The Kingdom: A Novel Hardcover – March 7, 2017

Excellent read. Weather you are a Christian or not, this book will give you a lot of food for thought. It provides a unique interpretation of the New Testament. You will not agree with every point the author makes, but you will acknowledge it is well thought out.

Emmanuel Carrere's journey is one that has been followed by many thousands of fellow seekers over the centuries. He underwent an intense period of religious fervor nearly thirty years ago which gradually subsided into an uneasy agnosticism: while he rejects what he views as ridiculous about organized religion, he still feels a hunger for faith. His history/memoir The Kingdom is a similarly uneasy combination of history and memoir, combined with fictional reconstructions of the early days of Christianity. This is a subject that has long fascinated me as well, and thus I enjoyed his chronicle of his own, very personal, journey.The Kingdom includes long segments of Carrere's own story as he drifts into and then back out of religious faith. Some of his biographical details can be jarring: I did not care for his lengthy discussion of his interest in and experience with internet pornography, for example. But all of it, including the porn, is connected in some form to his religious quest. The most interesting sections of The Kingdom are those in which Carrere uses fiction to relate the story of the development of early Christianity, particularly discussing the careers of the Apostles Paul and Luke. I enjoyed the human touches he employed, including his imaginings of Luke's journeys to meet and interview people like Zaccheus who spoke with Jesus.People who have already studied the early history of Christianity will not see a lot of new material in The Kingdom, but what is fresh is Carrere's personal story. His Epilogue is particularly interesting as a bridge between late first century Christians and early twenty-first century believers and agnostics.

This is a fascinating sandwich of a book. By which I mean that there are slices of the author’s life and slices of his (well-informed) view of the lives of the evangelist Luke and the apostle Paul, as well as some other more minor characters in the drama of the origins of Christianity.The first slice of autobiography is rather thick, about 75 pages, but we find that he went through an earlier period of intense Christian religiosity, followed by a gradual progression to agnosticism (which perhaps is the correct term—Carrère is not very specific about his current world view). Thus, he does not come at the book’s subject from ignorance, but from years of absorption in it. Later slices of autobiography describe what is going on in his life as he writes the book. Readers (including me) who are more interested in the subject of Christian origins than in the author’s life might become rather impatient with these parts of the sandwich, but Carrère uses them in an inventive way by playing his personal experiences off the characters of Luke and Paul in order to bring them more to life than we usually see them portrayed. He almost writes as though the screenwriter and director in him is producing a film in which he tags along with the two ancients, experiencing the Mediterranean world of the first century CE at first hand.The publisher’s blurb calls the book “a sweeping fictional account of the early Christians,” but it is only fictional in the sense that Carrère fills the gaps in what the historical record tells us about his two characters and the world they lived in with some speculation. However, his surmises are quite credible to this reader, as are his considerable deviations from the conventional tellings of the “greatest story ever told” that one can still hear today from most persons of the cloth and even from many pedigreed scholars of Christian history. Those who are convinced of these widely-believed pieties may be shocked by the book, but it is one that any open-mined person will learn much from.

The author proposes some interesting ideas about the formation of the New Testament, specifically Luke-Acts and the relationship of Paul and Luke, and then about Luke's role in the Early Church. While nothing can be proved, part of what he suggests if possible, part merely a hypothesis.. Certainly, the author has done some research. With broad strokes the author denies that the Resurrection ever happened; Luke invented it. What Jesus said or did was subordinated to what Paul came up with. Paul might not have been born a Jew; he certainly had a conflict with James that Luke glossed over. Sadly, the reader has to wade (or speedread) through pages and pages of the author's fervent Catholicism and an equally fervent falling away from any form of Christianity. And when that is over, the reader is treated to pages about the author's fascination with a pornography video. I shall spare the details, but cannot see how it fits into the theme of the book. But when one bends and blends genres, this type of thing can happen.

...not exactly a novel, nor a memoir, a book that simply excels at allowing readers to see things differently. Written in a way that is more akin to a detective story, this work is a search: For a new language to describe experience, for ways to understand how a religion evolves. Spellbinding and worth the required concentration.

Interesting combination of rather discursive personal reflection and autobiography, combined with creative speculations about the figures in very early Christianity. I wondered at times exactly what kind of book this was, parts of which are like a personal diary filled with neurotic self-absorption. However, the actual writing is beautiful and lively, and the thoughts about the very early Christians originate from a mind practiced in history as well as Christian theology. Not for everyone, but clever and satisfying in parts.

Puts a whole new spin on Christianity and JesusWant to be really informed .... get the book and read itWould also recommend Jesus of Nazareth ....... another great read

An acquired taste no doubt: a tendency to wander and become repetitive but an interesting take.

For anyone the slightest bit curious about what we believe, and what might happen to us after death, this is a must to read. It is a fascinating account of two key characters in the beginning of Christianity, Luke and Paul, but even if you are not a believer, Emmanuel Carrere lures you into contemplation of the important things in life. It is well written and although philosophy plays quite part in the discussion, it never gets too challenging. Non-philosophers can enjoy it too. Highly recommended.

Interesting to follow an intelligent person grappling with Christianity or at least catholicism and the history was new to me but I don't think I am glad to have spent spent such a long time on it.

An intricate novel, written in the first-person as a diary, revealed a search for spirituality without the borders of religion. A fresh approach to the Gospels, the Act of the Apostles and Revelation introduced a renovated view of Christianity and the first missionaries of the Good News. The author is respectful but creative and non-dogmatic, accepting intelligent imagination as an effective tool to review what, for two thousand years, was considered by many a dogma. It's an excellent book for understanding where we come from and where we could go.