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Behold the Man

by Michael Moorcock · 1969

Karl Glogauer is a disaffected modern professional casting about for meaning in a series of half-hearted relationships, a dead-end job, and a personal struggle. His questions of faith surrounding his father's run-of-the-mill… more

6 quotes ★ 3.75 (8,453) Science Fiction

Quotes from the Book

Trapped. Sinking. Can't be myself. Made into what other people expect. Is that everyone's fate? Were the great individualists the products of their friends who wanted a great individualist as a friend?
14
Religion was the creation of fear. Knowledge destroys fear. Without fear, religion can't survive.
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You make the mistake of considering Christianity as something that developed over the course of a few years, from the death of Jesus to the time the gospels were written. But Christianity wasn't new. Only the name was new. Christianity was merely a stage in the meeting, cross-fertilization, metamorphosis of Western logic and Eastern mysticism. Look how the religion itself changed over the centuries, reinterpreting itself to meet changing times. Christianity is just a new name for a conglomeration of old myths and philosophies. All the gospels do is retell the sun myth and garble some of the ideas from the Greeks and Romans.
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His Hamburg friends believed that they were the descendants of those who had perished when Atlantis was destroyed by Atom Bombs dropped from Flying Saucers by unsympathetic spirits from Mars.
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But what came first? The idea or the actuality of Christ?” She shrugged. “The actuality, if it matters. Jesus was a Jewish troublemaker organising a revolt against the Romans. He was crucified for his pains. That’s all we know and all we need to know.” “A great religion couldn’t have begun so simply.” “When people need one, they’ll make a great religion out of the most unlikely beginnings.
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But what came first? The idea or the actuality of Christ?’ She shrugged. ‘The actuality, if it matters. Jesus was a Jewish troublemaker organising a revolt against the Romans. He was crucified for his pains. That’s all we know and all we need to know.’ ‘A great religion couldn’t have begun so simply.’ ‘When people need one, they’ll make a great religion out of the most unlikely beginnings.
1

About Michael Moorcock

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About the book

Karl Glogauer is a disaffected modern professional casting about for meaning in a series of half-hearted relationships, a dead-end job, and a personal struggle. His questions of faith surrounding his father's run-of-the-mill Christianity and his mother's suppressed Judaism lead him to a bizarre obsession with the idea of the messiah. After the collapse of his latest affair and his introduction to a reclusive physics professor, Karl is given the opportunity to confront his obsession and take a journey that no man has taken before, and from which he knows he cannot return.

Upon arriving in Palestine, A.D. 29, Glogauer finds that Jesus Christ is not the man that history and faith would like to believe, but that there is an opportunity for someone to change the course of history by making the ultimate sacrifice.

First published in 1969, Behold the Man broke through science fiction's ge

Book details

First published
1969
Goodreads rating
3.75 (8k ratings)

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