The Greatest Story Ever Told by Anthony Abbot
"The Greatest Story Ever Told" by Fulton Oursler is a fictional biography that recounts the life of Jesus Christ, drawing primarily from the narratives of the Gospels while integrating elements from Christian tradition. Its subtitle, "A Tale of the Greatest Life Ever Lived," reflects a grand perspective on Jesus' significance. Oursler's narrative is characterized by a cautious approach, avoiding sensationalism and adhering closely to Gospel accounts, which contributed to its popularity, particularly in post-World War II America, a time marked by a surge in religious fiction.
The novel chronicles key events from Jesus' life, from his birth through his resurrection, while notable gaps, such as his childhood, are left unaddressed. Oursler employs short chapters, occasionally weakening the narrative's chronological flow. The author uses modern narrative techniques, including a retrospective narrator who provides commentary on the historical and cultural context of Jesus' life, highlighting both continuity and change over time.
Thematically, the book underscores Jesus' dual role as a divine figure and a moral teacher, emphasizing his influence on societal norms and religious practices. While it maintains orthodox Christian views, Oursler's portrayal reflects some biases and nuances of his own cultural context. Overall, "The Greatest Story Ever Told" presents a complex, though sometimes diluted, depiction of one of history's most significant figures, inviting readers to explore the intersection of faith, tradition, and storytelling.
The Greatest Story Ever Told by Anthony Abbot
First published: 1949
Edition(s) used:Fulton Oursler’s Greatest: “The Greatest Book Ever Written,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “The Greatest Faith Ever Known.” Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979
Genre(s): Novel
Subgenre(s): Biblical fiction
Core issue(s): Baptism; the cross; Gospels; Incarnation; Jesus Christ; redemption
Principal characters
Jesus Christ , the Messiah, Son of GodMary , Jesus’ motherJoseph , Jesus’ foster father, a carpenterElizabeth , Mary’s cousinZachary , Elizabeth’s husband, a priestJohn the Baptist , Elizabeth and Zachary’s son, Jesus’ cousin and prophet of his comingSamuel of Cana , a friend of Joseph, later called Jesus BarabbasHerod the Great , a king of JudaeaHerod Antipas , Herod the Great’s son, tetrarch of GalileeSalome , Herod the Great’s niece and stepdaughterSimon , renamed Peter by Jesus, a fisherman and leader of the ApostlesJohn , Jesus’ favorite ApostleJudas Iscariot , betrayer of JesusLazarus , whom Jesus raises from the deadMartha , andMary of Bethany , sisters of LazarusPontius Pilate , the Roman governor of PalestineClaudia Procula , the wife of PilateAnnas , the high priest of JerusalemCaiphas , the high priest at the time of Jesus’ death, son-in-law of Annas
Overview
The subtitle of The Greatest Story Ever Told is A Tale of the Greatest Life Ever Lived. Such use of superlatives came easily to Fulton Oursler from his years as senior editor of Reader’s Digest. Yet for the most part, his fictional biography of Jesus Christ eschews superlatives and sensationalism, instead building on the narratives found in the Gospels, with the addition of material long sanctioned by tradition (while often admitting to its lack of canonicity), such as Veronica’s wiping the face of Jesus on the way of the cross. The success of Oursler’s book may partly be attributed to this cautious use of imagination, as well as to the general popularity of religious fiction in postwar America. Bestsellers during this time included The Robe (1942) and The Big Fisherman (1948) by Lloyd C. Douglas, The Miracle of the Bells (1946) by Russell Janney, The Bishop’s Mantle (1947) by Agnes Turnbull, and The Cardinal (1950) by Henry Morton Robinson. Oursler’s novel, however, hewed so closely to the Gospel accounts that it was listed in the nonfiction best-seller lists for 1949.
Oursler’s novel follows the broad outlines of the main chronology of Jesus’ life as set out in the Gospels, from Joseph’s courtship of Mary up to the Resurrection. Oursler does not fill in the blanks in Jesus’ life, such as his childhood or the hidden years before his meeting with John the Baptist. The main problem that Oursler faces in his chronology is the exact sequencing of the events in Jesus’ ministry, which are not consistently ordered in the four Gospel accounts. He gets around this by writing extremely short chapters, which has the effect of weakening the temporal links between the incidents.
One reason to turn a biblical story into fiction is so that characters can be described and thus envisioned. On the first page of the novel, readers learn that Joseph is bald with a “golden” beard, and most of the other characters are also traditionally depicted. Peter is large and bald, John the Baptist large and hairy; Judas is red-haired and clumsy; Mary’s costume often includes a blue garment. Jesus resembles his devotional image, but one element of Oursler’s description of him and Mary is troubling. After the Annunciation, the pregnant Mary becomes paler, as a “newer and purer force” grows within her. Jesus is “smooth and white” when he is born; when he matures, he is described as being “paler” than other men. The association of pallor with sanctity has been used historically to justify racial and class superiority, and while Oursler is generally sensitive to the way certain parts of the Gospel story have been employed unscrupulously in the past, in this case, he expresses the bias of his generation.
