NCLA Review - Cultural pressure governs how people through the decades view Jesus and Americans have imagined Jesus differently through the years. Nichols takes the reader on a history of America through the person of Jesus . How have we formulated Him to fit our collective conscience? We have a Jesus like Socrates , a Jesus like a western cowboy, a Jesus as a romantic love story hero to name a few. In the late 20th Century, this retooling of Jesus was best exemplified in the writings of Max Lucado. Lucado observes Jesus as our “best friend.” Another method of observation is to look at the Hollywood films made about His life. Americans are drawn to romance and so Jesus and Mary Magdalene appear in many movies throughout the 20th Century. In conclusion, Nichols advises: listen to scripture first, listen to tradition, and listen to experience. Rating: 4 —JD. 237p, paper, Intervarsity 2008, $24.95 [277.3] ( )

Often with little attention to the historical figure, each subsequent generation of American Christians have re-created the person and ministry of Jesus. This is particularly true to American Evangelicals, the subject of Nichols’ “cultural history.” Using the Puritans (e.g. Jonathan Edwards and Edward Taylor) as the theological standard of American orthodox Christology, Nichols traces the cultural trajectory of Christological beliefs in ensuing generations – as represented by frontier Jesus, modernist Jesus, Jesus People Jesus, Hollywood Jesus, T-Shirt Jesus, and Republican Jesus. Nichols provides an insightful cultural exegesis, but seems guilty of theological and historical reductionism – or at least favoritism. B ( )