Religion scholar examines role of Jesus in society

October 9, 2006 —

by Jennifer Fallon

Stephen Prothero discusses an image of a young Jesus debating religion with a scholar during his lecture Monday. Prothero is a Boston University professor and author of the 2004 book American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon.

Dow Visiting Scholar Stephen Prothero lectured on his book American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon to a large crowd in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall last Monday.

Prothero's lecture used examples from his book which focuses on how Jesus is seen in religions other than Christianity and how Jesus is seen in America.

The main religions Prothero referred to other than Christianity were Hinduism and Buddhism. Prothero presented a slide show containing images of Jesus from the perspectives of other religions.

Prothero's presentation contained a wide range of Jesus images, each one depicting the individual artist's view of the holy figure.

Images of Jesus displayed featured Jesus as a white man, a black man, a black woman, a boxer, and even a hippie.

All of the images displayed were images that Prothero has found during his studies.

From his readings, Prothero has determined that there are three categories that Jesus can fall into: the first two, the "Christ of Faith" and the "Historical Jesus," he does not address in his book. The last one, the "Cultural Jesus," is the book's focal point.

According to Prothero, the "Cultural Jesus" is the one that stems from the "imagination of a society." He backs up his proposition with two arguments.

The first argument concerns Jesus's constantly changing image. Prothero says, "Jesus is a chameleon. He is a member of the KKK, he is black, he is white, he is a pacifist, he is gay, he is straight." He said this to reaffirm his statement that Jesus is constantly changing in America.

The second argument was that "Jesus is not simply a Christian person." He supports this by once again referring to his book by citing non-Christians who look at Jesus, such as Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, and atheists.

Prothero summed up his lecture with what he believes is Jesus's history.

He believes that Jesus went from being a divinity, to being a personality, to being a celebrity, to being an icon.

Prothero is a professor at Boston University, having earned his Bachelor's Degree at Yale University and his Ph.D at Harvard University.

He has also appeared on NPR, CNN, NBC, FOX, and PBS talking about his studies in religion.