Scandalizing Jesus?
Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years On
Published on 1. December 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-8264-1607-0 (ISBN)
Description
2005 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Nikos Kazantzakis' "The Last Temptation of Christ". Since Kazantzakis ranks as one of the twentieth century's most important European writers, and given that this particular work of his has garnered so much publicity, this collection of essays re-assesses the novel, though not forgetting the movie, in light of one half century's worth of criticism and reception history. Clergy and laity alike have denounced this novel. When it first appeared, the Greek Orthodox Church condemned it, the Vatican placed it on its Index of Forbidden Texts, and conservative-evangelicals around the world protested its allegedly blasphemous portrayal of a human, struggling Messiah who "succumbs" to the devil's final snare while on the Cross: the temptation to happiness. Assuredly, the sentiments surrounding this novel, at least in the first thirty years or so, were very strong. When Martin Scorsese decided in the early 1980s to adapt the novel for the silver screen, even stronger feelings were expressed.
Even today his works are seldom studied in Greece, largely because the Greek government is unable or unwilling to anthologize his material for the national curriculum. After fifty years, however, the time seems right to re-examine the novel, the man, and the film, locating Kazantzakis and his work within an important debate about the relationship between religion and art (literary and cinematic). Until now a book-length assessment of Kazantzakis' novel, and the film it inspired, has not appeared. No such volume is planned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the novel's publication. For those who work in Kazantzakis studies, a focused anthology like this one is missing from library collections. The volume contains original essays by Martin Scorsese, the film critic Peter Chattaway, and Kazantzakis' translator, Peter A. Bien.
Even today his works are seldom studied in Greece, largely because the Greek government is unable or unwilling to anthologize his material for the national curriculum. After fifty years, however, the time seems right to re-examine the novel, the man, and the film, locating Kazantzakis and his work within an important debate about the relationship between religion and art (literary and cinematic). Until now a book-length assessment of Kazantzakis' novel, and the film it inspired, has not appeared. No such volume is planned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the novel's publication. For those who work in Kazantzakis studies, a focused anthology like this one is missing from library collections. The volume contains original essays by Martin Scorsese, the film critic Peter Chattaway, and Kazantzakis' translator, Peter A. Bien.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
421 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8264-1607-0 (9780826416070)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Darren J. N. Middleton
Scandalizing Jesus?
Kazantzakis'S the Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on
E-Book
11/2005
1st Edition
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
€47.49
Available for download
Person
Darren J. Middleton is Associate Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University and the author of Novel Theology: Nikos Kazantzakis' Encounter with Whiteheadian Process Theism.
Content
Acknowledgements; Note on Titles; Contents; Foreword; Don Cupitt; Introduction: Literary Lord, Screen Savior; Darren J. N. Middleton; PART I: LITERARY LORD; 1: Renan's Vie de Jesus as a Primary Source for The Last Temptation; Peter A. Bien; 2: The Novel, the Four Gospels, and the Continuing Historical Quest; W. Barnes Tatum; 3: Pontius Pilate: Modern Man in Search of a Soul; Lewis Owens; 4: Kazantzakis, Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, and Monophysitism; Daniel A. Dombrowski; 5: Reading Kazantzakis Through Gregory of Nyssa: Some Common Anthropological Themes; Pamela J. Francis; 6: The Unreality of Repressed Desires in The Last Temptation; Vrasidas Karalis; 7: The Temptation That Never Was: Kazantzakis and Borges; Roderick Beaton; 8: "This Clay Bird is the Soul of Man" A Platonic Reading of Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation; C. D. Gounelas; 9: In-the-Name-of-the-Father: The Semiotic Threat Over the Symbolic Logos; Charitini Christodolou; 10: An Unholy Trinity: Women in Pre-Easter Patriarchy; Jen Harrison; 11: Distant Flutter of a Butterfly: The Indian Response to The Last Temptation; Mini Chandran; PART II: SCREEN SAVIOR; 12: Satan and the Curious: Texas Evangelicals Read The Last Temptation of Christ; Darren J. N. Middleton and Elizabeth H. Flowers; 13:Battling the Flesh: Sexuality and Spirituality in The Last Temptation of Christ; Peter T. Chattaway; 14: Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ: A Critical Reassessment of Its Sources, Its Theological Problems, and Its Impact on the Public; Lloyd C. Baugh, S. J.; 15: Teaching the Temptation: Seminarians Viewing The Last Temptation of Christ Melody D. Knowles and Allison Whitney; 16: The Dual Substance of Cinema: What Kazantzakis's Christ Can Teach Us About Sound/Image Relationship in Film; Randolph Jordan; 17:Identity and Ethnicity in Peter Gabriel's Soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ Eftychia Papanikolaou; 18:On Reappreciating Kazantzakis; Martin Scorsese. Webliography; Austin S. Lingerfelt; Bibliography; Contributors; Index.