What is the title of the novel adapted for Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ?

Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ was adapted from Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel The Last Temptation of Christ.

Kazantzakis published the novel in 1955. It presents a fictionalized, psychologically focused portrayal of Jesus and explores human doubt, temptation, sacrifice, and the conflict between earthly life and divine purpose.

Scorsese’s film was released in 1988, with Willem Dafoe playing Jesus. The movie generated major controversy because it departed from traditional cinematic portrayals and included imagined experiences that were not presented as straightforward biblical events.

The novel itself was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church. The film’s controversy included protests and violence in some places, but its source was a literary work rather than a direct adaptation of a Gospel text.