The Last Temptation of Christ

Nikos Kazantzakis · 1883–1957 · Greece

Originally Ho Teleftaios Peirasmos (Greek)

Why it matters

Christ on the cross imagines an alternate life of marriage, children, and ordinary contentment, and must reject it to complete his sacrifice. Kazantzakis's most controversial book, condemned by the Vatican and threatened with excommunication by the Orthodox Church, dramatizes divinity's struggle against the ordinary pull of the flesh.

At a glance

Dense theological and psychological argument runs beneath a straightforward narrative frame.