Jesus: Authors Take Sides - Tapa dura

Writers through the ages take sides as the second millennium draws to a close.

In these pre-millennial days, spirituality and religion feature larger in people’s minds than they have for many years. While Britain’s multi-cultural masses may recognize the McDonald’s M more readily than they do the Christian cross, half the population this Easter claimed to believe in the Resurrection. Religion and politics are still the two ripest sources for intelligent debate and most thinking people, regardless of their religious position, have at some time in their lives encountered the New Testament and come to some view about its central figure, Jesus Christ.

Richard Ingrams will put together pieces by writers throughout the ages – almost every great writer has expressed a view on Christ at some time. The anthology will cover atheists and agnostics, doubters and the devout, the hostile and the indifferent. Writings on this subject comprise some of the most beautiful in the English language, but they can also be anguished, heartrending, serene, joyful or hateful.

Richard Ingrams is not unbiased about this subject but he will be serious, fair and open-minded. His previous anthology, England, was the most successful in its series and, turning his talents to Christ – as it were – will make for a wonderful and challenging match of anthologizer and subject.

While Britain’s multi-cultural masses may recognize the McDonalds M more readily than they do the Christian cross, half the population this Easter claimed to believe in the Resurrection. Religion is still one of the ripest sources for intellectual debate and most thinking people, regardless of their religious position, have at some time in their lives encountered the New Testament and come to some view about its central figure, Jesus Christ.

Writers of all styles, backgrounds and denominations – novelists, poets or journalists – can take a more creative and illuminating approach to the subject of Jesus Christ than learned theologians, whether they see him as a man, a god, or the hero of one of our most epic and enduring stories. This anthology of non-religious writing on this most religious subject includes atheists and agnostics, doubters and the devout, the hostile and the indifferent: from Graham Greene and Matthew Arnold, to Tolstoy and E. E. Cummings.

Richard Ingrams, though not unbiased himself, is open-minded, serious and amusing in his selection of authors and pieces. Interesting contrasts, telling juxtapositions and curios surprises are a feature of this anthology which sheds a new light on perhaps the most significant cultural and spiritual figure of all time.