Vicar rewrites Christian Myths

Posted by Harsh Nevatia Mar 27, 2008

Christian myths have been handed down the last two thousand years virtually without change. In their original perspective they are so far removed from the concerns of modern young people that they are in danger of being forgotten.

Reverend Harrison of St. John’s Church at Hillingdon, London, has rewritten ten popular stories from the Bible in a way to make them more appealing to a modern audience. These stories include David and Goliath, the Garden of Eden, the Nativity, the Crucifixion, the Ten Commandments and Noah’s Ark.

In the Garden of Eden Harrison emphasizes Adam’s fixation on Eve’s beautiful body. This strikes a chord with our preoccupation with the female form be it in advertising or beauty pageants. Goliath is depicted as having lost because he was suffering a hangover from the previous night’s overindulgence. How often do our sports pages report that better teams have lost because key players began celebrating a bit too early. It is to the credit of the Reverend that he has published originals from the Bible alongside the makeover versions so that there can be no mistaking that his are changed versions.

Hindu myths have always been in a process of evolution. The originals found in the epics and the Puranas are considerably varied in themselves. Later every writer of note has molded these stories to suit the social compulsions of the times. I have written earlier on this theme earlier in The Rewriting of Mythsand The Makeover of Pururava. Though Hindu purists have decried these changed versions of scriptural tales, the fact of life is that if you do not change then you die. It now remains to be seen how the Christian purists react.

The blog is in response to a news article Vicar rewrites 10 most famous Biblical stories.