When you think of Bear Grylls, you may associate him with such concepts as survival, mountaineering, scouting, or perhaps urine. Yet for all his celebrated output on TV and in written work as an adventurer, he has said that he would sacrifice all of it for the sake of his latest book, which for him trumps them all.
It’s called The Greatest Story Ever Told, and it covers the life of a certain Jesus of Nazareth. Of course, this story has been told before, but Bear decided to take a novel approach: writing in the first person.
Not from Jesus’ perspective, however. Like the TV show The Chosen, Bear’s approach is to tell the story of Jesus through the eyes of his closest followers. Specifically, Mary his mother, Thomas, Peter, John, and Mary Magdalene. I was interested in how Bear, being a committed Christian, approached getting in the heads of these characters—and indeed inventing their thoughts and dialogue—without worrying that he was meddling with a story that ought not be meddled with.
So, I invited him onto the show to tell me about the process of rewriting the most famous story of all time.
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P.S.: My job as an interviewer is always to get the most out of my guest, which means focusing on their conversational interests and strengths. If you are expecting some kind of debate, you will not get it today. I am sometimes accused of not being ‘hard enough’ on religious guests. I understand this concern, but it always varies with whoever is on the show.
When I speak with debaters and apologists, I try to challenge them as forthrightly as possible, at least presenting the best objections I can find (see the Knechtles, Dinesh D’Souza, Brant Pitre, and, of course, Peter Hitchens, for example). When I speak with people who do not usually engage in such things, but have been kind enough to come on my show and discuss their work, I will still pose interesting challenges and objections, but I am not going to attempt to debate them (see Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Penn Badgley, or Rainn Wilson). Bear falls into the latter category.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Retelling Christianity in the First Person
12:36 - Faith and Doubt Come Together
16:46 - Did Bear’s Research Cause Doubt or Faith?
28:01 - Reconciling the Differences Between the Gospels
39:50 - On Not Putting Words in Jesus’ Mouth
48:59 - Where Alex’s Interest in the Gospels Began
55:24 - Travelling Back to the Time of Jesus: Where Would You Go?
