The Third Testament
by Brothers Johannes Renatus and Christian Spiritus Zinzendorf
The Hermitage at Manhantongo Spirit Garden, $7.

In his great, but underrated novel, Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. confronts his leading character, Kilgore Trout and releases him. Authors who confront their characters are always a treat, and midway through their novel, The Third Testament, Brothers Johannes Renatus and Christian Spiritus Zinzendorf confront the "villians" of their book and invite them to their Hermitage in central Pennsylvania.
Written more from a mythological rather than a theological point of view, this ongoing "concluding section of the Holy Bible," which the authors have based on their work is a serious attempt at a sequel which reinterprets the Bible, focusing on the return of Jesus at three different times in our history. It also honors the pagan concept of the Goddess and her comrades, who are the centering calm in the lives of their men. Gaia, the Earth Goddess existed before Yahweh; Eve remains focused as Adam jumps to conclusions, while the Countess Erdmutha is the voice of reason for her husband, Nicholas. This enlightened vision of the women's place in religious history is libel to offend the fundamentalists.
According to the Brothers Zinzendorf, Cain doesn't murder Abel, it was an accident. Adam banished Cain after Abel was found dead in his brother's arms, but Adam never examined the evidence of his son's death. When Jesus is reincarnated in an 18th Century aristocratic German family, he loves his "brothers" but his Father objects, so he relocates to colonial America. Like all families, there are conflicts between the parents which separate them from their parents. Gaia wants Yahweh to retire, because he's imprisoned Satan, who is Jesus' twin brother, while allowing the "good son" to relive the end of his human existence again and again. Countess Erdmutha does the same, but has a strong sense of the drama, directing the topic on her deathbed.
The Brothers Zinzendorf use humor to contrast the relationships betwen the men in charge and the women. While Yahweh, Adam and Nicholas get drunk and complain about their lives from a negative viewpoint, the women are more clear-headed in a similar scene. I was reading The Third Testament while the television was full of news coverage about the debris and death after the terrorist attacks, and found it interesting that Yahweh reacts to the damage he's caused by condemning the world he created.
With regard to the above comment that it's a treat to read about authors confronting their characters, the Brothers Zinzendorf use this as a device to bring their book into modern times, trying to send a message about the post-Christian concept of coming into contact with the divine. While it leads to a reconciliation between Satan and Yahweh, the reader would like more of the interaction between the Brothers and the convicted offspring, Satan, Cain and Christian (the German aristocratic son). The Brothers Zinzendorf end their book with The Hymns of Brother Christian Spiritus Zinzendorf, many of which honor the Goddess, Gaia. They also conclude that the Third Testament will never be finished, because we are always adding something of ourselves to the book. For those of us re-examining our spiritual path, The Third Testament is an ideal book to place our religious past into a new perspective. (For ordering information, see FYI)