JVF Conference Papers
When Austrian cartoonist Gerhard Haderer wrote and illustrated a book in 2002 satirizing the Gospels, he no doubt anticipated controversy. He did not, however, expect to face time in a Greek prison.
In his book titled The Life of Jesus, Haderer, best known for his biting caricatures in the German newsweekly Stern, depicts Jesus as a binge-drinking, pot-smoking surfer whose “miracles” are nothing more than unlikely coincidences. The 40-page book, which sold over 100,000 copies in Germany and has been translated into 10 languages, appeared only briefly in Greece in 2002 before authorities pulled it from bookstores at the insistence of the country’s powerful Orthodox clergy.
