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BOOK PREVIEW Jesus has long been known throughout the world; yet he has been perceived and portrayed in a wide variety of ways in different times and places. How do we account for such a broad range of perception and depiction? In this provocative study Anton Wessels explores the manner in which Jesus has been introduced to and received by various non-European cultures. Images of Jesus: How Jesus has been perceived and portrayed in non-European cultures Author: Anton Wessels Publisher: Eerdmans, 1990 ISBN: 0-8028-0287-7 Price: $12.95 TO ORDER BACK COVER: The earliest representations of Jesus showed him as a youthful shepherd. But when Constantine instituted Christianity as the state religion, the gentle Christ became the conquering imperial Christ. By contrast, the Middle Ages, under the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Francis, pictured Jesus primarily as the suffering and dying Christ. In the Baroque period Christ was portrayed as emotional and visionary, but in the twentieth century Jesus is again the Man of Sorrows. Exploring some specific cultural-historical images of Jesus, Wessels first emphasizes that Jesus was a Jew, and he looks at various Jewish perspectives on Jesus. Next he develops the unique Muslim image of Jesusa perspective that over time has been maintained quite apart from any Christian influence. "The Spanish Christ," introduced to the Indians of the New World by Christopher ("the Christ-bearer") Columbus and Francisco Pizarro, emphasized Jesus' suffering and death at the expense of his life and resurrection; in partial reaction to this image arose the liberating Christ as developed by liberation theologians. Wessels also explores black African images and Asiatic perceptions of Christthe latter including discussion of how Jesus is related to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Against the background of this review of representative past and present images of Jesus, Wessels addresses a number of urgent questions: What is the relation of Jesus Christ to the various cultures of the world? How do the various cultural images examined relate to the New Testament? Is Jesus only the redeemer of humankind or its liberator as well? What is the relation between knowing Jesus Christ and following his way? Images of Jesus offers compelling reading for both academic and general readers. Suitable for background information on church history and missions, the book will also provide many provocative insights for adult discussion groups. ANTON WESSELS is professor of missions and evangelism at the Free University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is the author of The New Arabian, The Renaissance of Islam, and Arabians and Christians: The Christian Church-in the Middle East.

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