Chris Matheson

"Part Kurt Vonnegut, part Douglas Adams, but let's be honest, Matheson had me at ‘Based on the Bible.'" —Dana Gould, comedian and writer The Bible offers some clues to God's personality—he's alternately been called vindictive and just, bloodthirsty and caring, all-powerful and impotent, capricious and foresighted, and loving and hateful. But no one has ever fully explored why God might be such a figure of contrasts. Nor has anyone ever satisfactorily explained what guides his relationship not just with angels, the devil, and his son, but also with all of creation. Might he be completely misunderstood, a mystery even to himself? Might his behavior and actions toward humankind tell us much more about him than it does about us? Enter the mind of the creator of the universe, travel with him through the heavenly highs and hellish lows of his story, from Genesis to Revelation, to better understand his burdensome journey: being God isn't easy. After hearing his story—at times troubling and tragic but always hilarious in its absurdity and divine in its comedy—you'll never look at a miracle or catastrophe—or at our place in the universe, or God's—the same way again.

A Biblical Comedy about Love (and Hate)

The Story of God

A Biblical Comedy about Love

In this comedic postscript to The Story of God, we finally get to hear Satan's side of the biblical story. God (and, by extension, the Jesuses) may get all the love, but what about Satan? Clever, patient, and forever plotting, might he be the one who gets the last laugh? Might the greatest story ever told ultimately be all about him?

A Postscript to the Story of God

Satan's Story

From the moment of his birth, Siddhartha Gautama never doubted his specialness. He arrived with magnificently webbed digits and could lick his own earlobes. His karma had been that good. Thus, the question was never whether he would become a king, but rather, what type of king he would become. Siddhartha's journey took a sudden spiritual turn when he came to the first of his many realizations: things die, and before they die, they suffer, a lot, for real. This harrowing insight formed the first of his eleven Four Noble Truths (not including the five other parts) and informed his ascetic-minded mission: to free the world of pain, even if he was very glad to no longer care about anything or anyone in it. Having already experienced an incalculable number of past lives, Siddhartha wondered, how could he himself escape this endless cycle of suffering? With this question came an enlightened answer that promised a possible way out: only those who live can die. As his body begins to fail following an ill-prepared meal, Siddhartha faces his ultimate test: will he achieve his blessed wish—to cease to exist once and for all—or will he be reborn yet again into another oozing life of pain.

The Buddha's Story

In Conversations with the Father, screenwriter and author Chris Matheson shares memories of his dad, famed horror and science fiction writer Richard Matheson. He recalls the warmth and affection his dad showed him as a child--their shared love for the Dodgers and family game nights--and recounts their later estrangement over the big questions: life, death, the unknown and unknowable. Through his own unique point of view as son, Matheson offers the reader rare insights into the wit, intellect, fears, and, later, regrets of the man who penned such classics as I Am Legend, What Dreams Will Come, and The Shrinking Man--and the strongly held yet often chimeric personal religious and spiritual views that shaped many of his most memorable stories and characters.

A Memoir about My Dad, Richard Matheson and God

Conversations with the Father

In Conversations with the Father, screenwriter and author Chris Matheson shares memories of his dad, famed horror and science fiction writer Richard Matheson. He recalls the warmth and affection his dad showed him as a child—their shared love for the Dodgers and family game nights—and recounts their later estrangement over the big questions: life, death, the unknown and unknowable. Through his own unique point of view as son, Matheson offers the reader rare insights into the wit, intellect, fears, and, later, regrets of the man who penned such classics as I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, and The Shrinking Man—and the strongly held yet often chimeric personal religious and spiritual views that shaped many of his most memorable stories and characters.

A Memoir about Richard Matheson, My Dad and God

In this riotous, globetrotting sequel to The Story of God, the universe's premier antihero, God, returns, as lonely, misguided, angry, and troubled as ever. Regretting many of the decisions he made in his debut book, and wrestling with his continued ambivalence to both his son(s) Jesus and his frenemy Satan, God decides to set things right with creation—again. But this time, he asks, why stick around the dusty Land of Israel or a decaying heaven when there's a much bigger world to explore—and countless others out there just waiting to love and praise him? And why work with the same tired old prophets, when there are much better candidates for the job? Journeying from the sands of Arabia to the hills of Utah to the stars of Southern California, God works to set his message—and record—straight. But with each new book he commissions, the same old questions, demons, and troubles remain. Forever haunted, he decides to do away with creation once and for all...or wait, maybe just apologize? Returning to where it all began, God makes one final judgment, with the fate of the universe—and himself—hanging in the balance.

Chris Matheson

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