This provocative literary rendering of the life of Jesus Christ has courted controversy since its publication by depicting a Christ far more human than the one seen in the Bible—a holy figure who was nonetheless only a man like any other, subject to fear, doubt, and pain. In elegant, thoughtful prose Nikos Kazantzakis follows this Christ as he struggles to live out God’s will for him, powerfully suggesting that it was Christ’s ultimate triumph over his flawed humanity, when he gave up the temptation to run from the cross and willingly laid down his life for mankind, that truly made him the venerable redeemer of men. The basis for Martin Scorcese’s 1988 film of the same name, The Last Temptation of Christ stands alongside other frequently banned classics like The Satanic Verses as a brave and incisive reckoning between a religion’s founding tenets and their more difficult implications.