I was still feeling my Easter chocolate hangover when I read Heresy, the new book by Catherine Nixey about the pleasingly Life of Brian environment in which Jesus managed to prevail. Wannabe messiahs were rife, theatrically healing the blind and lame (so much easier to fake than, say, growing a new arm for an amputee); walking on water (a standard trick listed in the era’s magic books) and affecting the guru look with flowing hair. One of these chancers was so frustrated that he couldn’t grow the hippie hair essential to the shtick that he had to fashion his own prophet-era hair extensions.
Heresy is excellently thought-provoking: it had me brooding on the egos of mortals, how we hate to credit higher powers
