Jesus of America?
A friend sent along this short review of a book on African Christologies. The author, who teaches
at
in
organizes the Christologies under four headings: Jesus as life-giver
(especially healer), Jesus as mediator (particularly as ancestor), Jesus as
loved one (family and friendship), and Jesus as leader (king/chief and
liberator).
Reading this made me wonder what a book about American
Christologies would look like. What are
the images of Jesus that particularly resonate in our culture? What are their strengths? What are their
weaknesses? I’m not talking about
dogmatic Christology so much as the images of Christ that emerge in local
preaching and catechesis.
Over the last few years, I’ve had the opportunity to share
reflections on the scriptures with men at a local county jail. Over time, I’ve identified certain images of
Jesus that seem to speak to them. One is
what might be called—following Jurgen Moltmann—Jesus as the “suffering God,”
the God who enters into solidarity with human suffering. Another is what might be called Jesus as
“companion,” someone who walks with us in our human journey, encouraging us,
picking us up when we have fallen, and so on.
These are somewhat modern images, but the men also gravitate
to some traditional images. You might be
surprised to learn how many prisoners embrace something close to a strict
theory of substitutional atonement. Many
carry grave sins on their conscience and find forgiving themselves or accepting
forgiveness difficult. A belief that the
debt for these sins has been paid can open up new possibilities for forgiveness
and reconciliation.
I’m aware of some of the dangers here, of the Gospel being
reduced to a kind of therapy, to the mantra of “holiness is wholeness.” A passing acquaintance with the lives of some
of the saints should make us skeptical of that idea. But the two ideas are not entirely
unrelated. The example of Jesus’ own
ministry among the sick and outcast suggests that the healing and
transformation of individuals can be a powerful sign of the presence of the
Kingdom among us.
But back to the question: what images of Christ resonate in
our culture? What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? Anyone want to share?
on August 16th, 2006 at 8:58 am
I’ve been struck by the ubiquity of two popular Christologies: Jesus the Conquering Hero, and Jesus the Personal Career Coach. While these are usually attributed to evangelical religous culture, I think they resonate, less conspicuously but perhaps just as powerfully, among many non-evangelicals. Jesus the Conquering Hero — a persona of Jesus as King — is the Guy who supports our military efforts. His most popular preacher right now is John Hagee.
Jesus the Personal Career Coach is the One who gives me advice on investments, on which job to take, etc. His most popular preachers are Joel Osteen (”name it and claim it”), Ted Haggard (”free-market faith”), and Pat Robertson, who sometimes devotes half of his program to giving advice about stocks and mutual funds. This Jesus emerged during the Second Great Awakening — Tocqueville was struck, even appalled, by the American tendency to associate Christ with their very mercenary interests.
The dangers of these two seem obvious: a conflation of the Gospel with the interests of the nation-state or of capitalism. I don’t think that “strengths” is the right words to use to characterize the opposite — maybe “perverted desires” might be better. The perverted desires expressed in both Christologies have something to do with genuine longings for justice, terrestrial fulfillment, the land flowing with milk and honey.
on August 16th, 2006 at 9:09 am
By the way, to anyone who’s interersted, there are two very good books on the subject: Richard Fox’s Jesus in America, and Stephen Prothero’s American Jesus. (I’d recommend Prothero’s book especially.)
on August 16th, 2006 at 9:51 am
What a great topic!
Our former priest presented an image of Christ as our Brother.
Jesus was often compared to parents who sacrifice things to teach and guide their children–which doesn’t always mean giving them what they want.
Jesus’ sacrifice was something he was glad to do for us, in the same way we sacrifice for our those we love without even thinking of it as an obligation or trial, like sitting up all night with your child in a hospital, or making a novena for a friend in need.
Our priests’ image of Jesus spoke to Americans looking for spirituality in a culture that is fairly well off materially. And his image of Christ also spoke to American families which seem to be stressed, frayed and broken these days. Jesus our Brother makes everyone our family member, worthy of Christ’s sacrifice and ours.
Our new priest talks more about the qualities of Christ’s life in abstract terms. Jesus seems more distant, less human. This priest is a former monk and perhaps more of an intellectual thinker than our old priest. But perhaps his distant Jesus reflects the fact that a lot of Americans aren’t sure exactly what Jesus has to say to us.
on August 16th, 2006 at 10:00 am
Follow-up to Eugene’s post: Americans have long loved the Conquering Hero Jesus as satirized in Mark Twain’s famous “War Prayer.” Here it is:
O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.”
on August 16th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Ambrose Bierce also had something to say about the Conquering Hero Jesus:
Arma Virumque
“Ours is a Christian army”; so he said
A regiment of bangomen who led.
“And ours a Christian navy,” added he
Who sailed a thunder-junk upon the sea.
