austraLasia #1785

The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot, by Jeffrey Archer and Francis J Moloney

ROME: 12th March 2007 -- Just a week remains before the formal launch, in eight languages*, of The Gospel According to Judas, intense interest is being shown across the spectrum from atheist to zealot. In between is a broad group of moderates representing the rest of us, following the occasional tit bits of information in pre-release publicity.  The book, to be published by MacMillan in the UK and St Martin's Press in the US next Tuesday 20th March will be formally presented in two significant European locations on 20th-21st: in Rome, at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and in London at Westminster Cathedral.
    austraLasia hopes to publish an interview with Fr Frank Moloney, co-author of 'The Gospel...', on 20th March.  While any work touching on the canonical Gospels, even obliquely, is likely to raise eyebrows in various parts of the world, the fact that one of the world's foremost biblical scholars (Moloney) was suggested for the effort by another of the world's foremost biblical scholars (Martini), means that the Church has thought the issue of Judas worthy of serious reflection. Not in connection with this book, Pope Benedict XVI, last October, said: "The very name of 'Judas' raises among Christians an instinctive reaction of criticism and condemnation...The betrayal of Judas remains...a mystery".  The book does not aim to provide some gnostic answer to that mystery but, rather, by using the canonical gospels as a reference point, to shed some light on possible motivations for Judas' action in betraying Jesus - and how that same Jesus, in line with his treatment of all other sinners in the gospels, might have regarded Judas.  As one senior Catholic source in the UK put it recently, "It is a wonderful story of forgiveness and mercy through the eyes of someone who never believed Jesus was God. Moloney has brought the four Gospels together into one. Even if only half of Jeffrey Archer's readers buy the book, millions of people will read the Gospel for the first time".
    That is about as good an endorsement as one could want!  But at the very least, it is so exciting to see one of the world's leading story tellers teaming up with one of the world's leading biblical scholars, and Salesian to boot!

*German, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.
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