Lamb: The Gospel According To Biff Christ's Childhood Pal

Being a writer in current times is becoming more and more of a difficult job, having to take precautions not to offend the masses by writing in a seeming diplomatic way. All in order to be labeled politically correct. Making it a delicate job to write one's own opinion or to tell a story from a foreign point of view. Yet these are all things writer Christopher Moore does in his book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Not only does he accomplish this task but he tells his story in such away, to bring together different views of the same issue. A fantastic insightful and charming coming of age story of one of the most controversial beings in existence, Jesus Christ. Christopher Moore’s writing success can not be pinned down to a single element. It’s his creative mind and diverse writing style that makes Moore's books so intriguing. Yet there is a outstanding theme among his writings that lets Moore truly personify himself in his own words. That is his humor. Not only does Christopher Moores sense of humor fill his
book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, with good laughs but it is through his use of humor and satire that Moore is able to write on such a controversial topic in a way that seems anything but.
Humor is deeply needed in society. Its job is not to just give a relaxing laugh, but instead a deeply serious matter of helping the mental well-being of those who seek it. Not just optional pleasure whenever we feel the need to be cheered up but a way to draw us back to the things that really matter. Comedy helps us with a multitude of ailments, the most important being treatment for our own despair. A great deal of humor picks the darkest parts of our lives; our insecurities and worries about death, failure, and humiliation and shines light on them. Allowing us to confront them, to be able to laugh in the face of the things that scare us. For instance take the dying of Christ whose story deeply rooted in the saddest part of the Christian theologies, compared to Christopher’s Moore's light hearted and funny adventure of the same story. Moore takes the story of life of Christ and emerges it in humility and humor. Humanizing the characters, giving the reader a personal relationship into the life of Christ before he succumbs to his historical fate. The story isn't a sad one but rather a happy one, being able to laugh at the misery of the dying of a man who just wanted to enlighten and help society. The job of humor isn't to ignore these subjects of misery, worry and the things we are afraid to face but to embrace them. So that we can hope to see them in a perspective light;thus is the function of satie.
Satire is a genre of humor long riddled throughout human history. If not always appreciated, it has been long used as a method of persuasion. Stated in Charles Gunner's research paper Satire as Persuasion, he argues that satire’s humor may be enjoyed without always being understood. However “....in the long run, did more to prevent counter argumentation.”(Grunner). From reddrick filled political cartoons to Christopher Moores witty comedy that fills his book.;Satire is used to put humor into rather serious topics to diffuse the tension that they bring. The hope is to open their viewers mind by bringing down the walls of defence that are associated with serious topics. By presenting the topic in a humorous way it brings the topic into lighter perspective. This is the use of the character Biff in Moore’s Lamb; while not being able to divert from the outline given for Jesus, Biff (the main character) is the book's comic relief, offsetting the seriousness of Christ and his journey. Biff is the perfect persona for a relatable main character. From the beginning Biff is shown as the lovable idiot, he's the person we can all see in ourselves. Biff is just a person whose best friend happens to be the Messiah. In this way we've all felt out shadowed in some way or another just like Biff. However Biff’s perspective in the book is too look past Joshua’s (Jesus) talents so that he can look at him as just his friend, a real person. Which may be a point Moore is trying to make. By telling the story from this perspective and expanding the messages throughout the entirety of his book Moore releases the tension from the idea of a telling of a new Gospel. Moore takes Jesus down from an untainable pedestal and shows him more as a relatable character who's just trying to live up to his destiny even in the face of uncertainty. In this way it takes away the stigma associated with Christ's life and allows the book to be read for what it truly is; not a blasphemic telling of the story of Christ but a well researched coming of age story of one of history's greatest figures. “I wasn’t worried about the people who read the book, but those who didn’t.” Christopher Moore states in his interview about Lamb with CNN. Hence his use of satire seems to have been success, due to his humanization of his characters and his ability to make a “long run”(Gunner) argument throughout his book. The response from the general public including Atheist to Christians alike has been largely positive and appreciative.
Religion and humor have had somewhat of an unexamined road together. While both are accepted as characteristics of the human condition, what it means and how they connect is unclear. They both share definitions that on some capacity are undefinable but humanly desirable. One assumption however, interlaces the two by their very core and that is they are both inherently good, healthy and liberating. Both are able to take one away from the self to show that perspective, can bring people together and just as easily divide them. Perhaps of most importance is showing a human need of happiness. So then it is a perplexing question of how the two seem to be so widespread and separated in culture while and at their very core strikingly similar. The answer may lie in the fact that religion tries to rely on universal laws or certainties that conform with some sort of cosmic order. In this preoccupation with certainties must eventually lie an uncertainty or an unknown. As Richard Gardner discusses in his essay Humor and Religion: An Overview “religion then may be conceived as a complex interplay of congruity and incongruity that inevitably entails humor.” However to admit this, such as through humor, would then be to agree with the uncertainty to some extent. And to agree with or acknowledge the humor would be to discredit the source or even to have the source looked at in a less serious manner. These are both problems religion has been struggling to come to terms with since the beginning.
