Simulating Jesus: Reality Effects in the Gospels (Bibleworld)

Description

Can the different pictures of Jesus in the New Testament be reconciled? Or are they simply simulations, the products of a virtual Gospel? Simulating Jesus argues that the gospels do not represent four versions of one Jesus story but rather four distinct narrative simulacra, each of which is named "Jesus". The book explores the theory and evidence justifying this claim and discusses its practical and theological consequences. The simulations of Jesus in each of the gospels are analysed and placed alongside Jesus simulacra elsewhere in the Bible and contemporary popular culture. Simulating Jesus offers a radical understanding of Scripture that will be of interest to students and scholars of biblical studies. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Preface Part I. Virtual Bible, Virtual Gospel Chapter 1 Virtuality and the Bible Chapter 2 The Simulation of Jesus, and the Virtual Gospel Part II. Four Jesuses Chapter 3 Matthew's Gospel according to Pasolini Chapter 4 Child and Kingdom: On some Unsettling Language in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 5 Dark Conceptions: The Two Fathers of Luke's Jesus Chapter 6 John Simulates the Anti-simulacrum: Reading Jesus' Writing Part III. Canonical Reality Effects Chapter 7 The Possibility of Error: Minority Report and the Synoptic Gospels Chapter 8 Fantasy and the Synoptic Problem: Q and the "Minor Agreements" against Mark Chapter 9 Luke and John, and the Simulation of Christ Chapter 10 The Virtual Gospel and the Canonical Control of Meaning Bibliography Index of References Index of Names