Behold the Man

SPOILER WARNING!! Many people say this book is a satire, but I disagree. This book is dead serious! If one studies theology (as I have done), one will find out that everything we know about the beginning of Christianity is built on guesses. Christianity is one of the major religious traditions in the world, but we hardly know how it started. As Moorcock explains in this book, all our knowledge of the beginnings of Christianity (including the New Testament) could be wrong. What would be the repercussions for Christianity? The story of the book is as brilliant as it is simple. The protagonist of the story, Karl Glogauer, returns with a time machine to the year 28 AD, to find out all about Jesus. However, due to the rough "landing", he is wounded on arrival, and is taken care of by John the Baptist and his Essene sect. As the story progresses, it turns out that John has a very special role to play... This sounds simple, but the book is a complex and multi-layered mixture of flash-backs of Glogauer's past. The book in a sense is a psychological analysis of Glogauer's struggle to find an authentic identity, to find himself. This struggle, in which religion plays a large role, is very realistic, but is as fascinating as is the SF-part of the story. This mixture of realism and fantasy makes this simply a brilliant book! I don't believe that Christians should be offended by this book (though of course fundamentalists and literalists will be offended by it). The book clearly is a fantasy and I believe Moorcock had no intention to ridicule the Christian faith. The book's tone is way too serious for that. However, this book does make one think: what if... What if Jesus was simply a madman? What if he isn't resurrected from the dead? What if the Christian religion turned out to be a human invention? - Would it all matter to the central message of Christianity? Truly a fascinating book...

Imagine being a time-traveller who goes back in time to meet Jesus of Nazareth. How would you react? For Karl Glogauer, this is just what happens. But it turns out things aren't what Karl expected. The simple carpenter's son is exactly that - simple. A grinning, salivating imbecile, who can only say his own name with a moronic giggle.This is one of the funniest books about time travel I have read. It's about disillusionment, finding yourself, trying to work out who you are, and making amends. Karl Glogauer is a man full of social failings. A victim who is mixed up, confused and uncertain. The problem is he hates himself, and can't accept the good things other people see in him. Before I had heard of this book I had my own theory that Jesus might have been a time traveller from the future, say the 28th century. He would have had all sorts of advanced technology to make it look like he was performing miracles, such as a pair of hover boots to make it look like he was walking on water. Or genetically modifying five loaves and two fishes to feed thousands. His claim to be the son of God would have been the ultimate hoax.The time traveller in "Behold the Man" is from the 20th century and takes on the role of Jesus rather reluctantly. He utters prophecies that are uncannily accurate (he's read it all in a book), and he "heals" those whose afflictions are purely psychosomatic. All the quotations in the bible are based on Karl's actions. The things Karl does will be interpreted down the centuries, affecting the lives of millions.This is a wonderfully iconoclastic work, full of mocking wit. I finished reading it the same day I bought it, it's not a very long book. It really makes you think about destiny and what we're all about.

It has been called many things, but most often it is called BLASPHEMOUS and HERETICAL. I say "Yes, but only incidentally." On the surface BEHOLD THE MAN is another time-travel story. Beneath that surface this book is a coral reef of ideas and issues pertaining to that elusive creature, MAN. MAN's need for history to determine his purpose and the ablility to tailor history to his own needs. MAN's need to Love and to be Loved. MAN's scientific advances vs. MAN's religious foundations. As grand in scope as these concepts are, they are only the beginning. This is one of the greatest books of all time and a must read for any serious student of human nature.

Michael Moorcock's science fiction novel "Behold The Man" has been in release for over 20 years, and I still find it to be one of the most shocking books I have ever read. If anyone ever decides to make a film of this novel, the controversy will make the flap over "Last Temptation of Christ" look like an argument over what dish to bring to the PTA meeting. "Behold The Man" tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a man striving to find his religious identity. Intermittent flashbacks explain many of his internal conflicts as a Christian, e.g his childhood molestation by a clergyman. The opportunity to use a time machine presents itself, and Glogauer decides to travel back to meet Jesus Christ and his contemporaries. Over a period of time, he meets the characters who populated the New Testament, but they are nowhere near the people portrayed in the Bible. Many of the depictions are incredibly shocking in their utter blasphemy; I found myself gasping at every plot twist. To give away any of the details of this story would be an injustice, so I will just say that you will never look at your Bible the same way after reading this book. Moorcock won numerous awards for this novel, and I place it high on my list of favorite stories. For those who have never read Michael Moorcock, this would make a great introduction to his very eclectic body of work

I read this book in college, where I borrowed it from the library. Inside the front cover, someone had written the grafitto "This book is evil, it is a parody of good". Below that, another "reviewer" had scribbled the opposite: "This book is good, it is a parody of evil". I weigh in with the latter