The LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST

Rating:
Summary: At times compelling; at other times tedious (revised review)
Review: For the liberties that Kazantzakis has taken with the plot, the novel still remains surprisingly faithful to the Gospels. The Christ of this novel, however, is not quite as admirable as the original. Perhaps this is only to be expected as Kazantzakis has explored the tortured psychology of a very human Christ. Unfortunately, at times, Christ appears almost schizophrenic. (Read the novel and you'll see what I mean!)

In any case, the Christ of the novel, highlights the deficiencies of the Gospel Christ, of Judaism and consequently of Christianity. Christ's obsession with hell and death is distasteful and disappointing. More seriously, perfect examples of the nilhistic core of religion (as identifed by Nietzsche) are abundant in the text -- many characters have a 'holy' deathwish and the whole novel persistently degrades this life and this earth for the next and for heaven. Also, there is an equivocation between truth and lies that is disturbing to say the least.

In contrast to all of this, earthly characters like Zebedee and Judas come out with great lines and are often more convincing than Jesus. The novelist has made something great of the character of Judas, for which I applaud him.

As the book held my interest enough for me to read to the end, I awarded it a 3, rather than a 2. After all, Kazantzakis should be lauded for taking on such a grand topic with such audacity.

I should mention that the novel is also diabolically and hilariously sexist.

The ending was a disappointment. The novel raises more questions than answers. I found it to be refreshingly doubt-inspiring which I doubt was the intention. It often serves as a damning critique of the theology it presents. Make of that what you will. Two plus two make four.

Rating:
Summary: Mists of Avalon is to Arthur legend as Last Temptation is...
Review: ...to the Gospels. If one has no knowledge of the Gospels coming in to this book, it would not be a problem, as Kazantzakis skillfully incorporates many of the stories and parables of Jesus. However, he adds some new twists to characters like his mother Mary, and Judas, etc. I achieved a real sense of his Apostles as peasants and as true "common men" who were uncertain about whether this was the Messiah that the Hebrew Scriptures spoke of. It was a little long working up to the crucifixion, but the last 100 pages were extremely interesting as one became witness to the human vs. divine struggle of Kazantzaki's Christ. This book is a good fictional account for those wellversed in the New Testament, or for those whose experience with the Gospels has been limited. Negative comments: The review of the Gospel stories was too tedious for me, and, for a fictional Jesus, I enjoyed Jose Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ much more than this. I am biased, however, as I have read the New Testament through and through.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT IF...
Review: The last temptation... Yes, it was the last temptation. Christ, as all of us, had a choice. He could turn left or he could turn right. When he makes his choice what happens to us? How does it affect us and how does it affect our future? Was he right when he made his choice? How difficult was it to make the choice? What did he feel? What was the temptation?

All these questions and many more I asked myself for years. I have to make choices every day. How difficult is it for me? Am I right making my choices? What are my temptations? Can I answer all that?

Nikos Kazantzakis selected a very difficult field when he chose to answer all these questions. How can you? But he did give us a great version of the possible answers. The book is full of knowledge, ideas and imagination, not counting one of the best writings ever created. My thumbs are up. I loved it and so would you.

Rating:
Summary: MEMORIES WITH STAYING POWER
Review: It has been slightly over 40 years since I "discovered" THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST which, as an aside, brought me to so many other of Nikos Kazantzakis' works. I have read a great number of books since then, many of which I don't remember. This book made such an impression on me that I still carry images from it with me today, over 40 years later.

Since these particular impressions are so strong, I must have felt that they were key to Kazantzakis' message. Therefore, what I remember and how I remember it follows.

First of all, I remember Jesus as a young man who already knew that God had a plan for him, and that God's plan involved a lot of suffering. Jesus had other ideas, and was trying to anger God so that God would find someone more worthy to bear all that suffering. In an early chapter, Jesus, in attempt to be found unworthy, was working for the Romans making crosses for crucifixions. He figured that there was no way God would choose as his symbol on earth a cross maker. As we kinow, God had other ideas.

Next is my memory of the disciples. According to Kazantzakis, eleven of them were what we, today, would call wimps. The twelfth, however, was cut out of a different cloth. He was a big, strong, red-haired and red-bearded man of great emotional and physical strength. When the time came for Jesus to be betrayed, he called Judas aside from the others and told him that he, Judas, was the only one of the twelve who had the strength of character to take the scorn and abuse that would be heaped upon him for his seeming act of betrayal. Judas argued that he didn't want to betray Jesus to the Romans, but Jesus told him that it had to happen, and that only he, Judas, could be relied on to take the role of betrayer. This, along with Jesus' cross making earlier in his life are certainly at odds with the Story as we know it, but they are part of Kazantzakis' approach which humanizes Jesus.

My last memory is of the Final Temptation which came in the form of a vision that came to Jesus after he had been nailed to the cross. I won't describe the vision here. It should be read in Kazantzakis' own words for maximum impact on the reader.

In outline form, Kazantzakis' book follows the Gospels but differs significantly in the details. I know that many religious authorities feel that the book is blasphemous, but, for me, the humanization of Jesus and his suffering make his martyrdom much more meaningful.

For many of you who have read the novel more recently, it will probably be tempting to correct some of my details. I can only say that the above is how I remember the novel, and that it is those memories which make it such a great novel to me.

