SOURCE: "Jealous God," in New Statesman and Society, Vol. 6, No. 267, August 27, 1993, p. 40.

[In the following review, Pavey finds The Gospel According to Jesus Christ a worthy addition to the catalog of modern literary studies of Christianity.]

José Saramago is Portugal's leading writer, now in his seventies. Despite this eminence, it is not hard to see why he ran into stormy weather after publishing this book [The Gospel According to Jesus Christ]. Written in a tender, respectful tone, its purpose emerges only gradually. But it becomes unmistakable in a key scene towards the end, with a devastating excoriation of cruel religious practice. In a boat hemmed in by a sea mist, cut off from normal time, God, the Devil and Jesus engage in unequal discussion. Their subject is the future course of that which has not yet come into being: Christianity.

Jesus, powerless except to ask questions, badgers from...