Ask anyone to name the most influential person in history, and
chances are the reply will be, simply, "Jesus." Here, Yale
historian Pelikan ably explores the universe of power and influence
embedded in that revered five-letter name, as he surveys the role
of the carpenter from Galilee in "the general history of culture."
Pelikan proceeds from the premise that the "image" of Jesus - his
identity as perceived by successive epochs - is a mirror reflecting
the course of Western civilization, and that tracing that image
through time will reveal the "continuities and discontinuities" of
the past two millennia. His project uncovers mostly
discontinuities; Western culture's christological imagery changes
dramatically from age to age. Pelikan begins by looking at the
early concept of Jesus as prophet and and rabbi, prevalent in the
first century. Subsequent chapters cover in chronological order 17
other major representations of Jesus. These include Jesus as Logos,
as "bridegroom of the soul," as "Universal Man," and so on. Behind
these wildly divergent images, however, a rainbowlike pattern
emerges: Jesus's prestige arches steeply upwards from his humble
origins as a crucified wonder-worker, reaches its apogee in his
medieval elevation to alpha and omega of the cosmos, declines in
modern times to his quasi-mundane role as prototypical social
liberator. This man, it seems, can be all things to all people;
like the Beauty he embodied for the Romantics, Jesus lies in the
eyes of the beholder. A lively writer, Pelikan salts his study with
delightful ironies and oddities, such as the crucial role played by
two American presidents - Jefferson and Lincoln, both believers in
separation of church and state - in redefining modern attitudes
towards Jesus. He also offers some tantalizing speculations: would
Auschwitz have befallen the Jews if Christendom had acknowledged
Jesus as Rabbi Jeshua bar-Joseph as well as Son of Cod? The book as
a whole suggests a larger question: what might our planet be like
today if Jesus had never lived? On the basis of this stimulating,
scholarly, but never tedious book, the question is too large to
answer; Jesus's influence has been so pervasive that we cannot
imagine the world without him. (Kirkus Reviews)
"A rich and expansive description of Jesus' impact on the general
history of culture. . . . Believers and skeptics alike will find it
a sweeping visual and conceptual panorama."-John Koenig, front
page, New York Times Book Review Called "a book of uncommon
brilliance" by Commonweal, Jesus Through the Centuries is an
original and compelling study of the impact of Jesus on cultural,
political, social, and economic history. Noted historian and
theologian Jaroslav Pelikan reveals how the image of Jesus created
by each successive epoch-from rabbi in the first century to
liberator in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-is a key to
understanding the temper and values of that age. "An enlightening
and often dramatic story . . . as stimulating as it is
informative."-John Gross, New York Times "A gracious little
masterpiece."-Thomas D'Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor
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