Jesus Christ in a transporter accident

The idea behind [b:The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ|9560752|The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ|Philip Pullman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328822542s/9560752.jpg|10839280] is that Jesus Christ was not one man, but a pair of twins, one named Jesus, the other nicknamed Christ. Both want to spread the word about God's Kingdom, their approaches very different: Jesus simply preaches in town squares, while Christ acts the chronicler, staying out of the spotlight, making sure that Jesus' work is recorded "correctly" for future generations, lest it fizzle and die.

One refreshing aspect of Pullman's treatment of the Jesus story is that there's no magic. SpoilerJesus doesn't perform miracles. Rather, he tries to make people feel better, but people retell the stories of what happened, and they get turned into tales of miraculous healings, resurrections, multiplying loaves and fishes, and so on.

The book's nadir comes at Spoilerthe Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus makes an Ayn Rand-style speech (though much shorter, thankfully) about the evils that the church will wreak if it is allowed to have its way.