My husband bought our 13 year old a book called The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero By Stephen Skelton. I had never heard of this book until my husband brought it home. Since all the boys in this house are superhero fans it totally made sense for this book to be in our house. Some of the things I found interesting as I glanced through the book are:
1. Superman film and TV writers have confirmed that they modeled Superman after Christ.
2. Superman and his Father share the last name of El, which is Hebrew for God.
3. The Superman stories contain deliberate parallels to Christ's death, resurrection and even his second coming.
My son just finished the book and he really enjoyed it. I asked him to write a review of the book for my blog. Here is what he wrote:
The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero
By Stephen Skelton
I thought this book was very good. It deals with the similarities betweens Superman, and Christ, and why Superman is a Christ figure. It is very very sure to make sure you understand he is a Christ FIGURE. Not Christ. It deals with the fact that Superman lived (And eventually died and rose again) for others, risking (And eventually losing) all, for truth justice and the American way, and that Jesus lived (And eventually died and rose again) for others, risking it all (and eventually losing it all) all, to forgive us of our sins. It deals with why it's ok to see Christ in a fictional character, it deals with the fact that Jesus used parables, in the Bible, which were lessons inside of stories, or entertainment.
Here are a few parallels between Christ, and Superman:
“On the Superman: The Special Edition DVD the writer of the film says, 'the metaphor was clearly there when Jor-El (The Father) sends Superman to earth, with God sending Christ to save humanity.”
“On the Smallville Pilot episode DVD the director of the episode says “I thought there were a lot of metaphors between Clark (Kent) and Jesus actually. And I tried to throw in as many of them as I could.”
“In Wizard magazine, the director of Superman Returns says, “Superman is the Jesus Christ of superheroes.” and in entertainment weekly he says that Superman returns is, “A story about what happens when messiahs come back...”
All three of these quotes were taken from the book.
This book was quite good. It goes through the comic books, the movies, and the Smallville TV series, all separately. It goes through all the godlike qualities he has, and even says why he's like Jesus, and there are no parallels to other false gods. In short, The Gospel According To The World's Greatest Superhero, while a bit unorthodox, is definitely worth picking up, don't disregard this as being some silly little joke. It's a very good book and I recommend it, especially if you are a comic book fan.
Posted by J-Mom
