Jesus Christ: An Artifice for Aggression (1994) is Sita Ram Goel’s frontal critique of the Jesus of the Gospels, arguing that the New Testament portrait of Jesus is a construct designed to legitimise Christian imperialist expansion.
Structure
The book is divided into three parts:
- Jesus of History — Examines the quest for the historical Jesus through Jewish evidence, pagan evidence, and Gospel evidence, concluding that the historical evidence for Jesus is extremely weak
- Jesus of Fiction — Analyses various “real Jesus” stories and argues that the Jesus figure is a synthetic product of multiple influences
- Jesus of Faith — Examines the Gospel Jesus, the character of his teachings, and the theological claims made about him
Key Arguments
- The Jesus of Christian theology cannot be found in reliable historical sources
- The Gospels are theological documents, not historical records
- Jesus’ exclusivist claims (“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” “No one comes to the Father except through me”) are the source of Christian intolerance
- Hindus have been mistaken in creating a “real” Jesus different from the Gospel Jesus and appealing to Christians in his name
- The Christian missionary apparatus is built on the theological foundation of Jesus’ exclusive claims to salvation
The Author’s Journey
Goel recounts his personal journey from a respectful view of Jesus (as a possible avatar) to a critical one after reading the Gospels directly. He argues that Hindus must confront the actual teachings of Jesus rather than an idealised version.