Saul of Tarsus, better known as Saint Paul would have taken the lead. More ambiguous character that left him even this edifying testimony "When I want to do the Angel, I'm the Beast ..." and that made the message of Jesus a vade mecum merging hélénisme Judaism and the use of the universe for the following 20 centuries: no less!
Emmanuel Carrere, a connoisseur of sacred writings he walked during his long existential depression, follows step by step the evangelist Luke, Paul's companion.
He excels in return the first time this strange sect, giving life to these characters painted on all the domes of basilicas and cathedrals windows, crowned and draped, floating among the clouds: the apostles, the Galatians, the Corinthians, the Ébonites etc ...
The ascetic dryness of the Gospel texts and ignoring theological digressions, the author delivers a genuine epic, full of sound and fury, who gives flesh to the heroes of the spirit, by placing them in the multicultural reality of their time.
Epoque finally very close to our: loss of religious and moral bearings, mercantile opening of the Mediterranean, crisis of hyper centralized power, clientelism, anarchic urban planning etc ...
The book is all the more breadth, the author nourishes his account of considerations drawn from the history of literature. Gogol, Homer and others are convened to demonstrate that the Gospels, as much as a testimony of faith are also - above all - huge literary works.
Beyond the scope of a brilliant essay, coupled with a striking historical novel, Carrere indulges with obvious glee, a self fiction, in which he confesses to indulge in all the pleasures of life, so he refused he was under the influence of an arid and millenarian faith.
He delivered a strong testimony, often moving, sometimes disturbing, of a liberated spirit of guilt.
Far away from the Christian message as it continues to assert, Emmanuel Carrere, released from his mental prison, even goes to the heart of Christianity: the joy of life, the celebration of the flesh and of the human mind as extensions of the Divine.
To put all hands, especially since the writing, though that held high, is still very accessible.
