Review of The Incarnation
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Marlese Meyer
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Review of The Incarnation
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Incarnation" by Arthur Telling.]
Arthur Telling introduces an all knowing and eternal consciousness – a godhead – lightly touching on a few well known and more obscure histories. The Incarnation - Cleopatra’s Story of Jesus opens unsurprisingly with an anecdote about Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, and continues with their progeny and descendants, several of whom commune with and has access to this eternal consciousness.
In the second and far more interesting storyline Arthur Telling has rearranged the bare bones of the chronicles told in religious and other texts and admirably portrayed the life, times and works of Paul of Tarsus against historical context. He has given character and dimension to this controversial biblical figure in an empathetic manner. Paul of Tarsus is portrayed as the original social chameleon, using his understanding of the cultural, religious and legal framework of the time to further his convictions and vision of a new gospel based on monotheism, acceptance, and tolerance.
The down-and-dirty rivalry for the leadership of the early Christian movement is sets in motion a series of betrayals, half-truths and lies, which threatens to obliterate the fledgling church at inception. The narrative is one of social unrest, revolt, martyrdom and exile.
The Jesus persona comes across as amorphous, not quite of this world, in discourse with the godhead.
Against the backdrop of a society desperate for recognition and salvation Jesus and the Apostles are painted in colors. The syntax amusingly switches back and forth between the colloquial and vernacular, surprising the reader with sometimes downright funny dialogue.
Arthur Telling has drawn heavily on the King James Version of the bible, giving a more modern interpretation of the teachings and letters of Paul and inserted these into the novel. The sheer volume and length of these make the book a cumbersome read. It also moves this book out of the realms of a novel so something very close to a study aid. In his Forward Mr Telling is upfront about the influence of the “Seth Material” by Jane Roberts, subtly referring to the Gnostic aspects of this novel. These however, have conveyed in a clumsy manner. Mr Telling lists that he has written for AMORC - the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis , also known as the Rosicrucian Order which in itself is an organization devoted to the pursuit of Gnosticism . Mr Telling has experienced an epiphany and is trying to share some knowledge without breaking faith with AMORC.
Randomly, after the Afterword, select sayings from the Gospel of Thomas have been inserted. Although well intended, this adds nothing to the storyline.
The book is well edited, with only one typo being detected. The indention of the text in PDF format is not standard across the content.
It is difficult to identify a genre due to the two disparate storylines. The letters from Paul makes the writing far too heavy and the godhead concept is superficial and unfulfilling. The book would have been better served as two separate novels. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
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The Incarnation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Arthur Telling introduces an all knowing and eternal consciousness – a godhead – lightly touching on a few well known and more obscure histories. The Incarnation - Cleopatra’s Story of Jesus opens unsurprisingly with an anecdote about Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, and continues with their progeny and descendants, several of whom commune with and has access to this eternal consciousness.
In the second and far more interesting storyline Arthur Telling has rearranged the bare bones of the chronicles told in religious and other texts and admirably portrayed the life, times and works of Paul of Tarsus against historical context. He has given character and dimension to this controversial biblical figure in an empathetic manner. Paul of Tarsus is portrayed as the original social chameleon, using his understanding of the cultural, religious and legal framework of the time to further his convictions and vision of a new gospel based on monotheism, acceptance, and tolerance.
The down-and-dirty rivalry for the leadership of the early Christian movement is sets in motion a series of betrayals, half-truths and lies, which threatens to obliterate the fledgling church at inception. The narrative is one of social unrest, revolt, martyrdom and exile.
The Jesus persona comes across as amorphous, not quite of this world, in discourse with the godhead.
Against the backdrop of a society desperate for recognition and salvation Jesus and the Apostles are painted in colors. The syntax amusingly switches back and forth between the colloquial and vernacular, surprising the reader with sometimes downright funny dialogue.
Arthur Telling has drawn heavily on the King James Version of the bible, giving a more modern interpretation of the teachings and letters of Paul and inserted these into the novel. The sheer volume and length of these make the book a cumbersome read. It also moves this book out of the realms of a novel so something very close to a study aid. In his Forward Mr Telling is upfront about the influence of the “Seth Material” by Jane Roberts, subtly referring to the Gnostic aspects of this novel. These however, have conveyed in a clumsy manner. Mr Telling lists that he has written for AMORC - the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis , also known as the Rosicrucian Order which in itself is an organization devoted to the pursuit of Gnosticism . Mr Telling has experienced an epiphany and is trying to share some knowledge without breaking faith with AMORC.
Randomly, after the Afterword, select sayings from the Gospel of Thomas have been inserted. Although well intended, this adds nothing to the storyline.
The book is well edited, with only one typo being detected. The indention of the text in PDF format is not standard across the content.
It is difficult to identify a genre due to the two disparate storylines. The letters from Paul makes the writing far too heavy and the godhead concept is superficial and unfulfilling. The book would have been better served as two separate novels. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
******
The Incarnation
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Ben Madeley
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I've not heard of this before, it sounds interesting.
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