Looking for an idea for your next epic novel?
How about this: What if Jesus came today?
But I’m not talking about him appearing in the last days and Armageddon, that’s all been done ad nauseam. What if he never came until today? What kind of a world would he enter into?
Think about it―no crusades, no holy wars, no popes, no puritans. How would that affect trade, technology, science, culture, philosophy, medicine, and economics? What about religion? Would monotheism have survived?
The basic premise of the Jesus story could still be maintained since the prophesies concerning his birth occurred long before he was born. He might still be born of a Jewish virgin in a stable in Bethlehem, but would there actually be an Israel for him to be born into?
No matter what your views are on Christianity, the impact that Jesus’s legacy has made on the world is undeniable. Whether that impact was for better or worse is your call, but the void created by the absence of Jesus would be remarkably pervasive. Virtually every aspect of modern life would potentially change. This might be the ultimate alternate history.
So what do you think? Is your imagination broad enough to vision a world without Jesus? Where would you take this story?
© Copyright 2012 by Kevin Fraleigh.
Boom. You just blew my mind.
And then, after the explosion, the first thing I thought of was Judas’s line in Jesus Christ Superstar: “If you’d come today you could have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.”
Would Jesus tweet? And would anybody care?
Something would have risen to fill the void of Christianity not being there all these years. Would whatever that was be so big that it would obscure the message of one man claiming to be the son of God?
That line from Superstar has always intrigued me. If he did come today, how would he reach the masses? Would social media (assuming social media existed) be his friend or his enemy? Would his message be heard amid all the competing messages of the global cultures? Any number of writers could consider this issue and I doubt any of them would come up with the same conclusions.
The other issue, of course, is what would have filled the void left by Christianity? It makes me wonder.
Perhaps it would be too late for him. Maybe there’s too much science mucking up the place these days — too much rationalism and secularism. If Jesus showed up today, I would definitely want to share a bottle of wine with him, but I dunno about the whole religion thing.
Another thing I wonder about is what would Jesus look like? At this point, do we really need yet another white guy telling us what to do? Even if he showed up as what is apparently everyone’s favorite version of Jesus, the young hipster, I’d be thinking, “really? Is that all you got? Put on a dress or something.” Can we get a Joan Armatrading Jesus? A Gandhi Jesus? Or how about an Arundhati Roy Jesus?
(Speaking of Jesuses (Jesi?), Meghan recently took an inventory of some that have appeared lately in filmdom.)
All very good thoughts and thought provoking questions about the nature of Jesus. But think about this, if Jesus hadn’t come would there even be science in the Western world? The crusades were one of the prime instruments for Western European contact with the the Middle and Far East. When Jesus was born, Western Europeans were primitive and barbaric compared to Asia. The entire complexion of world civilization might have been significantly changed in the absence of Christianity. That being said, Christianity also introduced a lot of pain, suffering, and oppression into the world. You might ask yourself if Christ had not been born, would there be an internet? And how many religions reference Jesus in their own doctrines and sacred writings? I believe Islam, for instance, recognizes Jesus as a prophet. What effect on the formation of Islam would the absence of Jesus have (if any)?
Deep questions. And I am with you, I’d love to share a bottle of wine with Jesus.
I’m so glad people are curious about this sort of thing! Six years ago I became obsessed with this very question. I knew I was going to have to write a novel about it. It’s called The Beckoning: Logic. Will. Crumble. I released it in June, 2015. It’s available on Amazon.
I’m so glad people are curious about this sort of thing! Six years ago I became obsessed with this very question. I knew I was going to have to write a novel about it. It’s called The Beckoning: Logic. Will. Crumble. I released it in June, 2015. It’s available on Amazon.
I’m very curious to know what other novels exist on this subject matter and have had difficulty finding any.
You’re right, I don’t think much has been done with this. The main reason may be a reticence to tackle such a sensitive issue. After all, do it wrong and you’ve offended a large portion of the planet. On the other hand, what great publicity that would be. Take The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis, very controversial. Then Martin Scorsese got made into a movie starring Willem Dafoe. Few things are more dangerous to talk about than religion.
While skimming around online today I came across a novel called Eli, by Christian writer Bill Myers. It was published in 2003. I’ll be very curious to read this, as it’s about the very subject in question. Had I known of it when I began obsessing over what it would be like if Jesus were born today, I may never have written The Beckoning. Who knows? I’m excited to see what Myers take is on it though. I’m sure it’s much different than mine, and the differences are what I’m most intrigued to discover.