Cultural depictions of Jesus

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Jesus has inspired artistic and cultural works for nearly two millennia. The following lists cover various media to include items of historic interest, enduring works of high art, and recent representations in popular culture. The entries represent portrayals that a reader has a reasonable chance of encountering rather than a complete catalog. Lesser known works are not included.

For purposes of classification, popular culture music is a separate section from operas and oratorios. Television covers live action series, TV movies, miniseries, and North American animation but not Japanese anime, which appears with manga and graphic novels.

Books

• According to Mary Magdalene by Marianne Fredriksson (1999)
• Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock (1966)
• Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace (1880)
• The Big Fisherman by Lloyd C. Douglas (1959)
• The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (1961)
• The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1880)
• Casca: The Eternal Mercenary by Barry Sadler (1979)
• Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice (2005)
• Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana by Anne Rice (2008)
• The Day Christ Died by Jim Bishop (1957)
• The Day Christ Was Born by Jim Bishop (1960)
• Godbody by Theodore Sturgeon (1986)
• The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by José Saramago (1991)
• The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer (1999)
• The Gospel of Aphranius by Kiril Yeskov (1996)
• The Gospel of Corax by Paul Park (1996)
• The Holy Bible by Various writers
• I, Judas by Taylor Caldwell with Jess Stearn (1977)
• Judas Iscariot by Leonid Andreev
• Judas, My Brother by Frank Yerby (1964)
• King Jesus by Robert Graves (1947)
• Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore (2001)
• The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis (1951)
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
• Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice (1995)
• The Nazarene by Sholem Asch (1939)
• Only Begotten Daughter (1990) and The Godhead Trilogy (1994-1999) by James Morrow
• Quarantine by Jim Crace (1997)
• Riverworld by Philip José Farmer
• The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas (1942)
• Testament by Nino Ricci (2002)
• The Urantia Book Authorship assisted by William S. Sadler (1955)
• The Wild Girl aka The Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalene by Michèle Roberts (1984)
• Yahushuwa`: A Midrash by Edmund Camacho (2007)

Art

Christ Carrying the Cross,
by El Greco, 1580.

Main article: Depiction of Jesus

There has been a long tradition of featuring Jesus in paintings and sculpture, ranging from the Roman catacombs and the conservative icon tradition of the Orthodox world through medieval altarpieces to modern acrylics. Many images depict the Life and Passion of Christ, especially the Crucifixion of Christ, whilst others show the infant Christ with his mother (Madonna and Child) or Christ in Majesty. Many of the most famous paintings in Western art feature Christ. The tradition continues in professional and folk art in many countries, as well as popular commercial imagery. Most images, whatever their origins, (as left) keep fairly close to the conventional appearance (and clothing) of Christ established in Byzantine art by about 400AD, which is now instantly recognisable.

Protestant Christians (following reformers such as John Calvin and Zwingli) frequently reject many depictions of Jesus as a form of idolatry (cf the Ten Commandments).

Music

See also: Contemporary Christian music

Gospel music has remained a strong pop element in the music of religious America, of which Jesus is a frequent topic.

There have been significant (and successful) attempts to incorporate Jesus in current popular music trends, from rock to hip-hop. This incorporation happens on three different levels:

• Bands or artists who focus almost entirely on Jesus/Christianity. Most of these bands are in support of it, and their music will almost always deal with spiritual themes. A few detractors may critique, attack, or ridicule Christianity and Jesus.
• Songs that deal with Jesus/Christianity. Bands or artists may not be religious at all, but they will still produce a song (or songs) in reference to Jesus. The songs may deal with Jesus/Christianity in a positive light (e.g., "Have A Talk With God" by Stevie Wonder), a negative light (e.g., "Heresy" by Nine Inch Nails or the logan used by the Anarcho-punk band Crass who used the slogan "Jesus died for his own sins, not mine"), or just as a tool to help provide commentary on modern society (e.g., "Jesusland" by Ben Folds).
• A simple reference to Jesus in a song. Many artists/bands will use a line in a song to show that they are Christian, but the song will have nothing to do with religion. Hip-hop artists will often give a "shout-out" to "the Lord", "Jesus", and other aspects of Christianity as well.

During the 1970s, the "Jesus Movement" produced many songs on the theme, and there have been many bands since then, both Christian and secular, which have done likewise.

Film

The religious or biblical epic was a popular genre in the 1950s usually accompanied by towering budgets and names such as Charlton Heston, Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, or Yul Brynner.

The ensuing decade brought an attempt by a major studio to produce a religious epic in which the Christ Event was its singular focus. MGM released King of Kings in 1961, inspired by Cecil B. DeMille`s 1927 film The King of Kings. Critics suggested the film should have been titled I Was a Teenage Jesus, due to Jeffrey Hunter's youthful appearance in the film.

Four years later, The Greatest Story Ever Told, directed by George Stevens, was completed for $25 million. Though Max von Sydow's performance as Christ was praised, the film fared poorly at the box office. Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 film Jesus Of Nazareth was a highly praised television miniseries, but stood as the last major Hollywood production of Christ's life for nearly a decade.

