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Religion

Born in Bethlehem, Jesus is still evolving in America

Views of Jesus continue to change in America, just as they have since the days of Thomas Jefferson, an author says.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published September 25, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Jesus of Nazareth has an American history. So says Stephen Prothero, a Boston University professor and author who will speak at Eckerd College this week.

Prothero, 44, has written the book American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon in which he traces the cultural history of Jesus from Thomas Jefferson to present day.

The image of Jesus in America continues to evolve, Prothero said during a recent telephone interview.

"One of the things that has impressed me is just how historical Jesus is in a contemporary sense. The basic dynamic is that once you decide that Jesus is speaking to your time, as soon as the times change, Jesus is going to speak differently," he said.

Issues such as the war on terror, immigration and gender, said Prothero, are helping to carve this changing image of Jesus in American society. To that list he added Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, with its "powerful visual images" of Jesus, and the soon-to-be-released Anne Rice book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. In Rice's book, Prothero noted, the fact that Jesus was Jewish is "a huge theme."

Prothero will show contemporary pictures of Jesus and discuss his malleable image in American culture during a lecture Tuesday at Eckerd College. The presentation, which will begin at 7:30 p.m., is part of the Center for Spiritual Life Lecture Series, "The Compassionate Way: The Quest for a More Just and Loving World."

Speakers and their topics for the rest of 2005 are, Oct. 18, Margaret Benefiel, "Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations;" Oct. 27, the Rev. John Anthony McGuckin, "The Search for the Illumined Heart in the Early Christian Mystics;" Nov. 10, Stephen G. Post, "It's Good to be Good: The Convergence of Spirituality and Medicine in the Affirmation that a Generous Life is a Healthier Life;" and Dec. 1, J. Philip Newell, "Spirituality and Compassion."

Prothero, who specializes in Asian religious traditions in America, is chairman of the department of religion and director of the graduate division of religious and theological studies at Boston University. His other books include Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America and The White Buddhist: the Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott.

The Rev. Richard I. Deibert, director of Eckerd's Center for Spiritual Life, described Prothero's book on Jesus as "a barometer for American religious culture."

Prothero, he said, "uses Jesus to tell us who we are as Americans, not even Christians, but as Americans, so that's why his topic transcends faith boundaries."

In fact, Prothero notes that Americans of all faiths, including Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists, all have been forced "to weigh in" on Jesus.

Most people have their own idea of who Jesus was, he said. For African-American Christians, he is a friend, a person not just for biblical times, but one who helps to navigate present-day life. Mormons believe Jesus ministered in America.

For Christians today, he said, talking about how much they love Jesus has become a way to prove that they're true believers. In the country's early history, though, Jesus didn't play such an important role, Prothero said.

Today some of the country's newest immigrants, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists among them, have created Jesus in their own image, he said. "Hindu priests talk about Jesus and about how wonderful he was, and they would say he is God. He was an incarnation, but they will say that God incarnates a lot of times. They celebrate Christmas and they will celebrate Easter sometimes," he said.

In the mid 19th century until at least World War I, rabbis discussed the fact that Jesus was Jewish. Such observations offered a potential bridge between Americans of Jewish and Christian faiths, Prothero said. "There was this hope, but the Holocaust really shattered all that," he said, adding that such discussion then shifted from synagogues to universities.

Stephen Prothero will talk about The American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Fox Hall, Eckerd College, 4200 54th Ave. S, St. Petersburg. Free. Open to the public. Call 864-7979.

[Last modified September 25, 2005, 02:15:40]