Summary
Title: American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon
Author: Stephen Prothero
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374178909
Pro:
• Engaging, witty prose that makes reading enjoyable
• Very illuminating history of American culture and religion
Con:
• More images would have been better
Description:
• Explains how the figure of Jesus has developed in American religion and culture
• Shows how Americans depict Jesus as a reflection of themselves and their concerns
Book Review
It has been observed that religious liberty in America has benefited greatly from the strict separation of church and state. Without a powerful government attempting to define and impose religious orthodoxy on the people, significantly more religious pluralism has developed in America than in most other places. This has allowed people to create religious groups based upon personal experiences and divorced from historical traditions or orthodoxy.
One consequence of this has been the separation of the figure of Jesus from historical Christian beliefs. How this occurred and what it has produced is the topic of Stephen Prothero’s book American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. A professor of religion at Boston University, Prothero traces the development of Christianity and religion in America with a specific focus on how people have treated the figure of Jesus, finding some very interesting and dramatic results.
Given the current situation in America where Jesus is a constant presence, many readers may be surprised to learn that at one time church attendance in the colonies was quite low and public piety relatively uncommon. Where religion did prevail, Christians were not especially concerned with Jesus — the strong Calvinist influence on American religion caused most people to focus on God the Father rather than Jesus the Son. Jesus may be the main character in the New Testament, but he wasn’t a significant character in early American Christianity.
How did this change? It involved the growth of American consumerism, the competition among Christian denominations, and a long-standing trend of divorcing Jesus from Christian traditions:
- “Sometime around the middle of the nineteenth century...preachers began to respond to the new Babel of denominations by offering a simpler message. Instead of marketing predestination of free will, the Bible or the Baptists, they began to offer religious shoppers a new relationship with Jesus.”
- “This relationship was personal, so preachers had to make Jesus into a person. And they did so with glee, disentangling him not only from the complex theologies of Calvin but also from the complicated polities of the denominations. As evangelicals placed more of their faith in him, Jesus became more human and less divine. ...No longer a signpost in a vast theological system, Jesus emerged...as a living, breathing human being.”
As a human being rather than a theological signpost, though, Jesus was no longer as tied to Christianity as he once was. Between the evangelicals and more liberal Christians, Jesus was made available to other religions as a figure of wisdom and guidance. Jesus has been incorporated into the thinking of Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, and more. There are regular “revivals” during which the figure of Jesus is remade to serve some cultural, political, or religious purpose.
There are many books out there which offer general histories of American religion, but sometimes greater insight can be gained from a work which focuses on some particular aspect of American religion — and that’s just what this book provides. By focusing on Jesus rather than institutions or historical figures, Prothero offers a fascinating look at American religion, culture, and history which should prove useful to a wide range of readers.