Better they know than men unwarlike do
What is an army, and a navy too.
Pray God there may be sent them by-and-by
The knowledge what a Christian is, and why.
For somewhat lamely the conception runs
Of a brass-buttoned Jesus firing guns.
on August 16th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
A corollary to the Conquering Hero Jesus of Bierce is Elmer Gantry’s He-Man Jesus of Muscular Christianity.
“Elmer had, that evening, been addressing the Rod and Gun Club dinner. He had pointed out that our Lord must have been in favor of rods and guns for, he said, ‘I want you boys to notice that the Master, when he picked out his first disciples, didn’t select a couple of stoop-shouldered, pigeon-toed mollycoddles, but a pair of first-class fishermen!’ ”
Okay, I’m done monopolizing this thread.
on August 16th, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Jean’s reference to Sinclair Lewis reminds me of the adman Bruce Barton, whose 1925 The Man Nobody Knew is a classic example of Jesus My Personal Career Coach. Jesus, Barton writes, “took twelve men and built the greatest corporation the world has ever seen!” His account of the boy Jesus in the Temple is equally kitschy. When his parents discovered him, Barton writes, the Youthful Entrepreneur says, “Did you not know I must be about My Father’s BUSINESS?”
on August 16th, 2006 at 1:49 pm
Jean’s image of Jesus as our brother has the advantage of being firmly grounded in the NT and it actually says something about Jesus and also about us. The other images mentioned in the Comments tell us nothing about Jesus but all too much about anyone who is attracted by them. Of course both Bierce–I remember reading as a child his “Black friars in this world, fried black in the next”, and thinking it was clever, but my mother was not amused–and Clemens are satirists and satirists are not always quite fair.
on August 16th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
Traditionally, historians and theologians have divided how Jesus is perceived in four ways:
The Christ of Piety, The Christ of Dogma, The Christ of the Enthusiasts and The Christ of Literature.
Each areas has included followers of Christ but too often with distortions and dangerous activity.
We are perhaps too critical of the devotion of many to a particular saint. Many have indeed found their way out of despair to God through St. Jude and Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I admit I am one of the first to criticize such devotion but we must also understand that such things are due to often to an unsympathetic clergy or other Christians.
Robert Orsi has no peer in explaining devotion to the Saints and how people desperately feel the need. His “Thank You St. Jude” is brilliant and his other works on the subject are must reads as well.
Paul tried to cut through all this by emphasizing “Jesus Crucified.” Throughout history I believe no one made the point better and truer than Paul. Certainly, one must avoid a masochistic (or sadistic) approach, but the way of Jesus Crucified repels many because the tendency of human nature is to dominate rather than serve, let alone take the lowest place.
Hans Kung in his unparalled “On Being a Christian” places all of this is marvelous perspective. Here is but one example:
“The appeal of which Jesus Christ in person is the living embodiment, the distinctively Christian reality, must be the criterion everywhere. Christians may never identify themselves totally with any party, institution, or even Church. Only totalitarian systems demand total identification. Christians may never join uncritically in every cry of the age. Only partial identification can be justified: insofar as this party, institution or Church corresponds to the Christian criterion or at least does not clearly contradict it.” OBC, Kung, pg.569.
on August 17th, 2006 at 9:03 am
The fact that each person tends to make her own Jesus has been and is an enormous problem. The command of Jesus that our enemy is our neighbor is high in the Lord’s priority but low in so called followers.
Practically all the clergywo/man of the South did nothing about the flagrant abuse of Afro-Americans in the South. And the North was quite complicit in it.
The practice of white adoption only cries out about our lack of Christianity. Where people spend tens of thousands to purchase white babies in foreign lands while tens of thousands of babies of color remaing unwanted.
Thankfully, this is changing. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17adopt.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
A person from Mars would marvel at the gross adulterations of the message of Jesus.
on August 17th, 2006 at 9:40 am
Hey, Cathleen, if you want to see another example of Buddy Jesus, go on over to shipoffools.com and check out the “Jesus With You Always” link in the Fruitcake section.
You may be able to go there directly at:
http://members.aol.com/JesusImages/index.htm
My favorite is Jesus with the insurance agent. Possibly Jesus is underwriting the fire insurance part of the policy.
Okay, now I’m REALLY sorry for monopolizing and derailing what was supposed to be a serious discussion.
So, in an attempt to get back on track:
Bill makes some interesting points about the four perceptions of Jesus, but are these uniquely American Christologies?
I think the predominant American Jesus probably comes out of the Protestant tradition, and that is the Charlton Heston Jesus–rugged, fair, honest, a good provider, easy-going to a point, but does not tolerate wimps and slackers.
