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Title: American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon by Stephen Prothero ISBN: 0-374-17890-9 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 15 December, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating trip through American history
Comment: In "American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon", Boston University historian Stephen Prothero examines how Jesus has moved from being a divine Savior to a folk icon. No matter what his or her religious inclination, or lack thereof, nearly everyone in America has embraced Jesus in one form or another. For some it is a religious understanding, for others a recognition of Him as the great teacher, for others a recognition of the political benefits of being associated with Jesus, and to still others He is the ultimate sales tool or the ultimate appeal to a higher authority in support of their particular beliefs.
This is a fascinating trip through American history as Prothero discusses the progressive change of the American view of Jesus from the Puritanical lawgiver to a tender, caring and effeminate Jesus, to a strong, muscular Jesus and finally to our current state where images of Him are likely to appear on a refrigerator magnet, rock music poster, or a bumper sticker. During this trip he examines incident after incident of how this transformation slowly took place. In addition to discussing these various changes he explains how the various societal factors of the time influenced them.
One of the most interesting points on the relationship of Americans with Jesus is that while His popularity as a celebrity or bumper sticker continues to grow, Bible study has continued to decline. What are the factors that have allowed the average person to so effectively separate Jesus from the religious trappings that have always been associated with Him in the past? How have these small changes allowed us to come to a point where He is truly a celebrity figure with only minimal traits of divinity? These are some of the questions that Stephen Prothero looks at and what makes "American Jesus" an interesting and highly recommended read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Jesus has many faces
Comment: This book, which would seem to be the first definitive study of the unique ways in which the messiah Jesus of Nazareth has been transformed, reinterpreted and reinvented over the 2000 years since his birth. This is a penetrating and thought-provoking book replete with many little known facts and anecdotes. It holds the reader's attention in spite of, or perhaps because of, the author's ability to find the irony and/or subtle humor in the many ways that Jesus has, over the years, been transformed to suit the viewer's view of the world. Stephen Prothero, the author and head of the Department of Religion at Boston University, presents a fascinating insight into how the american public has, in the past, evaluated and utilized Jesus for its wide spectrum of purposes, and continues to do so to the present. A must read for the worshiper of Jesus, for the student of Jesus, for the history scholar, and for the common man.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Rohrschach, object-in-the-clouds Jesus
Comment: In addition to many valid comments made by other Amazon reviews here, let me feature perhaps the central underlying concept of Prothero's book: the general concept that divinity, like beauty, etc., exists in the eye of the beholder. Jesus has been like a Rohrschach ink-splotch exercise: "What do you see here?" Different viewers of the same ink splotch see varied kinds of faces and objects. Prothero has revealed the history of Americans' "thing-in-the-clouds" Jesus, analogous to children who look at the same cloud and see no recognizable shape, or a dog, or a flower, or their uncle Henry's shoe.
Prothero's book, that is, doesn't focus on the question of WHAT, or even IF, Jesus was or is. Prothero lets us see that the Jesus concept is principally that, a concept, one that lets individual minds see a reflection of what occurs cognitively and emotionally in his/her own head and heart. Each Christian denomination, then, merely presents a particular view, which attracts a particular kind of convert who mistakes that particular view as "reality." Each denomination then presents arguments for their own view, eager to convince other religious "viewers" that their doggie in the clouds is the real doggie, and that the viewers who don't see this doggie lack sufficient faith, or righteousness, or status as one of the chosen who recognize the "truth." Jesus, that is, serves as an anchor of private and personal limitations, and then provides motivation hopefully to grow beyond those limitations.
The realist will expend no effort on deciding whether the cloud or the Rohrschach splotch IS a dog or person, etc. The realist will recognize that the cloud is a cloud, and the splotch is a splotch. Anything else is but a mental projection superimposed onto that reality, leaving people to argue over which mental image has more validity. Prothero does a magnificent job of laying out the American history of this cognitive/emotional syndrome.
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Title: Jesus in America : Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession by Richard Wightman Fox ISBN: 0060628731 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: 17 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Touchdown Jesus: The Mixing of Sacred and Secular in American History by R. Laurence Moore ISBN: 0664223702 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels ISBN: 0375501568 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith by Alan Wolfe ISBN: 0743228391 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 04 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Scripture on the Silver Screen by Adele Reinhartz ISBN: 0664223591 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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