Rating: 
Summary: Bold allegory of conflict between faith and scientific doubt
Review: The blurb on the back cover of the Carrol & Graf edition is off the mark: BEHOLD THE MAN is hardly "an hilarious fantasy-adventure", nor is it a "highly entertaining satire on modern man's tendancy to over-indulge in self enquiry". Forget all that hyphenated nonsense, because the book is made of much headier stuff. What Michael Moorcock wrote is allegory, and as such he lets loose some potent imagery. The contrast between the Gospels and what the time-traveler discovers may disturb some readers. But BEHOLD THE MAN is a PILGRIM'S PROGRESS for our neurotic age, and the redemption that awaits the self-pitying Karl Glogauer is as moving as any more conventional conversion. The final paragraph beautifully sums up the unsolvable conflict between science and religious faith. Incidentally, the means Glogauer employs to fly back through time is briefly described, but the explanation is surprisingly convincing.
Rating:
Summary: Bold allegory of conflict between faith and scientific doubt
Review: The blurb on the back cover of the Carrol & Graf edition is off the mark: BEHOLD THE MAN is hardly "an hilarious fantasy-adventure", nor is it a "highly entertaining satire on modern man's tendancy to over-indulge in self enquiry". Forget all that hyphenated nonsense, because the book is made of much headier stuff. What Michael Moorcock wrote is allegory, and as such he lets loose some potent imagery. The contrast between the Gospels and what the time-traveler discovers may disturb some readers. But BEHOLD THE MAN is a PILGRIM'S PROGRESS for our neurotic age, and the redemption that awaits the self-pitying Karl Glogauer is as moving as any more conventional conversion. The final paragraph beautifully sums up the unsolvable conflict between science and religious faith. Incidentally, the means Glogauer employs to fly back through time is briefly described, but the explanation is surprisingly convincing.
Rating:
Summary: A mockery of reductionist theories on Jesus
Review: This book confirmed me in the faith on Jesus.It shows,by a demonstration per absurdo, the contradictions and the fallacies of those who would want to reduce Jesus as only a local revolutionary killed by the authorities. Jesus was necessary in the history of humanity, and if he had'n existed or had been reduced to complete dishability, someone else, e.g. a future traveller would have to take its place. Because the message of Jesus of Love,charity and peace to all Mankind was too important. Michael Moorcock also demonstrates, in this work, that spirituality is a necessary part of being human, and that denying it bring to absurd consequences. Besides that, this is one of the best S.F. "Temporal Loop" stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Behold Moorecock's only 5 star book
Review: This book was the first contraversial book I ever found interesting enough to read. I was (as a young boy raised to believe that at least the most pregnant aspects of the Jesus story were factual) shocked that someone could be so bold as to suggest that Jesus was a drooling imbecile and that Mary was the town tramp, but I read on and realized that Moorecock was not simply trying to offend, rather he was making a fairly profound statement that I think most readers of this book tend to miss and that is this: whether or not Jesus existed has no bearing on the legend of Jesus. Jesus the man could have existed or not; Jesus the Christ would have been invented regardless. Whether or not the NT documents revolve around an obscure, itinerant preacher and wonderworker in Pilate's Palestine is absolutely inconsequential to the development of the fable.This is an (albeit fantastic) alternate explanation for the origins of the Christ legend. Let us remove the science fiction and see what Moorecock was trying to tell us: 1. Glogauer was a normal man about whom religious fanatics rallied. 2. Glogauer never made any messianic claims or pretentions until such were thrust upon him, and even then, he tried to downplay them. 3. Glogauer was considered a great rabbi, thinker and perhaps a seer when he started his career in a recently annexed backwater region in the periphery of the Roman Empire in which the prolateriate felt they were suffering greatly under Caesar. 4. Messianic expectations were running rampant at this time, with scribes and scholars pouring over the ancient scriptures and hanging their hopes on even the vaguest of allusions to the coming of the Annointed One, who they imagined would be a combination of gentle and wise King David and the Great Alexander. 5. Glogauer the strange foreigner with an unusual accent, became associated with local carpenter Joseph of the Davidian line and then confused with his son Jesus the idiot who had occasionally been thought of as a psychic. 6. Glogauer realized the embryonic myth was beginning to take shape even then and simultaneously (or in short order) realized the futility of attempting to stop it. Starting a myth or a rumor is alot like starting a forest fire. 7. Glogauer's dying words and thoughts betray the fact that he knew that his myth would grow to epic proportions after his death, not only because he literally knew the future, but because, given the events of his life since becoming a time traveller, he knew it was the next logical step in the evolution of the myth. He was far more than a martyr, he died knowing that he changed the world, and although the actual Jesus of history might not have known that he would die a man and be reborn (in fable) as a god, his followers certainly did. These facts conspired to make a god of a normal man. I think that with the science fiction removed, Moorecock was presenting a nice alternative to the fallacious and arbitrary Lewisian "trilemma" (C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity"). One not need suppose that Jesus was a madman, a liar or the Christ. Moorecock is telling us in a creative and rather elliptical way that Lewis's trilemma is, frankly, idiotic; that the fourth and most realistic alternative is that Jesus was a mere man about whom a myth developed. I think that Moorecock would agree with me that at the heart of the Paul Bunyan legend is an obscure lumberjack whose skills were head and shoulders above his contemporaries. Omit the fantastic and Moorecock is telling us that Jesus was either a man, a myth or a typical combination of the two. The book itself is well written and I have read other books by this author with which I was less satisfied. I enjoyed reading it, but I did think that the character of Glogauer was depressing and a little depraved. I have known people like him, which means that he is believable. I was not too crazy about the flashback technique that Moorecock employed the first time I read this book (I was 12 then), but the second time through I got used to it and I have recently read it a third time. This last time I approached it as I would an epic poem and the two stories being told simultaneously, and then finally at the end coming together in a spectacular passion narrative spoke to me in a way that I think that Moorecock intended. This book should be made into a movie and if I ever strike it rich, I will be the deep pockets to whomever is so bold as to take the project on. If that never happens (as if it MIGHT haha) and someone else makes it, I hope that s/he does so without bombast and without being overtly and/or gratuitously offensive. The basic concept is offensive enough isn't it? I highly recommend this book be read by anyone interested in a damned good book. If I was Moorecock's professor in a college creative writing course, I would give him an A-
Rating:
Summary: I love you Satan
Review: This is the ultimate blasphemous book. Buy it now and share with your cabal. The devil is inside and he's waiting for you.
Rating:
Summary: very enjoyable
Review: Well written, brilliant concept. After reading it, your perspective will be slightly altered...A true classic
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