Meanwhile, The Third Jesus, has received high praise from Harvey Cox, a highly respected theologian and Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard, and many church leaders. In a review, Cox said, 'The Third Christ is bound to provoke both admiration and condemnation...' The book continues to be a bestseller -- along with his novel, Buddha: A Story Of Enlightenment -- and is outselling Pope Benedict's book on Jesus. Both books were published about a month ago.
But Dr Chopra does not like to ignore fanatics. "My response was that if you do a DNA analysis on Jesus (which is a politically incorrect thing to say!), you will find he is closer to me and Osama bin Laden than to you because he was a Semite. And Arabs and Jews are Semites; they are first cousins. So where did you create this Western, blue-eyed God?"
Dr Chopra pauses for a few minutes, trying not to be angry. "The funny thing is when you give them hard facts, with the year, with the reference, they don't know what to say!"
He has also angered a few Buddhists. "Some conservative Buddhists, especially those who have been converted here in America and Canada, haven't really liked my novel (Buddha)," he says. "They believe I should not take dramatic license. They are missing the point. Like the book on Jesus, the novel on Buddha is also trying to make Buddha accessible to people who thought they cannot understand him."
Dr Chopra adds with a chuckle: "Well, the Dalai Lama has told me he liked the book."
Also read: Nicolas Cage to play Sadhu?
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