Abstract
As a result of its particular narrative structure, criticism has understood Ernest Renan’s Life of Jesus (1863) as a biography or a novel. As a main thesis, this article proposes that the Life of Jesus should be understood as a history book that, despite its biographical theme, also embodies a philosophy of history. First, from the analysis of the various interpretations that have been made of the work of Renan, I argue that what stands out most of it is its narrative structure. Immediately, I affirm that this structure assumes the form of a romance. In the end, I defend that although this particular plot structure literally refers to the life and dead of the historical Jesus, symbolically narrates the progressive history of humanity towards individual freedom. This work aims to contribute to the history of historical ideas in nineteenth-century Europe.
Keywords
Ernest Renan; history of ideas; progress; narrativity; nineteenth-century Europe