1). Jesus the Dying Savior
2). Jesus the Example
3). Jesus the Monk or Mystic
4). Jesus the Troublemaker
In the part of the United States that I hail from, the frame announced most often is Jesus the Dying Savior. If people are talking of Jesus, then they are usually talking about the saving grace of Jesus. The three other frames are downplayed.
Obviously, though, these four frames are not the only ways that J
esus is talked about. If we move down the ladder of abstraction and examine talk more closely and concretely, we can see a number of different views of Jesus articulated. Recently, for instance, Jesus as a "manly man" has resurfaced. (You can find some examples here and here). The narrative of the manly, man Jesus recalls the well worn T-shirt images that loudly announce: "The Lord's Gym."A much more commonplace narrative that frames Jesus is Jesus as Christian. This frame of Jesus is deeply entrenched. It is implicit to the Jesus as manly man, Jesus as savior, Jesus as example, Jesus as monk, Jesus as troublemaker. They all presupose Jesus as Christian. But historically speaking and Biblically speaking, Jesus as Christian is not quite accurate. The historical Jesus was a peasant Jew. He was crucified as "The King of the Jews." And moreover, we see in the book of Acts that it was not until Antioch that followers of Jesus were called "Christian." Let me make the point clearly, Jesus was not a "Christian." The followers of Jesus framed him as a "Christian" well after his death and that tradition lives on today. It is a living tradition so deeply entrenched that it has achieved a level of commonsense and thus remains largely unquestioned.
I make this point not to directly challenge anyone's faith, but to open up space for alternative views of what it means to follow Jesus. Too often, I fear, minority views of Jesus are pushed aside by the dominate frames. I just want to make some space for difference, for alternative interpretations. That is, afterall, agency--to do otherwise.
The great "Is," as it were, is a contextual and institutional achievement of our time and place.
1 comment:
Do the followers of Jesus call Jesus a Christain? Or do they call themselves Christian meaning that they try to imitate Christ? If we call Jesus a Christian then we are making Jesus Christ into our own image. We are defining Christian to be whatever we are. If, however, we call ourselves Christians then we are saying about ourselves that we are trying to make ourselves into what He is.
BTW I did a follow up post on the discussion on Truth or Power over at Thinking Christian on my own blog if you are interested in coming over and commenting. I am curious to where you are coming from other then simply bashing those who think they know it all. It seems like you are searching and have found something, but don't know what you have found.
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