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American Jesus: How The Son Of God Became A National Icon Summary

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In "American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon", Boston University historian Stephen Prothero examines how Jesus has moved from being a divine Savior to a folk icon. No matter what his or her religious inclination. Nearly everyone in America has embraced Jesus in one form or another. For some it is a religious understanding, for others a recognition of Jesus as the great teacher, for others a recognition of the political benefits of being associated with Jesus. This is a fascinating book through American history as Stephen Prothero discuss the progressive change of the American view of Jesus from the Puritanical lawgiver to a tender, caring and loving Jesus, to a strong, muscular Jesus and finally to our current state where images of Him are likely to appear on a refrigerator magnet, rock music poster, or a bumper sticker. The book's first section, "Resurrections," examines changing images of Jesus among culturally and politically dominant white Protestants in America. The second part, "Reincarnations," analyzes Black, Jewish, Mormon, Hindu, and other …show more content…

He graduated with his BA from Yale College in American Studies and his MA and PhD from Harvard University in the Study of Religion. He is currently a professor of religion at the university of Boston. In addition to his scholarly work, which includes peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Prothero has written for a variety of popular magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe. He is also a regular contributor to CNN’s Belief Blog. His book American Jesus was written for a wide audience, for anyone who is a specialist or not specialist in religion and also for Christians and non-Christians. In this book, Prothero objectives was to show how American label Jesus in their history and

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