The Gospel according to H. L. Hix

Publication Date: December 1, 2020
Paperback, 176 pages
ISBN: 978-1-937968-74-8

Available from Small Press Distribution

First we have to talk about the elephant in the room – though that might not be the most polite term for Jesus! For many millions of people around the world, Jesus is the Son of God, the divine source of their salvation, his story told in the familiar four gospels of the Bible, and any tampering with that story understandably will be met with suspicion, distrust, even hostility. So let’s begin with what this book isn’t. H. L. Hix covers this in detail in his Introduction to The Gospel, but for now it’s enough to say that this isn’t Jesus Christ, Superstar, or The Last emptation of Christ. Nothing in this Gospel secularizes or desacralizes Jesus Christ. You don’t get less of the divine Jesus here, you get more.

That’s because Hix has gone back to the original source materials, both the canonical and noncanonical gospels and histories and stories of the life of Jesus, and created out of them a single, more comprehensive and nuanced narrative. A good analogy is to film editing. Most movie directors shoot far more film than ever makes it into the version we see on the screen, and much of that film ends up on the editing room floor, the result of commercial decisions that may be far removed from what the director intended for the film. Occasionally the director gets the chance to re-edit the film to restore that lost material, producing a “Director’s Cut” that may be very different from the commercial film release. So we can think of The Gospel as an ultimate “Director’s Cut” of the story of Jesus, with all of those bits that didn’t make the official version (edited by early church leaders to serve a specific agenda) at last restored. Something for those enthusiasts who want to dig deeper, to know more.

But that’s not all he’s done. Among the other virtues of his Gospel, Hix has restored the meanings of essential words as they would have been understood by contemporary audiences when the source materials were first spoken and written, overcoming what he calls “translation inertia”, the tendency to retain a translation over time even after the sense of the word has changed for current readers. Thus “Lord” becomes “Boss”, and the apostles “apprentices”, changes that allow for an entirely novel understanding of the role of Jesus and of believers’ relationship to him. Also of crucial importance, Hix has eliminated gendered language wherever possible, in the process inventing new terms that decouple our understanding of Jesus and divinity from the limitations of gendered human bodies and relationships. Thus “Son” becomes “Xon”, for example, a form of literary transubstantiation that renders the divine even more transcendent, and in the process opens the Gospel and its promise of salvation to greater inclusivity.

Gospel, of course, means “good news.” And the very good news of The Gospel according to H. L. Hix, for believers and for non-believers alike, is that what has been called “the greatest story ever told”, the life of Jesus, just got even greater.


Praise for The Gospel according to H. L. Hix

Slangy, familiar, yet freshly strange, all embracing, challenging, reverently irreverent, H. L. Hix’s The Gospel is a faithfully non-canonical narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus. The Story lives. The Dance never ends. Fear not. Amen.
—Joy Williams, author of Ninety-Nine Stories of God

I’m amazed that nobody has really done this, not in this way. H. L. Hix, a first-rate poet and critic, has translated and edited the gospels with a deft hand, harmonizing the story in a way that brings the astonishing voice of Jesus to the fore. This is a brilliant piece of writing, make no mistake: a combination of Hix and the great gospel writers, whoever they were. I will gratefully keep this on my shelf beside the Bible.
—Jay Parini, author of Jesus: The Human Face of God & The Way of Jesus
R

eading The Gospel, I found myself like those at Emmaus whose eyes are opened suddenly, aware at last of all they have sealed their hearts against. I have been waiting all my life for someone like H. L. Hix to bring together the various gospels, canonical or not, into a singular account of the life and teachings of Jesus. What is this strange and wonderous book before us—newly translated, compiled, and composed for the first time as a single text, as new telling—if not good news?
—Eric Pankey, author of Apocrypha and Dismantling the Angel

Enjoy The Gospel, and discuss it with someone. To put it differently, just try to read this without imagining yourself in a discussion about it either among Biblical scholars (my first thought was that the Westar Institute, Sojourners, and the like ought consider this text), or people who are unsatisfied with church doctrines (I’m hosting a picnic next week), or clerical staff in a diocese that could use a little shaking up, or a book group that selects books that unsettle expectations. The Introduction delivers a most succinct and entertaining narration of the pragmatic ramifications of the legacy of the Gospels that made it into the Bible, and why it is most appropriate to resist the foregone conclusions that dominate contemporary expectations of what they are. If only Biblical studies as a field enjoyed such engaging clarity. Perhaps in addition to source, form and redaction criticism, we can now speak of Hix criticism.

Hix also argues for the value of his constructive wagers with refreshing brevity and boldness. He tells us he is doing what was done in the writing of the Biblical Gospels: He’s writing a Gospel. The Gospel. His transparency with regard to the sources illuminates his remarkable breadth of knowledge pertinent to source and form criticism. Hix’s mastery and obvious delight in weaving a narrative arc by drawing from forty-eight additional sources to the Biblical Gospels, an arc that begins with the birth of Mary and concludes with the resurrection, elevates the reading to a kind of artistry that specialists will particularly enjoy. May Thunder: Perfect Mind find xerself (see below) appearing again and again on our contemporary climate crisis landscapes.

Three particularly relevant strategies that Hix uses include: staying true to simple Greek words rather than translating them with specialized English words, and in light of this first effort, he translates an immanent xe (see next item) in the sky we know rather than a transcendent God in heaven that we cannot know, and finally he “tilts” gender. Biblical scholarship has been described up to this point as offering three paths: progressive feminist (such as Mary Daly’s Wickedary), gender neutral (avoid pronouns at all cost) or retention of He, Father, and Son, claiming Biblical inerrancy. Hix delivers another alternative with the introduction of fother (mother + father), and perhaps with a nod to Generation X or Z, the xon of humanity replaces the Son of Man, and the pronouns he, him, and his become xe, xer, and xers (where the x is pronounced as zh). These three very serious forms of strategic play transform the reading and thus reflection on The Gospel. This book should be entertained by people interested in the enduring power of Biblical narratives. It should be discussed by people who want to challenge the theological, class and gender hierarchies of Christian doctrine and institutions. And those interested in the audacity of The Gospel as it challenges and transforms narrative will find herein a worthy jest for serious contemplation.
—Mary L. Keller, Westar Fellow and author of the forthcoming Spirit of Climate Change

H. L. Hix’s previous work includes a retelling of the Book of Job, as “A Manual of Happiness” in First Fire, Then Birds, and a redaction and
translation of a sayings gospel, as “Near Fire” in Rain Inscription.