Day 32. November 17, 2006
Movement 3. Jesus Christs
Lecture 15. Jesus in Depression and War, 1914-1945 (Part 3)
"Sister" Aimee Semple McPherson gave those on the urban frontier in 1920s Los Angeles an inviting home where they could feel good about themselves in the embrace of Jesus' love, availability, and sacrifice. But she, like other conservatives, rejected the liberal embrace of sources of earthly wisdom and revelation other than the Bible. One such source, the new discipline of psychology, made the Self both the object of knowledge and the seat of personality. This new emphasis on the centrally located individual focused on personality rather than character, on self-differentiation and self-fulfillment rather than self-control. Consumer culture found fertile ground in this psychology of the Self and, in this context, Jesus the Personality was born.