It wasn’t until 1988 that another major studio took a gamble on a movie involving the life of Jesus, but this one involved a new wrinkle. Universal released The Last Temptation of Christ amidst protests. The pre-release publicity centered around demonstrations taking place outside of Universal after celebrated figures in the evangelical media began speaking about heretical content in the film. Theater managers across the USA were reluctant to screen the movie and no major video chain would carry it.

Screenwriter Paul Schrader adapted The Last Temptation from the Nikos Kazantzakis novel which engages in a fictional exploration between the two natures of Christ - divine and human. The film was not intended to be a Gospel portrait. The fictional aspect, which apparently provoked opponents of its release, centered around a vision presented by the devil to the Jesus of the film while on the cross. In this vision, Jesus is shown what it would have been like to marry, have a family, live until an old age, and die a natural death. The struggle for the Jesus of the film is the torment between his human wishes for a normal Jewish life and his longing to accomplish the divine mission set before him. In the film is that Jesus conquers these temptations and carries out his sacrificial death by crucifixion.

In 2004, Academy Award winning director Mel Gibson made the blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ which became one of the highest grossing movies of 2004 and of all time. Jim Caviezel was cast as Jesus.

Television

Television movies

Miniseries

Theatre

Son Of Man by Dennis Potter

• Godspell
• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Cotton Patch Gospel
• The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
• !Hero the Rock Opera

Audio dramas

• The Man Born to be King (1941)
• Adventures in Odyssey, in episodes #66, #67, #137, #141, #176, #177, #183, #226, #227, #232, #302, #304, #305, #345, #346, #383, #389, #404, #413, #425, #439, #461, & #499

Miscellaneous

A Jesus action figure

• The popular clothing line Urban Outfitters has launched numerous Jesus-themed apparel, their most popular being 2004's "Jesus is my Homeboy" T-shirts, which were publicized by the Hip-Hop artist Kanye West.
• The Jesus action figure has become somewhat of a meme of American culture. The action figure made an appearance in Sum 41's music video for The Hell Song.^{[citation needed]} It also made an appearance in Smosh's video of the Pokemon theme song.
• Jesus, the Lamb of Hosts and Our Lord and Saviour, is a minor character in the popular web comic Penny Arcade.[53]
• The English metal band Cradle of Filth attained a large measure of notoriety after a fan was arrested wearing a notorious t-shirt produced by the band, depicting a masturbating nun on the front and the slogan "Jesus is a cunt" on the back. A handful of fans have faced court appearances and fines for wearing the shirt in public, with one serving eighty hours of community service.[54]
• John Lennon in 1966 compared his group, The Beatles to Jesus in a flippant remark that sparked outrage and controversy particularly in the US South: "We're more popular than Jesus now." He would later attempt to retract his remark and, under pressure, apologize to anyone who'd been offended.
• Jesus appears very briefly in the PlayStation 2 RPG Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra. He is seen only from behind and from far away in a heavily whited out scene.
• Many adult-oriented cartoons, such as South Park and Family Guy, use Jesus Christ as a character, in unusual situations such as a talk show host. Common associations made (e.g. The Simpsons) are of Christ as a hippie or rock n' roller, due to his popular image as a peaceful man with long hair and a beard.
• The Channel 102 series Jesus Christ Supercop featured Christ as a renegade police officer who bears a grudge against the man who killed his father, 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
• Persona 3 depicts a persona known as Messiah who seems to be inspired by Jesus Christ and is of the Judgment arcana. He is also the ultimate persona of the main character, Minato Arisato. Also, Takaya, one of the antagonists of the game, bears a resemblance to Jesus in both appearance and in his charismatic personality.
• In the Spawn comic book series, The Man of Miracles appeared to humans in the form of Jesus Christ to spread a message of peace and tolerance so that armageddon could be prevented. Unfortunately, this message became corrupted by humanity, thus making armageddon inevitable.
• Japanese artist Gackt has a single entitled Jesus with a few Biblical texts in the song as well.

+In the popular flash cartoon series "Madness Combat", a character named Jesus is depicted as one of the three main combatants, carrying a magnum and his infamous 3:16 Sword, and wearing sunglasses. His visual appearance became more and more demonic as the series went on.

See also

• Jesus Christ Superstar
• Jesus of Montreal
• Jesus of Nazareth (film)
• List of movies based on the Bible
• Jesus in the Christian Bible

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jesus

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jesus Christ

• "Jesus Christ". Internet Movie Database.
• Bible Films Blog: Index of Jesus Films
• The Face of Jesus / Part II - Some Examples in Popular Culture (portrayal of Jesus in popular culture with a gallery of images, photos, videos, and other examples)
• (German) Tiemann, Manfed (2002): Jesus comes from Hollywood (list of more than 650 Jesus films on the electronic appendix of the book)
• Jesus in American Culture (video recordings of lectures by historian Dr. Howard Miller, University of Texas at Austin)