According to Prothero, Americans have always made Jesus their own, and have personalized him. Moreover, Jesus, though a Christian symbol and icon, has been taken up by non-Christian and marginalized groups who have "embraced a Jesus disentangled from Christian dogmatism" (p. Prothero's main thesis is that Americans have always made Jesus in their own image and have molded him to their world, and to American culture more broadly-all the while mixing the sacred with the secular. He takes the pulse of a wide range of personalities and groups, including Thomas Jefferson, nineteenth-century Protestant Evan-gelicals, 1960's "Jesus Freaks," Black Power advocates, Mormons, Jews, and Hindus, offering a fascinating survey of the different relationships Americans have formed with Jesus. Prothero's account of how Jesus has become a national symbol, if not the icon in the United States, is a highly accessible cultural history, one that examines how Jesus has been imagined and reimagined by Americans. American Jesus is both broad in its aims and detailed in its descriptions. Stephen Prothero has written a book that will appeal to both specialists and non-specialists in American religions. American Jesus is a delightful, engaging read, geared toward a wide audience.
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