The Image of Christ in Literary Works of the Second Half of the ХХ Century in the USSR and Other Countries

Purpose: The present study aims to analyze the ways of depicting Jesus Christ in fiction by different authors from different countries in order to find and show specific concepts and aspects of understanding and interpretation of one of the main religious figures in an era when religion is taking a back seat. Research gap: There are a lot of researches, focusing on near absence of the image of Jesus Christ in literature until the 20th century and its popularity in the 20th century (Meletinsky E.; Tatarinov A.), but still, there’s an extreme lack of the reasons for the appearance of this or that image of Jesus, which contradicts not only the church, but also people who have developed their stereotyped image of the first figure in Christianity. The study covers this question and presents clear examples, while using the data from previous researches (Biryuzova N., 2010 etc.). Method: The method of analysis of selected works to consider the cause of the appearance of Christ in each of the works, taking into account the individual properties of the work, its author and the author's country of birth. And the method of generalization: analyzing the works, a general conclusion will be drawn about the phenomenon of fiction, the main character in which is a religious character Expected outcome: It is expected to point out specific and key features of artistic texts about Christ and the New Testament events. This study will help future researchers of literature with canonical motives, the revealed relationship between the author and the image created by him can become a basis for further research. Keywords: the image of Christ, established religious history, interpretations of the life of Christ, a zone of free theology.