lpetrich
Contributor
Not just physical likeness, but also social and political and ideological likeness.
Samuel Perry on X: " Ever notice folks ..." / X
Then,
Samuel Perry on X: "Incidentally, ...." / X
Samuel Perry on X: " Ever notice folks ..." / X
Ever notice folks on the political left & right both claim their views represent those of Jesus? In our new study, we ask adults to rate Jesus on the left-right spectrum & find ratings are almost all about politics & almost nothing to do w/being religious or even Christian. 1/
For example, we find the leading predictors of whether you place Jesus further left or right are your own ideological identity and Christian nationalism, and this is true for Christians AND non-Christians alike. And religiosity doesn't really matter much. Why's that important? 2/
It helps us understand causal direction. If folks became conservative BECAUSE they view Jesus as conservative, we'd expect those who ostensibly care more about being like Jesus (very committed Christians) to show a stronger association. But we don't. Rather we find whether... 3/
...you're nominal Christian or NOT a Christian, the link between ideological identity, CN, & where you place Jesus is basically the same. So it makes more sense to conclude the association is explained by projection. Jesus is left/right-leaning cuz YOU are left/right-leaning. 4/
This argument is consistent with what social theorists (Spinoza, Feuerbach, Durkheim) and social scientists have supposed for a long time. In fact, here are two studies that approach the topic with similar conclusions.
You can find our study here.
As always, if you can't get past the paywall, shoot me an email and I'll send you a pdf ASAP. My address is in the cv in my profile. 6/End
Then,
Samuel Perry on X: "Incidentally, ...." / X
I prefer to recognize that Xenophanes was right about this issue. Some 2,500 years ago, he noted that people tend to imagine deities in their likeness, blacks like blacks, Nordics like Nordics. Also, if they could, cows like cows, horses like horses, and lions like lions.Incidentally, I find the only pushback on this idea comes when somebody accuses *us* of doing this. We often assume political opponents are just projecting their ideology onto Jesus. Not us. OUR understanding of Jesus is objective. He's definitely not our partisan sock puppet.
Doing theology requires humble awareness of our own tendency to project. A theme in Lewis's A Grief Observed is his awareness that when dead loved ones are no longer physically present to be real, complicated people, we inevitably reduce them to caricatures reflecting our baises.