This book tells the story of how nineteenth-century writers turned to
the realist novel in order to reimagine Jesus during a century where
traditional religious faith appeared increasingly untenable. Re-workings
of the canonical Gospels and other projects to demythologize the story
of Jesus are frequently treated as projects aiming to secularize and
even discredit traditional Christian faith. The novels of Charles
Kingsley, George Eliot, Eliza Lynn Linton, and Mary Augusta Ward,
however, demonstrate that the work of bringing the Christian tradition
of prophet, priest, and king into conversation with a rapidly changing
world can at times be a form of authentic faith-even a faith that
remains rooted in the Bible and historic Christianity, while
simultaneously creating a space that allows traditional understandings
of Jesus' identity to evolve.