{"id":2338,"date":"2011-03-14T13:25:53","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T17:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=2338"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:47:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:47:29","slug":"just-in-time-for-easter-james-freys-new-book-about-an-alcoholic-messiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/03\/just-in-time-for-easter-james-freys-new-book-about-an-alcoholic-messiah\/","title":{"rendered":"Just in time for Easter, James Frey's new book about an alcoholic Messiah — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

He strikes again, with a book being released on Good Friday that seems designed to provoke and enrage<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Controversial author James Frey<\/strong><\/a> is set to ignite another firestorm with his new book, \u201cThe Final Testament of the Holy Bible,\u201d in which the second coming of Christ takes place in The Bronx projects \u2014 but the Messiah turns out to be a former alcoholic who impregnates a prostitute.<\/p>\n

Frey \u2014 who was famously ripped apart on TV by Oprah Winfrey and ostracized by the literary community over his partly fabricated memoir, \u201cA Million Little Pieces\u201d \u2014 has sidestepped traditional publishers and teamed up with gallery owner Larry Gagosian, who will publish just 11,000 copies in the U.S. while Frey will self-publish online.<\/p>\n

His Messiah, Ben Jones, starts off as a lonely alcoholic bachelor living in a filthy apartment. He survives a horrific work accident, but strange things then happen that lead to him being recognized as the Messiah. Ben also smokes pot, has sex with a prostitute and makes out with men.
\nBen tells followers that the Bible is \u201cantiquated,\u201d saying, \u201cThe Bible was written 2,000 years ago. The world is a different place now. Stories that had meaning then are meaningless now . . . those books are dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of religion, he says, \u201cFaith is what you use to oppress, to justify, to judge in the name of God . . . a means to rationalize more evil in this world than anything in history. If there were a devil, faith would be his greatest invention.\u201d The novel will be released for maximum impact in the U.S. on Good Friday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The New York Post link<\/strong><\/a> has more.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> Elizabeth Scalia has a few choice thoughts<\/strong><\/a> on Frey\u2019s tome:<\/p>\n

One almost hopes\u2014I actually do hope\u2014that this silly and sad report is a red-herring, and that Frey is working a bait-and-switch, here; that his readers will find themselves introduced not to an uninteresting and wasted self-savior who is as bored and directionless as the rest of the world, but a true light, a beacon who beckons us toward something greater than the world-weary musings of a seventh-grader; an idea that can help us find redemptive meaning in our sufferings and our crucibles, and the endless misery we all see before us, across the world and in our day-to-days.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He strikes again, with a book being released on Good Friday that seems designed to provoke and enrage: Controversial author James Frey is set to ignite another firestorm with his new book, \u201cThe Final Testament of the Holy Bible,\u201d in which the second coming of Christ takes place in The Bronx projects \u2014 but the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[455],"class_list":["post-2338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-that","tag-james-frey"],"yoast_head":"\nJust in time for Easter, James Frey's new book about an alcoholic Messiah -- UPDATED<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"He strikes again, with a book being released on Good Friday that seems designed to provoke and enrage: Controversial author James Frey is set to ignite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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