In the twentieth century a number of novelists, artists, and filmmakers, resurrected the life of Jesus genre, made so popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by Renan, Strauss, and others. In addition, novelists Norman Mailer, Jose Saramago, and Ricci have written their own gospels. Burns' collection explores the ways in which these portraits of Jesus continue to fulfil the familiar observation that people tend to depict Jesus in their own image. In several of the portraits of Jesus, the artists offer a creative response to the realities of the human condition of our time.