Jesus Christus Erlöser und Fieber - Tagebuch eines Aussätzigen.

by Klaus Kinski

153 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Joey Dhaumya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am surprised by how fiercely political Kinski was. "Jesus Christ Saviour", written as a performance piece, is like a much angrier, stripped down version of The Grand Inquisitor from Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov". Kinski loved Christ for his revolutionary ideals and begrudged the world for making him into an institution instead - an institution that gave birth to dangerous, monolithic forms of hierarchy and oppression. Kinski doesn't entirely call for a "return" to Christ's radical ideas of compassion and forgiveness. His Christ, sickened by humanity, has stopped listening to prayers. The incense "smells of human flesh". One can no longer be apolitical, asocial, indifferent. This has been said for centuries but now Kinski's Jesus says it with divine revulsion. There is hope and there is love but it will not lend itself to be taken for granted.