Michel Tournier's novelGaspard, Melchior et Balthazarreveals his heterodox conception of Christianity. Its account of the birth of Christ implies that the Old Testament teaches one to reject the flesh but that the New Testament revalorizes the body, and this idea is supported by the changes in the magi when they see the infant Jesus, for each wise man learns to accept or rightly to value the flesh. An alternative to accepted Christianity is shown allegorically through Sangali's tale of the mythical king Barbedor, in which the Holy Spirit is more important than Jehovah or Christ. This idea is further developed in the story of a fourth wise man, Taor, who represents man unaffected by Old Testament doctrine and who is actually saved by the Holy Spirit rather than by Christ. Despite Tournier's claim to having written a Christian novel, the book puts the Holy Spirit rather than Christ at the center of the religion it presents.