read
Review: I am usually wary of Nobel-prize winners, as their books tend to be dense and hard to read. However, Saramago is truly a master of words, as well as a great storyteller. The first book I read by Saramago was "Blindness." It was a great book--Saramago told a great story--and I would pick this book over the TV remote control. I loved it so much that I bought 3 other books by Saramago. Gospel is one of them. Again, I was not disappointed. I love books that tell a great story while at the same time make you think. This book is certainly one of the best!

Rating:
Summary: Cellebrating life
Review: José Saramago is one of the all-time greatest writers of portuguese language, along with Machado de Assis and Guimarães Rosa. He deservedly won the Nobel Prize a few years ago, the first portuguese-language writer to achieve such honor. Saramago has a unique style of writing, with very long sentences, fast dialogues inserted in the middle of the phrases, little punctuation and a fluid narrative. And yet, it's not difficult to read Saramago, at least not in his original language.

After reading "Baltazar and Blimunda" ("O memorial do convento", original title), I went after everything fictional Saramago has written. In my opinion, his imagination, his talent to write prose and his skills at telling a story leave the reader no option but to be completely absorbed by the letters, the words, the paragraphs and the pages. "The gospel according to Jesus Christ" ("O evengelho segundo Jesus Cristo", original title) is another example of how good and original Saramago can be.

Saramago, a declared atheist, provides us, mere mortals, with a different view of Jesus' life. For example, Mel Gibson's movie "The passion of the Christ", chose to portrait Jesus' death, with graphic violence, torturing scenes, and many tears - and that's the usual nowadays association; people relate to violence, to dualism and manicheism. "The gospel according to Jesus Christ", instead, is Saramago's story of what Jesus' life could have been. The book portraits Jesus as a very common human being, literally burdened by a covenant with God. Philosophical and theological discussions are present in every page, not in a mechanical, boring way, but always with witty, inteligent remarks by the author. The dualism is still present, but it leaves room to discussion.

"The gospel according to Jesus Christ" is a polemic, different work, but a mandatory reading nonetheless.

Grade 9.4/10


Rating:
Summary: Jesus from another perspective
Review: This novel contains an intensive deep story about Jesus Christ life seen form another perspective different form the Bible. He writtes about the perspective of God about Jesus Christ as well.
Saramago's writting is neat and well defined. Its a novel that will keep u sticked to the book since the beginning until the end. A good reading.