George Poulos

Hi guys!

George here with another quick book review. This one is gonna be on The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis.

I absolutely loved this book, and I find myself remembering and referring to it often. I actually first watched the 1988 film, directed by Martin Scorsese, before I read the book—upon my sister’s recommendation. (I didn’t even know, at the time, that the film was adapted from the book).

I far prefer the book, but the movie was great too. Just be prepared for some intense and gory depictions of the crucifixion that will stay in your mind for years to come if you plan on watching the film.I

Okay, sheesh, where do I begin. This book is awesome and was impactful for me on my own spiritual journey.

It’s more or less a fictionalized or hypothetical account of what the life of Jesus might have been like—and what internal battles he might have gone through—in the years leading up to the crucifixion. I guess we can call it a novel. It’s beautifully written and spiritually riveting.

It basically depicts Jesus as a normal human being who happens to have an intense and clear spiritual calling, that at the beginning of the novel, he actively tries to suppress or pretend isn’t there. Yet the calling keeps calling.

Think about it. You’re Jesus, living a normal life in a village, on track to live a normal and nice life—to be a carpenter, get married, have kids—and you start to get these incredible (and perhaps, frightening) visions about the magnitude of your spiritual purpose on Earth.

We see Jesus receiving these visions, grappling with them, trying to ignore them, and ultimately, surrendering to them.

We see Jesus going into deep meditation, trying to decipher the instructions that God is giving him, grappling with temptation for a worldly life, meeting his disciples and teaching them, struggling, and through it all, crafting the story that is the story of Christ. We even see depictions of how the Gospels may have been written, and get deep character exposés on the various disciples.

There is a moment in the book when Jesus, for the first time, accepts his calling in a big way. He stands up and addresses the people around him, shouting, “BROTHERS!”. It is a beautiful and stunning moment, a real shift in the novel, in the journey of Jesus as depicted by the novel.

I did not grow up Christian, and for a long time, I struggled to understand the Gospels. This book actually helped me understand The Gospels, and Christ in general, in a profound way, by crafting a story of how it all actually could have gone down.

This book was particularly impactful for me because I it came into my life at a time when I was personally grappling with a spiritual calling and the allure of a more “normal” worldly life—a year where I was experimenting with a minimal and rather ascetic way of life.

If you are into themes of asceticism, meditation, how a figure like Jesus might have been created, you are sure to love this novel. I honestly and wholeheartedly can’t recommend it enough.

If you’re interested, you can grab the book here.

Talk soon,
George Poulos