Jesus Through the Centuries by Jaroslav Pelikan
"Jesus Through the Centuries" by Jaroslav Pelikan explores how the figure of Jesus has been interpreted and represented throughout different eras of Christian history, revealing the evolving nature of his significance for diverse cultures and societies. Rather than serving as a biography or a history of Christianity, Pelikan's work focuses on the various images of Jesus that have emerged, shaped by the contextual challenges and spiritual inquiries of each century. He argues that these interpretations often reflect the moral and ethical dilemmas faced by people at the time, suggesting that how Jesus is portrayed can illuminate the intellectual and artistic currents of each age.
Pelikan emphasizes that the understanding of Jesus is rooted in the Gospel narratives, which derive from an oral tradition among those who knew him. He discusses the shifting roles attributed to Jesus—from a rabbi to a revolutionary figure—highlighting the tensions within Christian thought, such as the differences between early leaders like Peter and Paul. The book also addresses complex issues, including the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and how these historical interpretations have influenced contemporary attitudes.
Through his examination, Pelikan encourages readers to consider how each generation has sought answers from Jesus regarding fundamental human questions. Ultimately, he presents Jesus not merely as a religious figure but as a universal symbol that resonates with the ethical dilemmas and aspirations of humanity across time, culminating in a vision of him as "The Man Who Belongs to the World." This nuanced portrayal invites readers to reflect on their own understandings and the broader implications of Jesus' legacy in today's diverse cultural landscape.
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Jesus Through the Centuries by Jaroslav Pelikan
First published: New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Essays; history
Core issue(s): Ethics; Jesus Christ; knowledge; morality; religion; social action
Overview
The book of Hebrews (13:8-9) declares, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and to day and for ever.” That may be true in a theological sense, but every century of the Christian era has re-created Jesus according to its own character, collectively giving him kaleidoscopic variety. Jaroslav Pelikan addresses these developments in Jesus Through the Centuries, which examines the meaning of Jesus for culture and civilization in general.
Pelikan did not intend this book to be either a biography of Jesus or a history of Christianity as an institution. Instead, he believed that this study of the interpretations of Jesus throughout the Christian era would illuminate both the nature of Jesus and the mind of each century. He was concerned, however, that at any time, interpretations and understanding of Jesus could, and did, become too caught up in the moment. “There ought to be somebody who speaks to the other nineteen centuries,’’ he said in a 1983 interview with the Christian Science Monitor. ”I’m filing a minority report on behalf of the past.’’
In Jesus Through the Centuries, Pelikan maintains that, for every age, the person, sayings, and deeds of Jesus have represented an answer to fundamental questions about human life and destiny. According to Pelikan, those fundamental questions are best revealed through the artistic images prevalent in a given age. Images of Jesus, reflecting the ideas of poets, painters, and sculptors over the centuries about his nature, have a life of their own. The roles attributed to Jesus throughout the centuries have reflected the spiritual and ethical questions with which the people of each period were grappling.
Each age interpreted not only the Jesus of the Gospel sources but also the images of Jesus bequeathed by earlier ages, sometimes as a reaction against those images. For example, the Romantic era’s aesthetic response to Jesus was a reaction against the “common sense” Jesus of the eighteenth century Enlightenment. The Enlightenment itself had reacted against the medieval preoccupation with the supernatural in religion; a widespread eighteenth century view was that authentic miracles were not needed to validate a natural religion based on good sense.
Every century has drawn from Jesus and his sayings the answers it requires to its own unique questions about the nature of existence. Pelikan observes, “The way any particular age has pictured Jesus is often a key to the genius of that age.” However, implicit in Pelikan’s view, because the interpretation of Jesus at any point in the Christian era has been drawn from one single source—the portraits of him in the Gospels, drawn in turn from oral tradition passed down by those who had known him—Jesus is capacious enough to answer the deepest questions of all ages.
Christian Themes
Christians have felt enjoined to live as Jesus lived. However, who was Jesus, and how does one go about living as he did? He is, says Pelikan, the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels, which are largely drawn from an oral tradition among those who knew Jesus during his life. The oral tradition among synagogues and early churches therefore predated not only the Gospels but also the epistles of Saint Paul.
On some issues, the New Testament sources appear to have fostered conflicting answers so that succeeding centuries took opposing sides of an issue. For example, Pelikan notes that the role initially attributed to Jesus was that of a first century rabbi bringing Jews a new law. Pelikan suggests that the image of Jesus as rabbi foreshadowed the controversy between Peter and Paul—the former as leader of the early Christian Jewish sect, the latter as leader of a church independent of Judaism. The differences between Peter and Paul evolved into the tension between Catholicism (traceable to Peter as the first pope) and Protestantism (traceable to Martin Luther’s interpretation of Paul’s epistles).
