"The Last Temptation of Christ" / Nikos Kazantzakis
"The Last Temptation of Christ" / Nikos Kazantzakis
Translated from the Greek By P.A. BIEN / A TOUCHSTONE BOOK / PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER / 1960 / 308 pp /
Nikos Kazantzakis states in the introduction to ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, “This book is not a biography; it is the confession of every man who struggles.” He explains that the book explores the “dual substance of Christ,” the struggle between his flesh and spirit - the stronger the struggle the richer the final harmony. A struggle that he claims all men go through with Christ as the ultimate example / First published in 1960, the novel follows the life of Jesus Christ from the author's perspective. The novel has been the subject of a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter, and appears regularly on lists of banned books / The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all of man's weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, “He struggled to do God's will, without ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh”.
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