Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. / Credit: Thomas Bresson from Belfort, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 4, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
On Oct. 21, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former French president to walk through a prison gate to begin serving a sentence behind bars.
The former president arrived at La Santé prison in Paris to serve a five-year sentence for illegally financing his 2007 presidential campaign through the regime of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Sarkozy notably took with him two books: “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Jesus of History.”
The choice of these two titles has not gone unnoticed. In a statement to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, the author of the second book, historian and theologian Jean-Christian Petitfils, explained that Sarkozy confessed to him that he had been “deeply affected by reading” the book about Jesus, which was published in 2011.
Petitfils said when he met Sarkozy in person about four years ago, the former president revealed he was particularly interested in the section detailing the miracles of Jesus.
“Sarkozy only had some vague notions from catechism, but he didn’t truly know the story of Jesus,” the author recounted.
A clear symbolic and political dimension
“He received me at his home, and we talked about the content of my book. He told me he was very interested in miracles, exorcisms, and, of course, the resurrection of Jesus. And I think he believes in the resurrection of Jesus,” he commented.
Petitfils met with Sarkozy again after publishing his French-language book in 2022 on the Shroud of Turin titled “The Holy Shroud of Turin: Witness to the Passion of Jesus Christ,” in which he defends the relic’s authenticity and presents the new research that he says refutes the carbon-14 dating that indicated the cloth is of medieval origin.
Asked about the significance of Sarkozy’s decision to take his book about Jesus Christ to prison, Petitfils acknowledged that the gesture has a clear symbolic and political dimension.
“There is a political message involved,” he said, which shows that Sarkozy wanted to draw a parallel with the idea of being an unjustly condemned victim. The hero of “The Count of Monte Cristo” is unjustly condemned, and so is Jesus, Petitfils pointed out.
The author also noted that the Christian experience is very meaningful for a prisoner: “The experience of God invites us to understand that we are not alone and that we are always with Christ, even in solitude. All of this naturally pushes us to go beyond our circumstances and to understand transcendence.”
Petitfils, a historian and theologian renowned for his studies on the Ancien Régime (the political, economic and social system in France before the 1789 revolution) and the history of Christianity, reconstructs the true figure of Jesus using historical, archaeological, and theological sources.
The book, published in Spanish by Gaia, is based on the latest archaeological discoveries and contemporary biblical exegesis, combining scholarly research with an openness to the dimension of faith that Petitfils considers inseparable from the Christian mystery.
History from a faith perspective
“My book is first and foremost the work of a historian. I tried to outline the personality of Jesus and show that he was not just a prophet or a Jewish reformer. This work delves into the mystery of Jesus’ very person. And, as a historian, I am obliged to stop and consider that mystery. The historian cannot ‘prove’ miracles, much less the Resurrection. But it is clear that faith and history are not incompatible,” Petitfils explained.
The book begins in Galilee, in the political and religious context of a Palestine oppressed by Rome and divided by internal tensions. From there, Petitfils traces the biography of a man who preaches love for God and mercy, who tells parables and performs signs that tradition has called miracles, who welcomes the marginalized and proclaims that the kingdom of God is near.
‘The Gospels are not myths, but a real history’
Petitfils states that these texts are “not symbolic or mythical narratives, but a real history, albeit with some contradictions between them.”
“They are biographies in the ancient style, as they were written then, and they profoundly testify to the faith of the first Christian communities,” he explained.
Since its publication, “The Jesus of History” has enjoyed considerable success in France and numerous other countries, with translations into Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.
“I’ve received countless testimonials from people who read it and felt transformed by it. Some told me, ‘This book restored my faith’ or ‘It allowed me to better understand the personality of Jesus.’ And that is, in a way, what I wanted to do, respecting the rules of historical research, which is a scientific endeavor,” the French writer explained.
The author said he hopes Sarkozy, who began serving his sentence in mid-October, will be among that group.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
