millennium, an anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ. The book continually
reverses current geopolitical arrangements, for example a sort of European
Economic Community and an Arab equivalent share power and dominance; England
has a communist government and no longer recognizes a king, although the
monarch is still recognized as King of Australia and New Zealand (McCullough,
1985:376).
The story is in a sense an analogy, often with subtle but significant twists, of
the life of the Biblical Jesus and McCullough portrays the protagonist, Joshua
Christian, as being unable to fulfil his destiny and also unaware that he is being
manipulated. The English name Jesus derives from the Latin I esus and the Greek
I esous, a rendering of the once common Hebrew name Yeshua, which is a
contraction of Yahoshua or Joshua (Knight and Butler, 2007:32). Delighted when
he is given the opportunity to write a book, Joshua, however, has writer’s block and
a ghost writer (the holy ghost) writes the book, God in Cursing, which takes its title
from part of an the Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem, which reads, ... for God, in
cursing, gives us better gifts than men in benediction (McCullough, 1985:192).
The McCullough character of Joshua is very similar to the Jesus created by
Nikos Kazantzakis in The Last Temptation of Christ (1951). That work follows the
life of the Biblical Jesus Christ but as its thesis holds that Jesus, while free from sin
was still subject to every temptation that ordinary humans face; fear, doubt,
depression and lust. Kazantzakis argues in the preface to his work that by facing
and conquering these temptations, Jesus became the perfect model for us to follow.
I n McCullough’s novel the protagonist, Joshua Christian, although he believes in
God, a god that is never defined and has nothing to do with institutional religion, is
confused about who he is and what his mission is to be. He sometimes sees himself
as a messiah figure, for instance, when Judith accuses him of egomania and “... of
being on a God trip”, but otherwise, at other times, as completely human
(McCullough, 1985:324-326). I ndeed, Joshua says that human beings must “...
learn to live with God and self at the centre of their personal universe” (McCullough,
1985:100). Joshua’s God is transcendent and beyond human comprehension,
however, in one scene, when Joshua becomes demented he believes that by
crucifying himself, Christlike, he will prove that “...a mortal man with no more god in
him than any other can achieve a Christ-like status (McCullough, 1985:413); at
another point, though, Joshua utters that he must be “... a man in order to help
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