The Babo Gospels

This book, like the Bible, is composed of essays and other writings on religion that were composed at different times, and in different states of mind, to some extent, even by different persons or rather different dimensions of my personality, none of which have received divine inspiration. There are dimensions to it that are illustrative of my anger, disappointment, puzzlement, curiosity, hopefulness, cynicism, skepticism, and always, I think, my tendency to see the world through irony, from satire to just the joy and relief of silliness and absurdity. It is hoped, however, that it is a little less internally contradictory than the Bible, and a lot more sensible. But I doubt one is likely to ever find The Babo Gospels in the bedside table drawer of a hotel room or being thumped by a drawling evangelist preacher with a hair-sprayed pompadour and wearing a glossy suit.

This book of “gospels” and ”parables” is not a translation of some recently discovered fragmented papyrus manuscript from the first century A.D. that theologians and biblical scholars will pour over seeking to discover if John the Baptist complained of hemorrhoids, or if Mary Magdalene caught the bouquet at the Marriage Feast of Cana. It is composed from many years of thinking and writing about religious belief that only goes back to when the author first got the courage to allow doubts and questions about faith to creep out of his subconscious into the light of reason. So it is only the result of (to be a little biblical about it) a requisite “forty years” in the desert of metaphysical cognitive struggle. Hence, the tenor of its chapters, and even within, will sometimes change, from somewhat scholarly, to memoir, to satire, to philosophical, to historical, owing to the fact that it takes or engages, every facet of intellection to make one’s way through a journey from the indoctrination of innocent childhood into the insistent doubts of late adulthood. At times I have employed my authorial “poetic license” to the point of revocation, but I hope the tonal variation serves to spice things up and provide some variety in a work that threatened to get biblical in length. Maybe someday in a far, far distant future some aliens will find their way to a ruined and depopulated Earth and start digging for evidence of past life. They might chance upon a fragmented copy of The Babo Gospels and like the discoverers at Qumran or of other ancient texts be given to wonder who its author was and where he came from. Perhaps in the confusion of translation and fragmentation they will conclude that the book was written or inspired by a god named Babo and they will adopt him as their “one, true” god and worship him for thousands of years. Why not. I hope not; it’s not a responsibility I would want.

Sebastian Gerard is a fictional name (actually the first names of his Italian-American grandfathers) for the fiction and non-professional books of a retired university professor who is an author of over a dozen fiction and non-fiction books and hundreds of articles, essays, and scripts. For background for his writing, he has traveled, lived and worked in over seventy countries over the past forty years. Gerard's is also the author of For Goodness Sake: A Novel of the Afterlife of Suzie Wong and is also the author of a screenplay based on that book. Literary reviews, other publications, musical compositions and other information about Sebastian Gerard is available online at UrbisMedia-Ltd.com.