Essay on Jesus in America

By Rumin Zhang

Richard Fox’s book “Jesus in America” surveys four centuries of American Christianity, depicting a myriad of shifting portrayals of what Jesus was like to Americans of their time under theological tensions and social upheavals. I will focus my essay of review and critique on the cultural pulses during the 17th-19th centuries. (For my own benefit of study, I have outlined in a separate summary notes the evolving Americanized Christianity for all four centuries.)

(1) How the portrayal of Jesus and theology tension changed with social upheavals:

Following the earlier Catholic mission to the American Indians in the New World, the Puritans from Europe seemed to have emerged from the eclipse of Catholics and took the spot light in 17th century America. Jesus was bridegroom to them and Calvinist Baptists in the new promise land. To Catholics, Jesus was the civilizer of Native American culture and Lamb of God. To liberalizing Quakers he was the inner Light. All others still regarded Jesus as the Son of God and Redeemer of Man. However, Jesus continued to be the healer and martyr to the Indians who suffered not only territorial conquest by but plaques brought in from the European explorers as well. Puritans also flexed their muscle in quelling non-Calvinist Quakers and excommunicating and exiling open critic Anne Hutchinson. The Protestant-Catholic animosity and denominational dissension among Puritans, Baptists and Quaker continued to heat up in the ensuing centuries.
The 18th century saw the explosive immigration from Europe and Africa and exploratory migration in America. To the many Protestants from a pluralistic religious background and swept in the 1730s-1740s Great Awakening and Revival, Jesus was revered as an indwelling spirit in the born-again Christians’ hearts. Jesus was the heavenly redeemer to the many African slaves seeking personal freedom from Christian slaveholders, especially after the national independence. To the enlightened secularists, Jesus was the philosopher and teacher. On the theological front, Calvinists continued to clash with piety-seeking Revivalists, each taking half verse of the famous John 3:16. All the while, Unitarian emerged to challenge Trinitarianism. Anti-slave movement was gathering storm among both slaves and Christian pietists.
Enter the 19th century which Fox had to spend three separate chapters for. Abolition movement helped the culmination in a civil war, the emancipation of southern slaves and assassination of President Lincoln. The freed African Americans thanked Jesus their liberator. Many depressed southern slaveholders (often Christians) sought Jesus for comfort; some resorted to lynching and cross-burning to vent their anguish. In the post-war economical depression and labor-capital conflict, Jesus took on the roles of social reformer and apostle of love. Christians were challenged to ask (thanks to Charles Sheldon’s classic In His Steps), what would Jesus do? Tension between Protestants and Catholics were renewed and escalated into sporadic riots. Yet, Protestants gradually adopted some meaningful Catholic symbols and traditions such as Cross and Christmas. Some highly educated Protestants were converted to Catholicism. On the theological front, Jesus was increasingly de-divinized and became more a man than a deity, thanks to liberals like Emerson, Paine and Jefferson. The free and fertile soil of America also presented the world with a few major variant forms of non-orthodox Christianity, including Unitarianism, Mormon Church, the Seventh Day Adventism, Christian Science, and Jehovah’s Witness, to which would be added the vibrant Pentecostalism since the early 20th century.

(2) Reflective Critique

During tumultuous social upheavals Americans learned to do church and portray Jesus the American way. We see a quickly evolving and Americanized Jesus and Church riding on the social waves of changes. But it seemed that most of the time the Church was busy catching up with the social transformation. Throughout the reading, I often wonder if the Church could have been more prophetic and proactive and less reactionary and fence-mending.
The first casualty of European colonialism and frontier expansion was the Native American Indians who gained Christ the divine healer and lost much of the earthly land. As was often true of the unfortunate concomitant admixing of colonial occupation with Christian mission in many parts of the world, the emotional scar and distrust left by such colonialist aggression took a long time to heal. Could the Christian church have done better in distancing its mission from the colonist and expansionist ambitions and standing up against the slaughter? Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission was vocally and wisely opposed to the unequal treaties enforced upon China by the colonialist hegemony.
The second issue of American Christianity is the infamous slavery perpetrated by largely Christian Europeans. The bitter saga ended with the deliverance of African Americans who, pleasantly surprisingly, found solace and healing in the same Christ that the slaveholders were worshipping. Their hard-earned freedom had to wait for another century to see the legal realization of racial equality. While it is praiseworthy to see this rare double allegiance to the same Lord from the oppressors and the oppressed, I find the Church’s prophetic voice for social mandate belated in coming and lacking in unity. What was perplexing was also the fact that abolitionists and slaveholders retorted each other with biblical support for their opposite stance. Granted that the biblical truths are often antithetical and paradoxical, the Church was slow in expounding such truth with unity and clarity and enforcing the teaching with moral authority. Most sadly, a civil war sacrificing many lives had to be fought to settle the discord. What would America look like if the slaves had become free in the year of their jubilee with the biblically agreeable mandate?
The third issue of American Christianity is the internal bickering and prolific birth of deviant non-orthodox Christian faiths. Apparently, immigrants from Europe came with a plethora of denominational background, and Enlightenment and scientific rationalism had an indelible impact. What is comforting amid such excessive pluralism is the lack of wholesale slaughter of heretics as seen in Europe, thanks to the early Pilgrims’ painful plight before arriving here. I wonder what could have been done to have one fewer unorthodox heresy. Could it be greater mutual deference and/or theological meshing between Calvinists and Arminians, between Protestants and Catholics? Or wholesome and balanced integration of social and soul care? Or perhaps prophetically championing a Jesus of multi-hued complexion proactively tailored to the emerging needs of evolving American populace? But social changes seemed to move ahead of Church’s response. A culture of legalized abortion, homosexuality, and post-modernism are Church’s newest challenges. Can American Church wade through the muddy waters again and come back to the well spring of the renewed life in Christ the living water?