Assessing Psychological Explanations for Jesus’ Post-Resurrection Appearances

Abstract In a recent article published in this journal, Stephen Smith acknowledges that bereavement hallucination is an unlikely explanation for Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, and suggests supplementing it with theories concerning collective delusion, distorted memory, and cognitive dissonance. Our response contributes to the discussion by bringing our expertise in psychology and New Testament studies together to advance interdisciplinary study on this important topic. We show that Smith’s discussion confounds real-life cases and laboratory experiments on memory, and mass psychogenic illness with illusions. Moreover, Smith fails to consider a number of important differences between the case concerning Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances and cases of cognitive dissonance and other psychological theories, which indicate that these theories are not plausible explanations concerning Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances.