Day 23. October 25, 2006
Movement 2. Solus Jesus
Guest Lecture: The Commercial Quest for the Face of Jesus in Late Victorian America
Images of Jesus were adapted to the demands of Victorian commercial culture in late 19th century America, according to guest lecturer Dr. David Morgan of Christ College at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Images played a constitutive role in shaping the face of Jesus for Protestants as well as Catholics and provided a bridge between these two markets in the development of modern imagery of Jesus. Both Protestants and Catholics used images didactically and devotionally. Protestants especially preferred to link images with text, the Word. Commercially produced images of Jesus marketed in growing urban centers to new immigrants and others offered cultural bridges from foreign homelands to the new urban frontier. In the mid-Victorian period, religious imagery emphasized mothers' nurture of children at the center of Victorian home culture. Images of Jesus directly emphasized his motherly role and appearance. Religious imagery also reflected a growing quest for historical authenticity. Protestants especially were attracted to the possibilities of new technology with the creation of 'tableau vivant' - living pictures purportedly portraying the real Jesus in authentic scenes from his life. Later in the period rising concerns about national emasculation prompted more manly portrayals of Jesus. Both masculine and feminine cultural scripts persist today.