The Illustrated Jesus through the Centuries by Jaroslav Pelikan (review)

BOOK REVIEWS General and Miscellaneous The IllustratedJesus through the Centuries. By Jaroslav Pelikan. (New Haven: Yale University Press. 1997. Pp. x, 254. $35.00.) Jaroslav Pelikan, the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus atYale University, needs no introduction to the readers of this journal. HisJesus through the Centuries :His Place in the History ofCulture,published byYale University Press in 1985, attained a circulation of more than 100,000 copies and translations in more than a dozen languages. That book, which brought together the author's William Clyde De Vane Lectures at Yale, complements his earlier five-volume work on The Christian Tradition, which describes the history of the significance of the person and work ofJesus Christ for the faith and teaching of the Christian Church. Jesus through the Centuries delineates the place of Jesus Christ in the general history of culture. It comprises eighteen chapters beginning with first-century images ofJesus as rabbi and continues with such representations of Jesus as king of kings, bridegroom of the soul, prince of peace, teacher of common sense, and poet of the spirit. Recent centuries have interpreted Jesus as liberator; hence his message has extended beyond Christendom , and so he is seen also as the man who belongs to the whole world. Because of the gracious response to Jesus through the Centuries, Pelikan acceded to the publisher's wish that he prepare an illustrated edition. The result is a strikingly beautiful and accessible book with over two hundred illustrations , most ofthem in color. The original text has been judiciously shortened so that readers will have to turn to the first edition for the identification and documentation of quotations, for additional readings, and for a more complete exposition, but the handsome illustrations serve as a rich complement to the written text and show how a picture can in fact mean more than a thousand words. The illustrations are drawn from roadside crosses in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria to Carolingian miniatures to Renaissance masters. They make one wonder whether theologians have not been too exclusively text-bound and have neglected the important role that the arts have played in the development of the Christian tradition. Accompanied by the author's lively commentary, the illustrations range from familiarWestern works, such as Fra Angélico's "Madonna and Child" and Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ" to images derived from the Eastern Christian tradi518 BOOK REVIEWS519 tion and -works by Chinese, black American, Australian aboriginal, Native American, and other artists. There are reproductions of Marc Chagall's "Yellow Crucifixion," Edvard Munch's "Golgotha," William Johnson's "Mount Calvary," Caravaggio's "Supper at Emmaus," and Horace Peppin's "The Crucifixion.'' Because of such wide-ranging styles, the illustrations are appealing to people of all ages, social backgrounds, religious persuasions, and educational levels. It is unfortunate that the illustrations are not accompanied by clear identifications; one has to turn to the illustrations credits at the back of the book for that information . Like the original lectures on which the book is based and which were intended for an audience representing both town and gown, The IllustratedJesus beckons an audience of believers and skeptics alike. It shows, in Pelikan's own words, that "Jesus is far too important a figure to be left only to the theologian and the church." The book is dedicated to the Benedictines of Saint John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota,"nihil amori Christi praeponere." R. Kevin Seasoltz, O.S.B. SaintJohn'sAbbey Collegeville, Minnesota Tradition & Diversity: Christianity in a World Context to 1500. By Karen Louise Jolly. [Sources and Studies in World History.] (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. 1997. Pp. xiv, 569. $64.95 cloth; $28.95 paper.) For a number of reasons, this is a welcome new anthology of sources for teaching the history of Christianity to 1500. First of all, some of the best readers in ancient and medieval Christianity published in the past half-century are now out of print. (One thinks, for example, of the first volume of Ray Petry's A History ofChristianity:Readings in the History ofthe Church [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1962; repr. 1981, 1988].) But even if some of the earlier anthologies were still in print, there is reason...