Fr. Gerald "Gerry" O'Collins, S.J.
A Jesuit priest and bible scholar has written a fierce response to Philip Pullman's retelling of the life of Jesus, claiming that the author distorted history to reinforce his own unfavourable views about institutional Christianity. Father Gerald O'Collins, S.J. author of over 50 books and professor of theology at the Gregorian University in Rome for over 30 years, will publish a book later this month taking on Pullman's assertion, in his novel The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, that "this is a story"." Pullman's bestselling book, published in March, gives Jesus a manipulative twin brother, Christ, who eventually betrays him. The miracles of the gospels are given plausible explanations, and Jesus eventually condemns the concept of a church, something he believes would make the devil "rub his hands with glee"."Jesus is not in a position to correct misrepresentations, especially serious ones that the public, often pretty gullible in these matters, is inclined to accept at face value," O'Collins told the Guardian. He believes that Pullman's aim in the novel was to cast doubt on "belief in the divine identity of Jesus". In his book, Philip Pullman's Jesus, the priest asks if the author used "or rather misuse[d] the story of Jesus to wage war on Christianity".LINK (HERE) TO THE GUARDIAN