Wonderful interview with the great Philip Pullman, on the eve of his Book of Dust, a companion piece to the Northen Light Trilogy. It’s full of thoughts about Blake, Milton, romanticism and religion. But this comment brought on reminiscing about his Christian upbringing really struck me:
What’s your favorite parable?
I think the Good Samaritan is probably the best. It is so clearly told, so simply conceived, that having heard it once you’ll never forget it. Jesus, like so many of the preachers wandering Galilee, was a tremendous storyteller. He wielded words and images with enormous genius. “When you see a speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your eye”—that is just a wonderful image, and so true. I wonder what would’ve happened if he hadn’t been arrested and executed. Would he have gone on and written a book? We know he can write because we have a description of him writing in the dust …
The Book of Jesus. Interesting concept.