Simulating Jesus: Reality Effects in the Gospels

The New Testament gospels do not represent four versions of one Jesus story but rather they produce four distinct narrative simulacra, each one of which is named Jesus. This book explores both the theory and the evidence justifying this claim and discusses practical and theological consequences of it. Chapters examine in detail each gospel's Jesus simulation and compare it to the others, as well as to other Jesus simulacra elsewhere in the Bible and in contemporary popular culture. This approach results in radically different understandings of these books and of the Christian canon.