Jesus: Made in America

Stephen J. Nichols,
Jesus: Made in America.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8308-2849-4
US$20.00 (pb)
237pp
(Review copy supplied by InterVarsity Press)

From the rise of the Christian Right in the 1970s and 1980s to the Bush administration and the Passion of the Christ (USA 2004) phenomenon in the 2000s, so-called “culture wars” between evangelical Christianity and secular liberalism have rarely left the forefront of the American cultural consciousness. The trouble with most existing discourses on this clash of ideologies, however, is that commentators will all too often come out on only one or the other side of the debate, with precious little room for serious analysis (or intellectual honesty) left in between. At least for its first half, Stephen J. Nichols’ Jesus: Made in America seems to fill the gap, presenting a relatively measured and complex account of prevailing conceptions of Christ in U.S. history, and the impact of these conceptions on both theology and secular culture. What a shame, then, that the book takes a drastic turn for the polemical as soon as it reaches the latter part of the 20th century, and thus the historical moment most pertinent to present-day discussions.

This is not, of course, to say that even Nichols’ early chapters are entirely free of cultural bias; he is, after all, a theologian first and a historian decidedly second, and if his history of Jesus in America is often fascinating even for non-believers, this is a mere side effect to his loftier goal of contrasting American Christologies with their richer, more complex (and, Nichols contends, truer) ancestors, the Nicene and Chalcedonian Creeds. As Nichols writes in the very first chapter, “Any portrait of Christ needs to accommodate the full complexity of Jesus’ person and work, not relaxing the uncomfortable tensions that may be encountered” (p. 42). That his analysis unproblematically takes both Jesus’ historical existence and his divinity as a given should come as no surprise: this book is, in the words of publisher IVP Academic, “Evangelically Rooted, Critically Engaged,” with the emphasis placed firmly on the former.

Fortunately, though Nichols’ evangelical roots may show more frequently than some secular readers might like, they are kept relatively subdued in the first four chapters. His section on “The Puritan Christ” in particular is both captivating and impressively researched, rescuing the earliest American proponents of Christianity from the effects of their more stone-faced caricatures while making no apologies for the less kind and gentle aspects of Christianity that have been downplayed in recent eras. Jonathan Edwards’ infamous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Nichols argues convincingly, does not represent the sum total of Edwards’ beliefs of Christ, nor is it purely the feverish product of the Puritan imagination with no roots in scriptural “fact.” Instead, this and other sermons by Edwards represent precisely the nuanced, multivalent, and often ambiguous image of Christ that modern evangelism lacks: a Christ that does not lend itself neatly to political ideologies or plastic “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets. When Nichols’ rhetoric is this convincing, his argument is relevant (and critical) to readers on both sides of the “culture war” divide.

Yet somewhere between the Puritans and The PassionMade in America drops its historical pretenses and goes straight for the evangelical jugular; in other words, it veers too far from the scholarly, and uncomfortably toward the sermonic. This is disappointing in large part because the territory covered by the book’s last four chapters is far fresher and less occupied than the already-crowded 16th to 19th century narratives. Chapter 5, “Jesus on Vinyl,” paints an intriguing enough picture of the birth of “Jesus Music” from the late-1960s counterculture – and its co-option and corporatization by the modern Contemporary Christian Music megabusiness – that Nichols’ excesses (particularly his clearly shallow-at-best understanding of “hippie” culture) are relatively forgivable. But by the next chapter, “Jesus on the Big Screen,” it is obvious that the author is out of his element, and suffering for it. Not only are there basic factual mistakes to be found in these pages (The Last Temptation of Christ star Willem Dafoe is referred to as “William Defoe” on p. 156, Oliver Stone’s 1995 film Nixon is credited to Martin Scorsese on 157), but Nichols makes some suspect claims about film to support his theological arguments: for example, “American movies work best when there’s romance” (p. 157).

Simply put, Nichols’ theological background and aims leave him unequipped to critique popular culture, and so as soon as he tries to enter this territory, he flounders. The stylistic excesses of Norman Jewison’s Jesus Christ Superstar (USA 1973), however egregious, were probably never meant to be criticized for their historical/scriptural inaccuracy, as Nichols absurdly does. Meanwhile, his chapter on the commodification of Jesus – including those aforementioned and, in the 1990s, ubiquitous “WWJD” bracelets – bristles with potential but ultimately amounts to little more than an anti-commercial screed, without the methodological framework necessary to make the discussion intellectually worthwhile for anyone whose Lord isn’t being blasphemed. It’s not until the last and weakest chapter on Christ and politics, however, when the limitations of Made in America’s focus become painfully obvious. In setting up the place of Jesus in contemporary political discussions, Nichols unleashes a litany of hot-button issues, including abortion, the death penalty, gay marriage, war, the environment, and stem-cell research; that topics like these are merely glossed over at the beginning of a 23-page book chapter speaks volumes (p. 200).

Of course, it is not entirely fair to criticize Jesus: Made in America on these terms when it may very well be of considerable worth to the theological community. Clearly Nichols’ goal was to write a polemic (if not a sermon) in which contemporary images of Christ were compared to orthodox theology and left wanting. That he does so in consistently readable fashion, and frequently with good humor, is a testament to his rhetorical skill. But in a time when all too few discussions of evangelical Christianity elect to fight in, rather than make sense of the “culture wars,” it is hard not to view this particular book as something of a missed opportunity. Perhaps someday we will have an authoritative analysis of the place of Jesus in contemporary American popular and political culture. But until that “savior” comes, it looks like we’ll just have to content ourselves with this and other voices in the wilderness.

Zachary Hoskins,
University of Arizona, USA.

Created on: Sunday, 22 March 2009

About the Author

Zachary Hoskins

About the Author


Zachary Hoskins

Zachary Hoskins is a graduate student at the University of Arizona's School of Media Arts. He has written and presented on many topics, including visual interest in the silent cinema, avant-garde film and television, and the depiction of Christ in film.View all posts by Zachary Hoskins →