Jesus, Images of

Images of Jesus have articulated changing, and often conflicting, ideas about Christianity and masculinity in the United States. Americans have imagined Jesus as a figure at once human and divine. Yet in depicting him as both a heroic warrior against evil and a compassionate friend, as both conqueror and sinless innocent, they have also imagined him as both masculine and feminine. This has created differing views of Jesus because of the traditional gender division in American society, with traditional masculine traits associated with men and feminine traits with women.

American images of Jesus come primarily from European antecedents. Traditional Catholic images, drawn from a lively tradition of European art, have tended to portray Jesus not as markedly masculine or feminine, but as a sufferer, as the ...