Discussing the topic "Jesus in America: A Cultural Incarnation," historian and Jesus scholar Richard Wrightman Fox lectured before a packed crowd of students and professors Wednesday afternoon.
Fox, a professor at the University of Southern California, referenced his newest book, "Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession," to emphasize the unique ways Americans view and experience Jesus as a cultural phenomenon.
"Eighty percent of Americans say they are Christian," he said. "Seventy percent say that Jesus is divine. When Canadians and Europeans are asked the same questions, we get half the response."
Fox cited the large amount of Americans interested in Jesus as the reason the people in the U.S. have such a broad range of experiences with Jesus.
"It's not just religious Americans who are devoted to Jesus. Many of those people, unchurched, unchristian, are devoted to Jesus," he said.
Constantly referring to believers and nonbelievers, Fox systematically displayed various American images of Jesus. Beginning with Franciscan missionary paintings on elk hides and ending with a picture of Jesus praying under the Apple computer logo in the garden of Gesthemane, Fox showed the audience the ever-changing canon of Jesus depictions.
"American civilization values change and innovation, and Jesus values that," Fox said.
But American Protestants and Catholics have historically divergent experiences with Jesus. Protestants, he said, tend to be more concerned with the words of Jesus, while the American Catholic tradition emphasizes the presence of religious imagery.
"You can never have too many Virgin Marys in an altar display," he said.
Fox also showed how various causes have appropriated Jesus to support their own interests, ranging from the labor and anti-slavery movements of the 1800s to the current "What Would Jesus Drive?" advertising campaign.
Updating his historical perspective, Fox referenced the culture wars in contemporary American politics as the source of current diversity in Jesus imagery.
"The lines aren't Catholic and Protestant anymore. They're liberal and conservative," Fox said.
Among other depictions, liberals have created images of Jesus as a black man, and conservatives have juxtaposed Jesus with the St. Louis Arch, the Capitol dome and Mount Rushmore.
"I think the culture wars respond to current images of Jesus," Fox said. "I think the suffering bleeding Jesus has been claimed by conservative Christians."
The proliferation of Jesus images, Fox said, allows many different groups to appropriate the religious figure to endorse their agendas.
"This is a bumper-sticker way of looking at it, but Jesus lets us have our cake and eat it too," Fox said.
After speaking about Mel Gibson's recent film, "The Passion of the Christ," Fox speculated on the ever-changing roles of Jesus imagery in future productions.
"If you consider that every 15 years we get a major Jesus movie, we're going to get a gay Jesus before long," Fox said.
The history department sponsored Fox as a Robert Allabough Memorial Lecturer.
