The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ is a 2010 novel by Philip Pullman. It tells the story of Jesus as if he were two people, "Jesus" and "Christ", with contrasting personalities; Jesus being a moral and godly man, and his brother Christ a calculating figure who wishes to use Jesus' legacy to found a powerful Church.
This work contains examples of:
- Alternative Character Interpretation - Of both Jesus and Christ.
- The Bible - A retelling of part of it.
- Downer Ending - Christ got his powerful church but the things he had to do to create it and the manner in which he sugar-coated Jesus' life in his texts and all that entails for everything leave him a bitter man
- Fan Fiction - Sort of.
- The Man Behind the Man - The Stranger/Angel to Christ.
- Reality Subtext - Obviously, the beginning of Christianity, but there is particularly poignant and topical prediction by Jesus of child abuse being covered up when done by priests.