ABSTRACT
In 1908 a decisive moment in Nikos Kazantzakis's life occurred when he went to Paris to attend lectures by the man who was at that time the most important philosopher in Europe, the process thinker Henri Bergson – a Jew who eventually converted to Catholicism. However, the heterodox nature of Kazantzakis's theism can be, and often has been, exaggerated. His Christology is heterodox from the perspective of traditional Christianity, as the uproar created by the film version of The Last Temptation of Christ indicates. But his view of God is a peculiar combination of heterodox, or partially heterodox, views that grow out of solidly orthodox concerns and sources. But human freedom is a non-negotiable item in Kazantzakis's view of ultimate reality and meaning. Kazantzakis's asceticism recalls the ancient meaning of askesis as healthy bodily training as if for an athletic event; on this view, asceticism is equivalent to bodily discipline.