I’d like to know how people see the Catholic American Jesus as different from that.
on August 17th, 2006 at 10:43 am
While we’re speaking of some of the more amusing American Christologies, I’ll share that we have a refrigerator magnet my wife picked up at a women’s retreat that I refer to as the “Hunk of Burning Love Jesus.” It’s a portrait of Jesus with windswept brown hair, dark brown eyes, etc. Sort of Jesus as Fabio…:-)
on August 17th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
“Where people spend tens of thousands to purchase white babies in foreign lands while tens of thousands of babies of color remaing unwanted.”
What is this supposed to mean? Do you think Chinese babies are white? (That’s the most common source of foreign adoptions.) Or what?
I’m all for being color-blind, but really, how dare you accuse anyone of a “lack of Christianity” because they adopted a white child? It’s only natural for some people to want an adopted child that looks like themselves. For one thing, the fact of adoption isn’t as obvious to strangers (some of whom might make insensitive comments). For another thing, there are a lot of black people themselves who are concerned that white parents wouldn’t necessarily be as capable of preparing a black child for the problems he/she may face in society.
I may not share those concerns myself, but I certainly wouldn’t dismiss such people as unChristian.
on August 17th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Peter Nixon - With apologies to Professor McCarraher for whom what follows is mostly repetition, last week he, the good professor, posted a comment which stated in part that the impact of mass culture on our young “is toxic for any kind of religious formation.” In a e mail to him, agreeing with his point, I included that “often, the experience of the kids in jail/prison, coming from a world where life is one big distraction, into a world with no ’sex, drugs and rock n roll,’ is literally stunning. Their naturally religious side often becomes so insistently manifest that their initial concern is that they are hypocrites.” Forgive my long winded introducton. Here’s the small point: the men/boys frequently experience Christ as “pursuer.” At the risk of over stating it: as a Hound of Heaven. Have you seen anything similar?
on August 17th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Stuart,
The positive part about Chinese female adoption is that it helps these women who would be left unwanted in a land who penalize females.
The reality remains that Afro-American children remain mostly unwanted and since we are impacted by Matthew 25:31-46, to say that someone does not look like us may not cut it.
I do not criticize particular people as much as I do the spiritual leaders who do not challenge Christians to follow Jesus.
When we can proudly mix with those who do not look like us, especially as members of our own household, then we understand what a Christian is.
on August 17th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
The experience in my family has been that African-American children are not available to white parents. I’d be interested if others have had a different experience.
on August 17th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
Speaking of multiracial/interracial adoption ….
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17adopt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
on August 17th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
I presume it is the same in other large cities. But I will speak for New York City. It has been proverbial here how the great desire to adopt does not include children of color.
There has been no limitation on white parents.
A hundred years afte the Civil War Afro-Americans were still being killed for asserting their rights. What was the value of that Christianity that supported such actions?
on August 18th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
One subject never touched upon when it comes to interracial acoption is the matter of non-whites adopting white kids.
I suspect that it is not a prevalent practice but, if it starts to become one, I can’t WAIT for the reactions!
That being said, I know two men who have adopted two black crack babies. The second one is particularly difficult to deal with. The beauty of these adoptions is the fact that two people who are not considered “worthy” by the Catholic Church to adopt have done so and have chosen to adopt two children not usually considered to be “worthy” of adoption by the masses who are looking for the perfect blonde, blue-eyed little darlings to join their families.
Our parish is extremely supportive of these two fathers and offers much practical assistance during Mass when all hell tends to break loose. The fathers are eminently loving and patient but sometimes need someone else to step in to help, which happens regularly.
I guess this is just another positive side to being “objectively disordered”!
on August 18th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Erm, back to the Christology thread:
Robert Krieg et al wrote about Christology in the March 22, 2002, issue of Commonweal.
Krieg outlined two different tensions in the development of Christologies–the tension between Christ’s divine and human nature; and the tension between Christ of Scripture and Christ as translated to modern life.
Krieg pointed out that then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger published Dominus Iesus in 2000, reminding Christologists that their images of Christ must be consistent with Catholic dogma.
I think there are two false Jesuses of modern America–Jesus Your Buddy and his darker twin, Jesus Who Hates the Same People I Do.
These twin Jesuses are only loose Scriptural adaptations who conveniently tolerated slavery, the McCarthy hearings, internment of Japanese-Americans, the beating of Matthew Shepherd and other travesties.
But another common American Jesus, equally false, is Jesus the Dead Irrelevant Guy. This Jesus exists purely and only in Scripture and he’s the Jesus the religiously indifferent will tell you is good for other people who need crutches, but they can’t be bothered because the world isn’t like that now.
If these are the End Times as my Baptist sister-in-law insists, and the Anti-Christ is among us, perhaps we need look no further than these false Jesuses among us.