Where else but America do people ask: What Would Jesus Do?
What Would Jesus Drive?
What Would Jesus Eat?

"This book is for believers and non-believers alike. It is not a book about whether one should believe in Jesus, but about how Americans have believed in and portrayed him."—from the Introduction

Jesus in America is a comprehensive exploration of the vital role that the figure of Jesus has played throughout American history. Written by one of our most distinguished historians, Richard Wightman Fox, this book provides a brilliant cultural history of Jesus in America from its origins to today, demonstrating how Jesus is the most influential symbolic figure in our history.

Benjamin Franklin understood Jesus as a wise man worthy of imitation. Thomas Jefferson regarded him as a moral teacher. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, which occurred on Good Friday, was popularly interpreted as paralleling the crucifixion of Jesus . . . as one preacher put it, "Jesus Christ died for the world, Abraham Lincoln died for his country." Elizabeth Cady Stanton appropriated Jesus' message to champion women's rights. George W. Bush named Jesus as his favorite political philosopher—and several other GOP candidates followed suit—during the last presidential race. As we have seen in recent presidential elections, the name of Jesus is often thrust into the center of political debates, and many Americans regularly enlist Jesus, their ultimate arbiter of value, as the standard-bearer for their views and causes.

Fox shows how Jesus influenced such major turning points in American history as:

    * Columbus's voyage of discovery
    * The arrival of the English puritans and Spanish missionaries
    * The American Revolution
    * The abolition of slavery and the Civil War
    * Labor movements
    * Social and cultural revolutions of the sixties and beyond
    * The swelling tide of Christian voices in the politics and entertainment of today

Fox gives an expert, lively account of all the ways that Jesus is portrayed and understood in American culture. Extensively illustrated with images representing the multitude of American views of Jesus, Jesus in America reveals how fully and deeply Jesus is ingrained in the American experience.

Download Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession

EXCERPT, PDF format, 592KB, 94Pages.

Author: Richard Wightman Fox
Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (February 17, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060628731
ISBN-13: 978-0060628734

"An extrordinary blend of historical sophistication, theological discrimination and spiritual understanding ... rich and fluent in the complexities of religious life." -New Republic

"An exciting book... a fresh history that will likely be influential for years to come. Highly recommended."  -Library Journal

Brown Inside Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession

About the Author:

Richard Wightman Fox has taught American intellectual and cultural history, with emphasis on religion, at Yale; Reed College; Boston University; and has recently returned home to Los Angeles, where he teaches in the history department of the University of Southern California.

Professor Fox is also the author of Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal (Chicago, 1999) and of Reinhold Niebuhr: A Biography (Pantheon, 1985).

INTRODUCTION
THE FRUIT OF THY WOMB

My experience of Jesus begins with my father. An Irish-American Catholic television producer who moved my family from the East Coast to Los Angeles in 1953, Ben Fox was a man of prayer. And he wanted me to pray.

Some of my earliest memories place me on the front seat of our woody station wagon, my legs bent under me, palm trees passing on either side as we rolled along, my father beaming over at me as I correctly put together a string of mysterious phrases.

The rhythm of the syllables and the sound of the words made a comforting music. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.” I had little idea what it meant, but I figured it made sense to the parents and the priests and the nuns. What mattered was that once the phrases were linked together right, the prayer felt beautiful and held the Father and the Son close together inside of it. Like my father and me in the car when his big smile traveled across the front seat from him to me and then back to him. ...

Comments (0)

Name

Email

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment