A Creed for the Third Millennium [Import] [Hardcover]

COLLEEN McCULLOUGH (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: London: Macdonald, 1985.; 1St Edition edition (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0356120511
• ISBN-13: 978-0356120515
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Colleen McCullough was born in Australia. A neuropathologist, she established the department of neurophysiology at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney before working as a researcher and teacher at Yale Medical School for ten years. Her writing career began with the publication of Tim, followed by The Thorn Birds, a record-breaking international bestseller. She lives on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific with her husband, Ric Robinson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sophomoric, but well-written and engaging, December 28, 2001

By 

Brian Melendez (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Creed for the Third Millennium (Mass Market Paperback)

You know the story. The child Jesus Christ is born during the reign of Caesar Augustus, despite the efforts of the local monarch Herod. He reaches adulthood during the reign of Augustus's hand-picked successor Tiberius, and preaches a message of spiritual renewal to an oppressed population. His apostle Judas Iscariot acts as his ministry's manager, but later betrays him to the government. The story is later told for the ages by a Gentile named Luke.

This book translates that story into the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately the translation is rather sophomoric. Dr. Joshua Christian (Jesus Christ) is born during the presidency of Augustus "Gus" Rome. His story unfolds during the presidency of Augustus's hand-picked successor Tibor Reece (Tiberius), when the government invents "Operation Messiah" in order to bring a message of spiritual renewal to an oppressed citizenry, despite the reluctance of Cabinet secretary Harold Magnus (Herod). Christian's advocate Judith Carrioll (Judas Iscariot) manages the project, to his ultimate detriment, while hired biographer Lucy Greco (Luke the Greek) tells his story for the masses.

"Creed" is both less and more than a simple analogy for a time-transplanted gospel. Despite the many unsubtle analogies to the New Testament, "Operation Messiah" does not follow--cannot follow--the story of Jesus too literally, so author Colleen McCullough experiments with twists on the story in its twenty-first-century setting. Sometimes her twists makes sense, but more often they do not, and they leave the reader wondering where she was trying to go with her story. She may not have known herself. But she paints an interesting twenty-first-century America, despairing over climatic and economic changes, whose government goes searching for someone "capable of teaching a sick nation how to heal itself" and finds--then elevates--a made-to-order messiah.

Even though this book slathers on the parallel names and other biblical analogs a little too thickly, I did enjoy it. The plot left much to be desired, but the writing was very good, the narrative flowed easily (even when the author seemed unsure about where it was flowing to), and the story was occasionally thought-provoking. The book was not deep, but it was engaging, and in the end a satisfying read if you are looking for entertainment and not philosophy.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A pleasant surprise from a familiar author, October 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Creed for the Third Millennium (Mass Market Paperback)

"Creed" is an unexpected offering from one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Colleen McCullough's "Tim" and "The Thornbirds" are two of my favorite books, but I don't usually admit to being a fan since these stories are somewhat simplistic romances. This book is very different from her other works. While the writing style is still quite simple and her symbolism is much too obvious, the novel offers a thought-provoking vision of a not-too-distant and all-too-possible future. The creation of a modern day messiah through the government's manipulation of the media is a fascinating premise. This book makes me a little less shy about admitting that I am a McCullough fan.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indictment of Our Society on the Verge of the Millennium, January 14, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (May Retta GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Creed for the Third Millennium (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this years ago and it stays with me. I looked it up just now to recommend it to a friend. I didn't feel that this book should be so simply explained as an attempt to rehash the story of the New Testament. I feel that it showed the fallacy of Man and Orwellian government at the start of the New Millennium attempting to artificially create a passion similar to that of Jesus to appease and inspire the demoralized dumb masses. I see parallells of this book in our society today. I hope that having read "Stranger In a Strange Land" didn't affect my perception of this book to much, because comparisons can be made with it also. This was not written for the "Thornbirds" crowd. "Creed for the Third Millennium" is worth reading and thinking about.