The Murder of Christwas not primarily a historical study. In his characteristic way,
Reich utilizes the Jesus story—the parables, the gospel narratives, the historical informa-
tion—to make his own points. At the same time, he writes with the conviction that much of
what he describes was actually experienced by the historical Christ, his followers, and his
enemies. Reich does not utilize the kind of ironic, distancing device Freud employed when
he introduced as a “Just So” story his seriously held hypothesis that a patricide and its seque-
lae formed the origin of civilization. Reich was writing chiefly in a prophetic vein. Read one
way, the combination of historical and prophetic modes of discourse weaken each other: the
reader wonders how true the history is and receives no careful answers; he also wonders
what the allegorical digressions have to do with the history of Jesus. Read another way, the
combination enhances both elements: the Christ story is illuminated by Reich’s concepts,
while the latter was vivified by their embodiment in the life and death of Jesus. Reich’s prose
is concordant with his aims. It is forceful, incantatory, alive, and simple. As in Listen, Little
Man!, he was also at times repetitious, frenzied, and self-pitying. Withal, it stands as a fine
example of the best of his late writings, wherein he dropped his academic garb and showed,
in Yeats’s phrase, “there’s more enterprise in walking naked.”
Reich took Christ as the supreme example of unarmored life. His is a Christ who
loves children,forgives sinners, and has healing powers. Christ can heal because he has a
strong energy field capable of exciting the sluggish, “dead” energy systems of the wretched.
Most controversially, Reich’s Christ is a lover of women, as evinced by their devotion to him
and by such remarks as: “Let him who is free of sin cast the first stone.” The sex-repressive
side of Christianity Reich ascribed to Jesus’ rational dislike of pornography and to a rigidi-
fication of this notion by Saint Paul. For Reich, Saint Paul, the organizer, was to Christ what
Stalin was to Marx—the distorter of the original truth.
Reich dealt with the diverse roles and motivations played by Judas, Pontius Pilate,
and the Pharisees in the murder of Christ. But, basically, he indicted armored man. Average
men and women flock to Christ in expectation of a miraculous deliverance from their
armor. When he cannot rescue them in the way they expect, they turn against him. If they
do not lead the crucifixion,they do not stop it—indeed,they support it. In turn, Christ is
disappointed in the people, even his closest disciples. Reich quotes Christ citing Isaiah in
what amounts to a description ofthe armor:
You shall indeed hear but never understand,
and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are heavy ofhearing,
and their eyes have been closed.For Reich, the murder of Christ goes on continually. Every child is Christ, its spon-
taneity and genuine curiosity deadened by destructive familial and social practices. Every
adult who somehow manages to preserve his or her liveliness and who has also the talent to
368 Myron SharafFury On Earth