Fox, Richard Wrightman. Jesus in
America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National
Obsession. San Francisco: HarperCollins,
2004. 488 pp., $27.95 (USD). ISBN: 0-06-062873.
Prothero, Stephen. American Jesus: How the Son of God became
a National Hero. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2003. 364 pp., $25.00 (USD). ISBN: 0-374-17890-9.
[1] Americans sure love their Jesus. Regardless of the level
of belief in Jesus as the risen son of God, most faith traditions
in America have adopted and adapted this historical figure. This
has changed the face of the religions themselves and the American
culture. To be American is to see through a Jesus-centric filter.
Even when a person’s belief system does not stop at Jesus,
it must adapt to him to be accepted into mainstream society.
[2] This is the premise of two well-written general market
books released on the heels of each other at the end of 2003 and
the beginning 2004. Both books chronicle how the man from Nazareth
became a national icon; however, as they do this from different
perspectives, they give the reader of both volumes a fuller perspective
on the phenomena.
[3] Fox, who teaches in the history department at the University
of Southern California, approaches the material chronologically,
starting at the beginning of religious and commercial explorations
into the New World and tracing it to the present. He begins
before America was America, with the missionary journeys of Spanish
and French Catholics and English Protestants. These early journeys
offer a glimpse into how Christ was shaped into motifs still present
today. There were three basic presentations of Christ: as healer,
as martyr, and as civilizer. The Catholic missionaries came with
pictures and statues and stories of an experiential Christ, one
intimately involved in daily life. Protestants frowned upon the
iconography of the Catholics. The Calvinists preferred reason to
experience, head knowledge over heart knowledge. Many mainline denominations
have a Jesus who is a great teacher and prophet, but not necessarily
the holy risen son of God. The more Catholic, experiential Jesus
has filtered over to Protestants, and found a home in many evangelical
denominations.
[4] Fox traces Christ’s journey by breaking the book
into historical time periods. He looks at the founding Fathers,
notably Jefferson and Franklin, who helped take Jesus out of the
Bible and place him into culture. He traces the rift between the
Calvinists and the Wesleyans and how that shaped perspectives on
Jesus. He notes how Jesus was shaped by those who spoke of him,
from evangelists to writers to politicians to social activists.
To them, Jesus was sweet saviour or strong conqueror or friend.
And while each time period is unique, the same themes continue:
Jesus has been adapted and co-opted for the times; he has been the
rallying point for history, for business, for war and peace; and
has shaped the United States as much as America has shaped him. Although
Fox has a personal investment in the project, he writes the book
for believers and nonbelievers alike, and concludes that the staying
power of Jesus has come through people who “have known holy
people who loved Christ so fully that they seemed to spend their
days, in action as much as in speech ‘just telling the love
of Jesus’” (406).
[5] Like historian Fox, Stephen Prothero approaches the topic
from his own perspective, as the chair of the department of religion
at Boston University. While Fox’s argument develops chronologically,
Prothero approaches the subject topically, dividing the book into
two sections: “resurrections” and “reincarnations.” “Resurrections” explores
Jesus among “Christian insiders, especially white Protestants” (15),
while “Reincarnations” covers Jesus’ impact on “outsider
communities” (15).
[6] In the first section (“Resurrections”), Prothero
examines four historical perspectives on Jesus. Jesus is an “enlightened
sage,” adored by Thomas Jefferson, who devoted two volumes
to the sayings of Jesus while trying to separate the miracle man
from the wise teacher. Prothero traces this effort to separate fact
from lore directly to contemporary groups like the “Jesus
Seminar” who are devoted to the quest for the historical Jesus.
Other chapters are devoted to a “feminized” Jesus, the
backlash movement towards a manly Redeemer, and finally a Jesus
enjoying full superstar status.
[7] After providing the reader with this “traditional” view
of Jesus, Prothero launches into a provocative second section (“Reincarnations”)
to show how the traditional view of Jesus has been co-opted, identified
with, and reshaped by other religious communities in an attempt
to seem more mainstream, and thus more entrenched in American society. The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have aligned themselves
with Jesus and downplayed their founder Joseph Smith; congregations
within the Black Church have transformed Jesus into a black Moses,
leading the chosen people to the promised land; the Jewish community
has made Jesus a rabbi and thus one of their own; and congregations
representing Asian religions have placed Jesus and his teachings
in the context of their more traditional gods. In Prothero’s
view, so using Jesus proves how Jesus-centric American culture has
become.
[8] While much of the same material is covered in both books,
the organization of the Prothero book makes it easier for the reader.
For example, both books discuss Jefferson’s efforts to wrench
Jesus from religion. However, in Prothero’s book, the author
takes Jefferson’s premise and follows its influence all through
American culture, into the present day. Fox, by sticking to his
chronology, leaves the reader to make the connections. However,
both books have strengths, and there is value in reading both instead
of choosing one or the other. While the Prothero book is a quicker
read, and over 100 pages shorter, the Fox book provides better historical
contextualization.
Tim Craig
Warner Southern College
Lake Wales, Florida
craigt@warner.edu
