''The Last Temptation of Christ'' or ''The Last Temptation'' (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: , ''O Teleftéos Pirasmós'') is a

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

written by

Nikos Kazantzakis Nikos Kazantzakis ( el, ; 2 March ( OS 18 February) 188326 October 1957) was a Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years. Kazantzakis's no ...

, first published in its original Greek in 1955 before being translated into English in 1960. The novel depicts the life of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

and his struggles with various forms of Temptation of Christ, temptation, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. Upon its publication, the book was condemned by the Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church; it has since been Book censorship, challenged by numerous Christian groups and conservative organizations. The 1988 The Last Temptation of Christ (film), film adaptation directed by Martin Scorsese was similarly controversial.

Themes

Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface that by facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Jesus struggled to do God's will without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh. The novel advances the argument that, had Jesus succumbed to any such temptation, especially the opportunity to save himself from the cross, his life would have held no more significance than that of any other philosopher. The critic I. A. Richards has stated that Kazantzakis' novel tries to reclaim the values of early Christianity, such as love, brotherhood, humility, and self-renunciation. According to the book's English translator, Peter A. Bien, the psychology in ''The Last Temptation'' is based on the idea that every person, Jesus included, is evil by nature as well as good, violent and hateful as well as loving. A psychologically sound individual does not ignore or bury the evil within him. Instead, he channels it into the service of good.

Controversy

In February 1955, the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church in Athens attempted to have all of Kazantzakis' books banned in Greece, arguing that ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' "contains evil slanders against the Godlike person of Jesus Christ....derived from the inspiration of the theories of Freud and historical materialism, [this book] perverts and hurts the Gospel discernment and the God-man figure of our Lord Jesus Christ in a way coarse, vulgar, and blasphemous."Middleton, Darren J. N., and Peter Bien, eds. ''God's Struggler: Religion in the Writings of Nikos Kazantzakis''. Macon: Mercer University Press, 1996. 26-27. In 1963, a Roman Catholic priest in Ashland, Wisconsin, forbade one of his parishioners from returning a library copy of ''The Last Temptation of Christ'', arguing "that it would be a mortal sin to make it available to others." In 1964, a conservative group called the Citizens Group for Clean Books demanded that the novel be removed from public libraries in Arcadia, California, on the basis that it was "blasphemous, obscene and defamatory"; as a result, the book was made "available on a limited basis to persons over the age of 18." The book was banned in Singapore in 1988.

Film version

The director Sidney Lumet acquired the film rights to Kazantzakis' novel, describing it as the story "of how a man pushes himself to extremes he never knew he was capable of," with Judas emerging "as a strong man, a sort of hero". Lumet commissioned a screenplay written by Lazarre Seymour Simckes and announced his plans to shoot the film in the fall of 1971, though the project did not come to fruition. After many delays, The Last Temptation of Christ (film), a film version directed by Martin Scorsese was released in 1988, starring Willem Dafoe as Jesus, Barbara Hershey as Mary Magdalene, and Harvey Keitel as Judas Iscariot.

Play version

A drama based on ''The Last Temptation of Christ'', named ''Christuvinte Aaram Thirumurivu'' ('The Sixth Holy Wound of Christ'), written by P.M. Antony and depicting Jesus as a mere good-hearted man instead of the Son of God, was staged in India's state of Kerala. On August 10, 1986, the play debuted in Alappuzha. It was performed about 42 times, but the Church had taken offence, and at every performance, demonstrations including premeditated violence against the play and the playwright were instigated. The police even confiscated the script; the state went on to ban the play, and courts did not overturn the ban. Antony went on to publish the play in print in the Malayalam language; eventually he was arrested and punished on unrelated charges.

In popular culture

The American singer-songwriter Judee Sill referred to Kazantzakis as her favorite writer; her 1971 song "Jesus Was a Cross Maker" was inspired by the depiction of Jesus in ''The Last Temptation of Christ''.Lewis, Grover
“Judee Sill: Soldier of the Heart,”
''Rolling Stone'' 13 Apr. 1972.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Last Temptation Of Christ, The 1960 novels Greek literature Greek novels Historical novels Modern Greek literature Novelistic portrayals of Jesus Greek novels adapted into films Novels by Nikos Kazantzakis Simon & Schuster books Christianity in popular culture controversies Obscenity controversies in literature