The Man Who Met God In A Bar - Review

What would happen if Jesus Christ had come during the modern era instead of 2,000 years ago? What would have been different? How would the crucifixion have looked? Resurrection? Ascension? Capon attempts to answer all of these with this retelling of the gospel story. At times it is funny, at times profound, and at times it doesn't seem to quite work, but it is one of the best of the "non-gospel gospels" I have read. 

The real value for a book like this is how it changes the way you read the original gospels. It is very easy to miss the humor, weirdness, and the supernatural in gospels that are saturated in a foreign culture, but this book will help shed light on all of that. The gospels are the oddest, most beautiful, and the only really true stories you will ever read, and this book will help deepen your appreciation for them and for the man they are about. Anytime someone writes a work like this they are treading the line between heresy and helpfulness, but Capon certainly errs on the side of helpfulness.

It's not Capon's best writing, but it is still a must read for anyone who likes his other books. It doesn't all work and there is hardly anyone who will read it that won't disagree with something, but overall it is a great read that will make you laugh out loud and reexamine scriptures you have read dozens of times in new ways. Recommended.


This is a hard book to find a copy of, and expensive to boot. Think about other Bible stories that you could retell with a modern twist. What would the purpose be? Would it shed light on Scripture or obscure the real facts? What story would you like to retell?