Philip Pullman's Jesus

Philip Pullman’s re-telling of the story of Jesus of Nazareth (The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ) is certainly an impressive achievement. ‘Time and again,’ says Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘when Pullman offers his version of a familiar biblical saying or narrative, he achieves a pitch-perfect rendering in modern idiom, carrying something of the shock and compelling attraction of the original gospel text.’

Pullman is clear that what Christians tell us about Jesus ...