It’s called the good book, and that might be true, but it’s not a satisfying read. The Christian Bible needs some work to be thematically complete. Let’s have a look at why.
The two instalments of the duology, The Old Testament and its sequel The New Testament work quite well together. The Old Testament focuses on the will of God the Father. He is angry, petty, ill-tempered, unfair, and at times cruel. The reader is given the thesis on what God is and He is to be feared. Five hundred or so years later the sequel, The New Testament, was finalised and as a sequel it worked wonderfully. Some of the glaring plot holes are remedied with the introduction of the new covenant, some innocuous events are revealed to have been foreshadowing through the use of allegorical patristic exegesis and most importantly, the antithesis of God the Father, God the Son is introduced. This new presentation of God is kind, loving, compassionate, understanding, and selfless. It is a satisfying resolution of The Old Testament but ultimately a let down because this story of clearly intended to be a trilogy. For a religion to which the number three is so important, the lack of a Third Testament, the testament of God the Holy Spirit presumably a synthesis of the Father and the Son is glaringly absent. Perhaps displaying signs of cruelty and compassion, who knows? It’s now been 1,700 years and we haven’t had a sequel.
The problem of course is that The New Testament was so successful that there has been no need for a sequel. Normally with such a successful entry to a series, we would expect to see that success capitalised on and a sequel rushed into production. Instead of a sequel, the series has been continued with spin-offs of the God the Son character with Christian Science, Mormonism, and other texts from the various Great Awakenings of the last few centuries. Each spin-off has been less successful than the one before it. But maybe there are fears that a third testament would be a let down. Just as Jedi was not as good a movie as Empire the fear is that a Third Testament would not live up to the heights reached by The New Testament. Also, unlike Empire which required a sequel, The New Testament feels like the completion to a story much like The Godfather II. Therein lies another reason for the absence of a third instalment, who wants to see a Godfather III situation all over again?
Beyond the Underground 