The Gospel According to Saint X

A retelling of Tolstoy’s The Gospels in Brief using the style of Saint Exupery’s The Little Prince. A mash-up/homage to both great works which have the same aim: a transformative change of heart in readers (metanoia).

Great books can change us. Having immersed myself so completely in this story, I am sure I will never be able to look up at the stars again without thinking of the Little Prince up there somewhere. And I will look at a flower differently, at people differently…I will think of myself differently too, and try even harder to look after and cherish the child in me. For the child in each of us is the heart and soul in each of us.

– Micheal Morpurgo, Foreword to the Little Prince, 2018

The effect the Little Prince had on Michael Morpurgo is precisely the effect The Gospels are meant to have on us. Metanoia. A transformative change of heart. But they don’t, do they? Tolstoy tried again in 1902. That didn’t work either. So here goes…

I am not a Christian. I don’t believe in God. I believe all gods are a work of our imagination and that The Bible, as a product of our imagination, is far more important than the god it seeks to describe. I feel The Little Prince tells the story of our god as well if not better than The Bible, almost as well as Tolstoy. Hence merging them seems like a step in the right direction.

Antoine de Saint Exupery’s The Little Prince is loved by children’s and adults alike. It is the most widely translated book, after The Bible, in history. It may well be as misunderstood. Using the cast of Characters from The Little Prince, here I retell Tolstoy’s version of the Gospels.

Julain Baggini, in his attempt to do what Tolstoy had already done a century before (The Godless Gospel, 2018), ended his work with the thought that perhaps it was time for Jesus to die for us again. I don’t know about you but I think he’s done his bit. Here, I offer The Little Prince to take his place.

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