AMERICAN JESUSCivil Religion, Christianity, and

America as Moral Exemplar1700-1960

The Printing Press & the Bible

Return to the original languages Luther – the Augustinian Monk – scrupulous Luther – reader of Greek New Testament

Paul: Grace alone has saved you Luther: Justification by faith, not works

The Bible in everyday language Luther translates the bible into German Rejection of the authority of Rome

leads to sola scriptura Everyone as a Bible reader and interpreter Gutenberg – the Bible is cheaply and widely available in

vernacular Interest rises in the Jesus of the New Testament Interest in the Jesus of History

Reformation Christology Further development of:

Theology of the cross – Grace alone Luther – Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will

be saved. (Reacting to abuses within the Roman Catholic Church and his own struggles)

Calvin Puritans and Anabaptists

Theology of the incarnation – God in the least Luther – God as a tiny human baby (the wonder of

God’s love to become as we are) No dramatic new developments

Faith of Our Fathers: Reason and Deism

Reason Newton (1642-1727) : The universe is governed

by a set of simple and unchangeable laws What can be proven is what is true Reason trumps religious doctrine French Enlightenment: Rousseau

Deism as Reason’s “Religion” Belief in a “watchmaker” God Impersonal creator of human being and natural

law Kant: Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone

(1793)

National Religiosity:Neither Singular nor Secular

Puritan Christian exclusivity Fate of Anne Hutchinson;

Roger Williams Non-religious secularity

No apparent basis for system of law, ethics, duties

Civil Religion: America as “not…a Christian nation but a religious one imbued with…Christian principles….” (Nichols, p. 51, emphasis added)

Civil Religion “Civil Religion”: “The existence of a powerful,

intelligent, beneficent , foresighted, and providential divinity; the afterlife; the happiness of the just; the punishment of the wicked,….[and belief in] the sanctity of the social contract.”

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau(1712-1778) Born in Geneva; philosopher of

romanticism, French 18th c. Enlightenment

The role of “religion” in public life & the necessity of religious values

The “sanctification” of the founding fathers

Deists We’ve Known & Loved

Benjamin Franklin: Virtue, not doctrine

Biography by Mason Locke Weems Franklin “redeemed”

as a true Christian”

Painting by Benjamin West “Franklin, no longer mortal,

was like Elijah translated by the hand of God.”

(Edwin Gaustad, cited in Nichols, p. 48)

Deists We’ve Known & Loved

George Washington: Biography by Weems The ax and the cherry tree:

“I cannot tell a lie.” As Moses, “seeking the face of God” As “eyes to the blind and feet to the

lame, father to the poor…” WWWD? A guide for the role of religion

the republic

John James Barralet, "The Apotheosis [Divinization] of Washington" (1802-1816)”

The U. S. Capitol DomeGeorge Washington:

Fresco by Constantino Brumidi (1865)

Washington, as a God, flanked by Liberty and Victory.

Central circle: 13Women representing13 original colonies.

Below Washington &Clockwise: War, Science, Marine, Commerce, Mechanics, and Agriculture

Detail of Brumidi ceiling, U. S. Capitol Dome

Apotheosis of Washington, flanked by Liberty and Victory,

seated above a rainbow

Deists We’ve Known & Loved

Thomas Jefferson: The Jefferson Bible A “text critical” project Religion within the

limits of reason: onlyevents within the boundsof the laws of nature areincluded

Jesus as a great moral teacher

[Great Awakening (1730-1830)] George Whitefield &Evangelicalism

Methodism’s Anglican roots Methodism’s American roots (massive growth)

A reaction against deism A new birth, in a class-bound system

(Protestant Europe and British North America) Enormously popular – spoke to 10’s of

thousands at a time (Wikipedia, George Whitefield and Franklin)

The privileging of emotion over doctrine or intellect– a form of “faith, not works”

Necessity of the “personal experience of Christ” Surprisingly, admired by and friend of Benjamin

Franklin, as a fellow intellectual

1714-1770

[The Irony of Contemporary Civil Religion]

Deism (Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Paine, Adams) and Evangelicalism (Whitefield, Protestant revivalism) are opposing views of 18th century American religion Deism: based in reason, not specifically Christian,

freedom of religious practice, “deification” of civic virtues Evangelicalism: based in emotion, exclusively Christian, ,

requires a particular Christian experience (“born again”) Contemporary evangelicals (usually,

conservative Protestant Christians) claim these deist founding fathers to support claims that the U.S. is a “Christian nation.”

1800’s: Victorian America & the Civil War

The Battle over Slavery Slavery: Divine

Institution or Satanic Evil?

The Schism of American Protestantism (Meth: 1844)

The War: Claims to Divine Favor and Providence

Salvation through Martyrdom

Abraham Lincoln A deist at war’s beginning: humans as

cogs in the giant machine Death of his son at age 11 The human cost of the conflict Lincoln rethinks God and the war

“God wills this contest” The entire nation is

punished for 250 years of enslavementNorthern clergy rethink Lincoln

1860

1865

Apotheosis of Lincoln, 1865 or following

Unknown, Apotheosis of Lincoln into the Arms of Washington, accompanied by Angels and Light Breaking through Clouds (1865)

Salvation through Moral Exemplars

The Victorian “Cult of TrueWomanhood” Aka, the “Cult of Domesticity” 2nd half of the 19th century

Women as morally pure Men as morally weaker The home and church as refuge

from corruption of the world beyond Woman as the guardian of the

home and keepers of moral standards

The Feminized Christ

Henry Osawa Tanner, Christ and his Mother Studying the Scriptures, 1910)

Victorian Feminized Jesuses

William Hunt, “Light of the World”

(1853-4)

William Blake,“Resurrection”

(early 19th century)

Victorian Jesus: Songs and Hymns

“Fairest Lord Jesus”Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of All Nature,

O Thou of God, and man the son.Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor.

Thou my soul’s glory, joy and crown.

Fair are the meadowsFairer still the woodland,

And all the streaming, starry host.Jesus shines fairer,

Jesus shines brighter,Than all the angels heaven can boast.

“In the Garden”I come to the garden aloneWhile the dew is still on the

roses.And the voice I hear,

calling on my ear, The Son of God disposes.

And he walk with me, And he talks with me.

And he tells me I am his own.

And the joy we shareAs we tarry there,

None other has ever known.

More Victorian Jesuses

Washington Alston“Christ Healing the Sick”

(1813)LaFarge,

Richard and Alice Baker windowChrist and the Pilgrims

(1896)

Jesus and the Lost Sheep (c. 19th c)

20th Century America Jesus, the “Man’s Man”

Reaction against the “feminized Jesus” of the Victorian period

Machismo Influences Teddy Roosevelt (Rough Riders,

Spanish-American War) America as hero and moral

exemplar (two world wars) vs.fascism and communism

Warner Sallman, “Head of Christ” (1941). Series begun as a charcoalSketch in 1924. Intended to counteract feminized Christs of 19th c.

Jesus, the Hero

English School, “Jesus ChristWith Fishermen” (20th c.)

Simon Dewey, “Jesus Leaving His Tomb after the Third

Day” (20th c.)Greg Olson, Jesus with a

Child (20th c.)

Jesus, the Hero

“Jesus Christ, Superstar”Norman Jewison

Universal Pictures (1973)

Jesus Rescues the Lost Sheep(20th century)

Stephen SawyerMacho Jesus

(2011)