T H E H I S T O R Y O F C H R I S T I A N I T Y 2 Christianity has numerous depictions of Jesus, such as the Good Shep- herd, the Pantocrator (the ruler of all, used primarily by Eastern Orthodox Christians), the Sacred Heart (used commonly by Catholics), Christ the King, the Christ Child, the resurrected Christ in radiant white, and the broken body of Christ depicted famously by Michelangelo in his beautiful Pietà located near the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. What most of these depictions emphasize is the innocence and vulner- ability of Christ. With the exception of the Pantocrator—which depicts Christ in a position of authority—Christ is typically portrayed to convey kindness, mercy, and meekness. It is also commonly assumed that Jesus Christ was a carpenter prior to his earthly preaching ministry. There is a cottage industry of art based on Jesus’s pre-ministry years, where he is depicted as faithfully working alongside his carpenter father, Joseph, in the woodshop. Many Protestant artists have run far with this theme, although Mel Gibson, a conservative Catholic, made much of this Jesus-as-carpenter idea in his blockbuster film The Passion of the Christ (2004). In that film, Jesus is depicted as a carpenter building a dining room table for a rich man. His mother objects that the table is too tall for people, given the fact that in antiquity, people tended to eat while sitting on the ground, reclining around a low table. Jesus informs her that he will make tall chairs. A bit annoyed, Mary replies, “This will never catch on.” Similarly, many fictional books have been written about Jesus, using his supposed carpenter years as a central assumption. A best-selling Protestant book of apologetics by Josh McDowell is entitled More Than a Carpenter. There are many others that continue with this theme such as Lessons from the Carpenter by Michael Brewer, Wisdom of the Carpenter by Ron Miller and Marcus Borg, and Jesus: The Carpenter of Nazareth by Robert Bird. A number of children’s books continue this theme for example, The Impa- tient Carpenter: Hanging Out with Jesus and A Carpenter’s Son: The Early Life of Jesus. How the Story Became Popular The New Testament’s depictions of Jesus are some of the best-known writings in the history of Western culture: the baby in the manger, the baptism by John the Baptist, the temptations in the wilderness, the Ser- mon on the Mount, Jesus walking on water, the raising of Lazarus, and, of course, the passion narrative.
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