In addition, Christians have pondered the relationship between Christians and Jews. Are they of allied, or opposing, religions? Did Christianity grow out of Messianic Judaism, or were the Jews “Christ killers” because they gave Jesus up to the Romans for crucifixion? This is not idle speculation, but an ethical issue of great consequence, the answer to which can profoundly influence Christian behavior toward non-Christians. Pelikan was moved to ponder whether anti-Semitism would have been less widespread if Christians paying tribute to Mary as the Mother of God had also perceived her, and artists had created her image, as a Jewish maiden, “the new Miriam.”
Actually, Jesus’ teachings went far beyond traditional rabbinical precepts. His immediate followers believed the new age announced by Jesus meant an immediate end to history: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14-15). By the end of the second century, this portrait had changed. Tertullian (c. 155-160-after 217 c.e.) held that while Jesus had appeared at a unique moment in time, this new age was only a preparation for the “final days” in a much later age. In a chapter titled “The Turning Point in History,” Pelikan describes how the concept of that turning point was also rooted in Jewish tradition, for example, in the books of Daniel and Ezekiel. Tertullian believed that Jesus would one day return triumphantly, punishing all those who had persecuted his followers, the Christians. The idea of a turning point even led to a new calendar system commencing with the birth of Christ, replacing the pagan reckoning of time from the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus.
In another example of conflicting interpretations of the Gospels, Pelikan’s chapter titled “The Mirror of the Eternal” considers human government as the reflection of Christ’s personality on earth. Pelikan points out that Luther and John Calvin reached opposite conclusions on whether there should be a “theocracy.” Therefore, the Reformation provided “both the justification of ’theocracy’ and its most telling refutation.”
Pelikan addresses not only the sweep of historical events as interpreted by Christian thinkers, but also the import of Jesus’ teachings for ethical issues confronted by individuals. In “The Prince of Peace,” which also covers the Reformation period, he examines whether Christians should participate in war. For many during the Reformation, the answer came out of the solution supplied by an earlier era to a different question: whether there were distinct kingdoms of God and humanity. Luther held that there are indeed distinct kingdoms. Though absolute love is required of Christians, they can still fight and kill as members of an earthly army. Luther argued that absolute love was required of Christians, but that the duties of public office required warlike acts that Christianity does not negate. According to Luther, Jesus condemns revolution, not war. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus had proclaimed, “I have come to bring a sword.” Saint Augustine, while rejecting the duty of the Holy Roman Emperor to fight the Turks, had maintained instead that this was the duty of rulers in Europe, Christian or not. He called this combat “a just war.”
In contrast, however, many in the twentieth century drew on the image of Jesus as “The Liberator” (another Pelikan chapter title) to justify draft refusal and civil disobedience. To the extent that organized Christianity is perceived as upholding unjust regimes, Pelikan notes, respect for the church has declined. Simultaneously, he adds, reverence for Jesus has grown more widespread, making him (in the title of Pelikan’s final chapter) “The Man Who Belongs to the World.”
Sources for Further Study
Booklist. LII, September 15, 1985, p. 94.
Caferro, William, and Duncan Fisher, eds. The Unbounded Community: Papers in Christian Ecumenism in Honor of Jaroslav Pelikan. New York: Garland, 1996. These papers celebrate Pelikan’s contributions to Christ-centered ecumenism.
Christian Science Monitor. LXXVII, October 16, 1985, p. 21.
Commonweal. CXII, October 4, 1985, p. 537.
Flusser, David, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, and Justin Lang. Mary: Images of the Mother of Jesus in Jewish and Christian Perspective. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. Examines representations of Mary in art, music, and literature.
Kirkus Reviews. LIII, August 1, 1985, p. 785.
Library Journal. CX, October 1, 1985, p. 105.
The New York Times Book Review. XC, December 22, 1985, p. 1.
The New Yorker. LXI, November 18, 1985, p. 174.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (1971-1989). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Traces the meaning of Jesus and his deeds for the development of church doctrine.
Publishers Weekly. CCXXVIII, September 8, 1985, p. 60.
Tillich, Paul. A History of Christian Thought. New York: Harper, 1968. Traces development of religious ideas from “natural thought,” through methodical formulation, attempts to combat distortions of belief, and finally acceptance of doctrine as religious (and often political) law.
Times Literary Supplement. December 20, 1985, p. 1443.