Barbara's Random Thoughts

I get daily book reviews from Powell's, and today's was particularly interesting: it's on a book called American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, and the review is titled The Fashion of the Christ. The review is long, but thought-provoking; it actually covers another book in its second half, but it's the first half that made me stop and think. I found it sadly correct in many ways as the early part of the article described what Jesus has been reduced to in American culture as a whole:

"The latter-day Jesus is an American optimist: good-tempered and informal, a generous Jesus sympathetic to the desires of this world."

"The amiable savior, not only personal but also personable, has pushed the traditional Father, merciful and mighty, off center stage, and with Him the formal elements of Protestant worship. Pop-inspired music for easy listening has ousted gorgeous hymns dating back to the fifteenth century; leisure wear and sneakers have supplanted Sunday best; ministerial raps have edged out liturgy."

Arguments of worship style and church attire aside, this guy’s got a point (whether we’re talking author or reviewer at this point). The book traces the way American Christianity’s view of Jesus has changed according to cultural trends in the Christian community:

“As popular culture exploded, so did the possibilities for Jesus makeovers.”

"The savior chronicled by Prothero is not a spirit whose powers ever outstrip the culture's -- although you would think that would be a job description for any divinity. Far from transcendent, Jesus is 'more a pawn than a king, pushed around in a complex game of cultural (and countercultural) chess, sacrificed here for this cause and there for another.'"

I'm intrigued and saddened by this penchant we have for serving a Jesus of our own making: "American Jesus is interested in the country's singular mix of whimsy, obliviousness to theological complexity, and spiritual lust that has created a Son able to serve many -- 'the man that nobody hates' in Prothero's phrase." I know I myself am guilty of this—of creating my own version of Jesus rather than earnestly seeking who He really is.

I don't want to fall into making Jesus into my own image—of using the name of Christ to justify my own agenda. I don’t want to serve an idea I have of Jesus, a Jesus I create; I want the real Jesus.

This all brings me back to a sentence prayed at a church I recently visited: "May we seek Your will, instead of seeking that You bless our will."