The article focuses on Coetzee’s The Death of Jesus while referring also to the earlier two novels in what is called the ‘Jesus trilogy’. Instead of pursuing the trail of literary studies – novels of migration, of the postcolonies of the South, of whether in their formal representation the novels are allegories or not allegories – I turn towards religious studies. As the novels do, I grant significance to Coetzee’s ideas on a moral education in contexts of ideological duplicity; on the struggle of the soul between passion and reason; and on a message that society anticipates from an exceptional child who wishes to be a saviour. Beneath such concerns, I argue, we encounter the palimpsest of an older story: that of Jesus of Nazareth, to which the name ‘Jesus’ in the title of each novel should have pointed us but did not. Like the almost invisible author, the reader in secular times is reluctant, perhaps, to venture beyond earthly belief and engage with the challenge of what Walter Benjamin termed the ‘spiritual rag picker’ of ‘weak messianic power’. How does The Death of Jesus, or indeed Coetzee, struggle with such a challenge?

这篇文章的重点是库切的《耶稣之死》同时也提到了所谓的“耶稣三部曲”中的前两部小说。我没有追寻文学研究的轨迹——关于移民的小说，关于南方后殖民的小说，无论这些小说在形式上是寓言还是非寓言——我转向了宗教研究。和小说一样，我在意识形态两面性的背景下赋予库切关于道德教育的思想意义；关于激情与理性之间的灵魂斗争；以及社会对希望成为救世主的杰出儿童所期望的信息。我认为，在这样的担忧之下，我们遇到了最古老的故事：拿撒勒人耶稣的故事，每部小说的标题中的“耶稣”这个名字都应该指向我们，但没有。像几乎看不见的作者，世俗时代的读者不情愿，或许，是为了超越世俗的信仰，并参与沃尔特·本雅明（Walter Benjamin）所谓的“弱弥赛亚力量”的“精神上的破布者”的挑战。如何耶稣之死，或者实际上是库切，与这样的挑战作斗争？