Imaginary Jesus

It started as an ordinary day. Matt was hanging out with his bed bud Jesus at his favorite hip, vegan, communist café in downtown Portland. Everything is business as usual until a fat trucker comes in, calls Jesus an impostor, and punches him in the mouth. The trucker then claims to be the apostle Peter, and reveals that for years Matt has been worshiping an Imaginary Jesus of his own devising. Peter enlists the aid of a talking donkey named Daisy and an ex-hooker named Sandy to help Matt hunt down his Imaginary Jesus and find the real Jesus in an adventure that takes them through ancient Israel, Portland and Vancouver, and Matt’s comic-book-influenced psyche.

Soon the motley group is on the run for their lives from a whole army of imaginary Jesuses, who are not too happy about Matt’s quest to find the real Jesus, having happily settled themselves into the lives of Christians and churches all over the world. Along the way, our heroes encounter many imaginary Jesuses including Legalist Jesus, Hippie Jesus, Televangelist Jesus, Political Jesus, Testosterone Jesus, Emergent Jesus, Superhero Jesus, Businessman Jesus, Mormon Jesus and many more.

Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos is a fun and witty satire along the lines of Nate Wilson’s “Right Behind” books. Although the point is sometimes belabored and the writing is sometimes a bit heavy-handed, the message is an important one: we often want to imagine Jesus in our own image because the real Jesus is just too dangerous and unpredictable. I was getting some Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy vibes as well here. Imagine if Douglas Adams had been an orthodox Christian, and you might get a picture of what this book is like.

4/5 stars