Rating:
Summary: Wow...
Review: If I had to choose one book that I could marry, if it was not a book but a human, it might well be The Last Temptation of Christ.
Random thought, I know, but I can't truly express how much this book does mean to me.
The book is an unconventional look at the story of Jesus as an allegory for human ascension to a higher consciousness, or, as the Afterward by P.A. Bien terms it, the transmutation of matter into Spirit. Nikos Kazantzakis was, at times, passionately interested in Marxism, Buddhism, Greek mythology, and then Christianity, and all of these elements come out in this book. It is not only a telling of the gospels, it is a telling of the gospels shaped by the author's personal religious, philosophical, and even political beliefs. People coming to The Last Temptation of Christ expecting a traditional Passion narrative are likely to be sorely disappointed.
It may be hard for both traditional Christians and Atheists to approach this book. The former are afraid of heresy and the latter are afraid of celebrations of a God they're sick of having to hear about. Trust me, I know how frustrating it is, I was an Atheist once too. This culture is too infested with references to God. But this is not JUST a Christian story.
You can't take this book literally. You can't look at the word "God" and think only of God, or see the word "Christ" and think only of Christ, or the word "woman" and think only of women, or the word "Pharisee" and think only of a Jewish sect in first-century Roman occupied Palestine.
As the an angel says himself in this book, the Truth of God is not the truth of man. DO NOT take this book word for word because you will be disappointed in or offended by something. For instance, this book is sexist. I'm sorry, but it is. The women are portrayed unsatisfactorily, almost interchangably, and are concerned solely with the body and not the Spirit that is the idealized Freedom in this novel. As a woman who shares many religious views in common with Kazantzakis, this would be offensive as a statement. But I love this book. It is not about its individuals issues or its views on God or man.
It's about the language and the Love behind it, and how pure and passionate and potent the words are, how full of Spirit. Kazantzakis always has the right words to invoke a feeling, while also provoking thought, and, for those of us who believe in it, something even deeper and stronger than that.
It would be a gross understatement to say that Kazantzakis's portrait of Christ is compassionate. He clearly loves Christ with an undescribable passion, while also assuring us of his constant suffering, trials, and (yes) occasional sins.
No, this is not in line with a lot in the gospels. That is not the point. This is as much a Buddhist story or a Greek story as it is a Christian story, and the author does not present his ultimate conclusions as anything but that, HIS ultimate conclusions.
The book isn't preachy, the author does not seem to even take the reader into account at times. It is solely a love letter from him to God, and, of course, to the strength and unlimited possibility of man.
The only thing that I wasn't in love with was the ending. It was needed, but it dragged on too long.
But the last two sentences of the book redeemed that all.
(And the pun is somewhat intended with the allusion to redemption.)
One more thing: this book isn't very contemporary. It's dramatic, even baroque, and shamelessly plays on raw emotion. If you are expecting a witty, self-conscious, rational narration, you won't get it here. For those unmoved by such decadant displays of pathos as in this novel, I suggest you move on.

Rating:
Summary: Very entrancing ,but not really a spiritual plus
Review: 3/8/03 The publicity given to the movie "The Last Temptation of Christ" (It was a movie rejected by the Catholic church and had its share of protestors outside of the movie theatres)led me to see the movie(when it was made a VCR) (I saw the movie(the VCR) with more clarity after reading the book.Nikos Kazantzakis 's book is not done justice in the movie,but in the book as you follow his fictious account of Christ within his village as a child ..through to his struggles as a young man who doesn't want to follow the prophecy given of him as an infant to his acceptance at 30(his ministry was ages 30-33) takes you to the question(and plot) "How would his life had been affected had he not accepted his 'yoke'?"and at the end returns you to 'his crucifiction and death'..The more I read the more I returned to previous pages read to understand a fiction drawn away from 'the facts'(The Bible).The book doesn't take you away from Christ as described in the Bible "As The Word", but it does lead you more away from his personus as a guide ,to the Bible with his parables as a guide.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping, Powerful, Hypnotic
Review: Kazantzakis' most controversial novel explores the humanity and
struggles of the Christ in ways the Bible merely implies & intimates. Every aspect of the New Testament version explodes into gripping passionate emotional inner turmoil which you know is leading up to something BIG ... The novel is extremely well written, every character is human, believable and has an individual personality of which aspects are magnified. The battle of the spirit is ever present. You identify with the torment and future possibilities. It is every person's struggle at some point in his or her life. The book is rich in detail and description which making you feel you are living in that era. The outcome is inevitable but the drama and intensity is enormous and spell-binding! Erika B.

Rating:
Summary: From Mombasa to Miami, It Is Lovely.
Review: Like combing a Greek moustache -- troublesome, hairy, ultimately beautiful if you're into this sort of thing.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted to get into it, but I couldn't.
Review: A stand up comic once said "you know what was best about the movie? NO READING!!!!" I love reading, but when it came to this book, I just couldn't get into it at all. It just dragged on. The movie dragged on as well, but at least the movie was somewhat interesting. I gave it a fair chance though, but I just couldn't get into it, so obviously it's not for everybody.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Temptation
Review: For everyone who believes in some kind of God, but doesn't know why,or how...

This book will blow your mind away.