American Jesus -- Enlightened Sage, Sweet Savior

So Monday I went to a different branch of our county library system and found three books that seemed interesting.  Well, I found plenty more that looked interesting, but only brought home three.  The one I've started is American Jesus by Stephen Prothero. The subtitle is "How the Son of God Became a National Icon."  I have questions for you at the end. Read them first if you'd like and then I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 


ENLIGHTENED SAGE

The first chapter presents the Jesus of Thomas Jefferson who cut and pasted his own version of the Gospels based on Jefferson's opinion of what Jesus likely said or did.  He took out anything that wasn't reasonable or logical and was left with a fraction of what Matthew, Mark, Luke and John presented.  "Jefferson hated what Christianity had become,not despite his love for Jesus, but because of it. And he was able to admire, respect, and perhaps even love 'the first of all Sages' only because he was able to separate the religion of Jesus from the religion of Christianity." (pg. 42)

The author claims Jefferson's views have expanded mostly among Unitarians, Reformed Jews and Liberal Protestants. "By the end of the nineteenth century many Americans, both Christian and otherwise, had begun to disentangle Jesus from rites and creeds, affirming that his exemplary life was more important than his atoning death. Today, U.S. suburbs are filled with 'Golden Rule Christians' who, like Jefferson, believe that the essence of true religion lies in right living rather than right thinking, and that service to others is the highest form of prayer."  (pg. 33)

The Jesus Seminar is also given as an example in this chapter.  Arguing that the "creedal Christ must die...so that the real Jesus can rise again," this "radical interpretation of the incarnation abolished the distinction between the sacred and the profane, freeing Jesus to be fully human and allowing Christians to celebrate life in the world as he did -- wholeheartedly and without reservation."

SWEET SAVIOR

The author claims we were not always a Jesus nation.  The Puritans - strict Calvinists - "were a God-fearing rather than a Jesus-loving people, obsessed not with God's mercy but with His glory, not with the Son but with the Father." 

About a half century after the Revolution our "spiritual landscape" started to change into more of what we have today. "Disestablishment supplanted the European-style state church system with a market model that continues to characterize American religion.  This new spiritual marketplace produced unprecedented religious creativity and intense religious competition."  (pg. 46)

"Across these diverse religious communities, a new spirit of liberty took hold. After their successful revolt against England, Americans thought nothing of rebelling against traditional Christianity.  For obvious reasons, they rebuffed the Anglicanism of the crown, sending what came to be known as Episcopalianism on a long downward slide.  Peace churches such as the Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravians also suffered after the war. Americans did far more than reject the denominations of loyalists and pacifists,however. Inspired by republican rhetoric of liberty and equality, and by a popular revolt against deference and hierarchy, they rejected as well the authority of ministers, the veracity of creeds, and the importance of theology. The Bible remained authoritative, of course, but now Americans insisted on interpreting it for themselves.  In that effort, they were assisted by a new culture hero: the populist preacher, who combined evangelicalism and egalitarianism in daring new ways. ... These religious entrepreneurs thrilled their populist parishioners with declarations of religious independence from elitist ministers, established churches, and outmoded creeds.  Not surprisingly, this new combination of individual conscience led to a wide variety of interpretations, and First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom saw to it that those interpretations flourished."  (pg. 47)

The author then told how evangelicalism formed, spread and popularized Jesus in its hymns, preaching and later books.  Jesus even went through a feminizing aspect as recognition was given to the role women played in the spiritual upbringing of their children and how they influenced society in a variety of community groups. He told of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' book which was the "first full-length feminist interpretation of Jesus."  She said men had been talking about the gospels for centuries as translators, preachers and commentators.  "Her goal was to supplement that record with a female voice, and according to that voice Jesus was a 'great democrat' who undertook a 'social revolution' on behalf of women.  Convinced 'that men and women stood before God upon the same moral plane, and that they ought so to stand before human society,' he always showed the utmost 'respect for womanhood.'  He was, Phelps concluded, 'the only man who ever understood' the plight of women."  (pg. 84)

"While Calvinists had maximized the distance between God and humanity and evangelicals had narrowed it, liberal Protestants all but obliterated it.  Drawing on the doctrine of the imago Dei, they argued that humans were created good, in the image of god, not sinful, in the image of a fallen Adam."  They considered the Bible a "good book" rather than "God's book" and focused on Jesus.  (pg.82)


QUESTIONS

Did anything stand out to you? Any "aha!" moments?  What do you think of the author's words about our religion being market-driven?  Did it surprise you to read that America wasn't always a Jesus nation? Do you agree or disagree?  Do you think the Liberal Protestants are good to "all but obliterate" the distance between us and God?  Do you see the progression of shedding established churches and creeds to being Scriptural based to later being solely Jesus based as a good thing? Why or why not? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson's approach to creating his own gospel?  What do you think of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' thoughts on Jesus as one who respected womanhood?  Do you agree?  Do you think the Jesus Seminar has done a good thing by freeing Jesus from creeds so that he could be human and thus we can enjoy the world wholeheartedly?   Other thoughts or impressions?