SOURCE: Chadbourne, Richard M. “Comedy of History.” In Ernest Renan, pp. 65-84. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1968.

In the following excerpt, Chadbourne discusses Renan's biographical and historical treatment of Jesus, concentrating on the author's groundbreaking effort to recreate a modern and believable image of Jesus as man.

I the Galilean Reality

The first paragraph of Chapter One of Vie de Jésus (“The Place of Jesus in World History”) states three ideas that will govern the entire Origines du christianisme: first, the “revolution” of Christianity is “the principal event in the history of the world”; second, this revolution required almost a thousand years to be achieved, that is, seven centuries to emerge from its Jewish antecedents and almost three centuries to establish itself as a “new religion”; and third, its immediate origins date from the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, its founder being “a superior person” (une personne sup...