Oursler uses a variety of narrative devices to open up his story. His narrator is of the twentieth century, so that he can employ hindsight to explain troubling portions of the Gospels, such as declaring that the crowd’s cry that Jesus’ blood be on them and their descendants has been unfairly used to justify pogroms and genocide or admitting that certain of Jesus’ most gnomic sayings, such as his remarks about parables and belief, have not yet been satisfactorily explained. The narrator comments on the continuity of life in Israel, such as the similarity of fishing equipment used in Jesus’ time and that of the present; at other times, he remarks on the distance between the past and the present, such as the Roman street discovered far beneath the Convent of the Sisters of Zion in Jerusalem. The narrator uses modern terms to describe some behaviors: Salome is said to be suffering from “nympholepsy,” and the crowd outside Pilate’s residence contains “professional pickets.”
The narrator’s hindsight becomes a kind of foresight for Jesus; when he meets each of the apostles, he foresees their martyrdoms—Peter on an upside-down cross, Andrew on an X-shaped cross. The only time this does not occur is when Jesus meets Judas. The narrative becomes curiously circumspect in places; Zachary’s dream is told by Zachary via writing after he is struck dumb. Jesus’ chastisement of the moneychangers in the temple is reported, not narrated, and the agony in the garden of Gethsemane is described from Judas’s point of view when he leads the soldiers there to arrest Jesus. The most interesting use of this distancing technique occurs at the end of the novel when the events of the resurrection emerge in a conversation between Annas and Caiphas seven weeks after the crucifixion.
Christian Themes
Oursler was born a Protestant, became an agnostic, and converted to Catholicism. The 1949 edition of The Greatest Story Ever Told carries both a Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, which represent the Catholic hierarchy’s seal of doctrinal approval. The life of Jesus that Oursler presents is strictly orthodox, although a few extremely conservative critics called it heretical. For Oursler, Jesus is primarily the Son of God, although he reveals his divinity to his followers gradually, so that they will not be shocked. The social aspect of Jesus’ message is emphasized at times, that Jesus is bringing “a social and moral revolution,” particularly in the attitudes of the Jewish clerical hierarchy against him. However, in keeping with his title, Oursler declares that Jesus was “the greatest teller of good stories” who ever lived, “good stories” being a version of the root meaning of the word “gospel.” Thus Jesus’ teaching mission is highlighted as well as his ability to couch his message in terms that transcend place and time.
The particularly Catholic slant to the biography emerges in the treatment of sexuality. Even before he is engaged to Mary, Joseph is criticized by his friend Samuel for his chaste habits. When Joseph learns the precise nature of Mary’s pregnancy, he decides, on his own and to himself, that he will lead a celibate life with her after her child is born, even though they are “profoundly in love.” More important, Joseph gets into an argument with Samuel about Mary’s purification after the birth of Jesus. Samuel asks why Mary, if she is sinless, needs purification. This is an argument not about Jewish rituals but about the Immaculate Conception, the Catholic doctrine that Mary was born without the taint of Original Sin. Joseph gives the somewhat lame answer that they will follow the law.
However, Oursler’s attempt to make Jesus all things—teacher, Son of God, Messiah, social revolutionist—has the effect of not only lessening his impact as a literary character but also diluting his religious dimensions. In addition, Oursler’s tendency to present certain key scenes secondhand has the effect of distancing their significance, leading to a curiously muted ending of the “greatest story,” where one might have expected notes of renewed certitude, vindication, and triumph.
Sources for Further Study
Allitt, Patrick. “The American Christ.” American Heritage Magazine 39 (November, 1988): 128-41. Traces the particularly American interpretations of the figure of Jesus in fiction: as capitalist, socialist, public relations genius, and therapist.
Detweiler, Robert. “Christ in American Religious Fiction.” Journal of Bible and Religion 32 (1964): 8-14. Judicious overview of Jesus as both literary character and religious figure. Places Oursler’s novel in the context of its genre.
Oursler, Fulton. Behold This Dreamer: An Autobiography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1964. Oursler describes his life and his religious beliefs.
Oursler, Fulton. “The Greatest Thing in My Life.” In The Road to Damascus, edited by John A. O’Brien. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1949. Oursler explains how his conversion to Catholicism arose from his journeys to the Holy Land and resulted in the production of The Greatest Story in the World both as novel and a long-running radio show.