Christopher Moore’s use of humor in his book brings the two together harmoniously while also telling the adventures and experiences of Joshua with an open mind.
As stated, despite what people may have anticipated the response from “Lamb” was overwhelmingly positive even from the Clergy, “Moore treats the historical Jesus gently, even honorably, focusing on the ‘love your fellow human’ message.” CNN says. For it was Moore's oath he took to himself was “First, do no harm.” He stuck to that by first pouring himself into his research, making sure all of the details of his book had correct historical, geological and theological footing. From there he takes the adventure of Joshua and Biff to all eves of the theology in Joshua's search for enlightenment. Examples are, their own Jewish home of Israel to the Roman cities eventually to the corners of the eastern world on their search for the Three wise men that witnessed Joshua’s
birth.
The first of which Balthasar teaches Joshua Taoism,specifically the three jewels of Taoism; compassion that leads to courage, moderation that leads to generosity, and humiliation that leads to leadership. While not all of Taoism fits with Joshua, he took compassion to heart as he would go on to preach how everyone was welcome in God’s kingdom. Next they ventured to find the second wise man Gaspar in the Temple of the Celestial Buddha. There they stayed for six years while Joshua grew enlightened to the way of Buddhist learning about detachment, living in the moment and the ways of meditation. Most of all Joshua began to see the realization that we as people are all connected. That Joshua “being the agent of change, and about compassion for everyone because everyone is part of another, and most important, that there is a bit of God in each of us,” (Moore 305). This being one of the main points Gaspar tries to teach Joshua. While on his voyage of knowledge with the buddhist he discovers the Yeti on the mountain from who he learns of true innocence and the evils of man and how his own destiny is intertwined with that. However, the Buddhists were weary of teaching them. Something that Joshua didn't agree with, that promising to teach anyone who wanted to learn was the right thing to do. From there they learn of the dark side of religion finding a cult that sacrifices children to their deity, from this experience Joshua swears to no more blood and the want to bring his compassion and knowledge to everyone. After narrowly escaping the cult they go off to meet the final wise man Melchior the Yogi from which Joshua learns the ways of Hinduism. Joshua then learns the ways of yoga and detachment and how to perform more miracles. Here he really begins to realize how he must step up to his destiny and become the Messiah. Joshua excluded detachment from his teaching realizing he couldn't detach from the world in order to teach and care for it. Through all of these teachings Joshua created a new religion from Judaism which he saw and knew was outdated for the common man. This very important and clarifying aspect of Christ's life was all fabricated by Christopher Moore. He stayed true to Christ and in no way deviating from his teachings especially the “love your fellow human” message. He brought together a multitude of other theologies to bring him to this conclusion in a way showing the similarities of all of them. Not only does he show the commons and the goods he has Joshua point out what doesn't fit. His new religion Christianity, became a combination of all the religions best bits.
In doing this Christopher Moore makes a big statement about christianity and the other theologies in general. Yet he still manages to convey his points in a humorous and unthreatening way. He does this successfully by not playing on the discredit of the uncertainty left in the “missing years” of Christ's life, but by playing on the uncertainty itself. That is he plays on the unknowns of what could have brought Christ to the enlightened prophet he is known for while staying true to the outline of who Christ essentially was; already laid out in the new testament. Christopher Moore uses his style of humor less in the satirical way of laughing at the uncertainty but rather with it. In this way, his writings don't seem blasphemous but but rather adoring as they add to the credibility and wonder of the Son of God. Christopher Moore removes Christs from the essentially humorous parts in substitute of his best pal Biff and the situations they encounter. While leaving the important messages and awakenings to the one best to preach them, Jesus.
Christopher's Moore’s retelling of the Gospel of Christ during the missing years is littered with themes including loyalty,courage,friendship,and most of all acceptance. The significance of “love thy fellow human” message is clear throughout the book. It is shown through the combination of morals and ideals of the teachings of many different religions guiding Joshua through his enlightenment to the very message itself that Joshua brings back to his disciples. A message only possible to be brought out by the uncertainty of Christ's upbringing and only cheerfully agreeable through the lighthearted and funny tone of the book. In summary, Moore has done something special with his book Lamb, he has successfully brought humor, religion and morals all together in the form of a new gospel. Not only has he accomplished this with overwhelming praise to his work he has managed to do it in a time where writing on any three of those things is seen as a challenge.