The heart shows no mercy when it takes on the uphill path. The Last Temptation is a work of the mature age of Nikos Kazantzakis and expresses his unique philosophy of life, with the central theme being Christ himself, referred to as Jesus.

Kazantzakis was always deeply affected by the struggle between spirit and matter, the trials that a person endures in order to reach perfection and attain likeness to God. For this reason, he wrote that his life was a rugged uphill journey in search of the dark essence of God to unite with Him.

In The Last Temptation, the crucified Jesus is depicted as suffering and tormented to subdue his nature and transcend into divinity. In Kazantzakis' narrative, Christ in a fleeting moment sinks into a dream and sees himself as an ordinary man living a mundane life. However, as soon as he awakens, he returns to the divine purpose of his mission, to self-denial and sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

For Kazantzakis, Man is both a hero and a saint. I have never followed so frightfully the bloody path of Golgotha, nor have I lived with such intensity, such understanding, and love for the Life and Passion of Christ as during the days and nights when I wrote The Last Temptation.

While writing this confession of the human's anguish and great hope, I was so moved that tears welled in my eyes; I had never felt with such sweetness, with such pain, the blood of Christ falling drop by drop into my heart.

For Christ, to reach the pinnacle of sacrifice, on the Cross, at the height of transcendence, to God, went through all the stages of the struggling human being. The new editions, with new covers and specially designed fonts, come with introductory texts and an epilogue that offer more details about the work itself and the era in which it was written.