this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
1096 points (98.8% liked)

Comic Strips

14201 readers
5750 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 week ago (8 children)

99% invisible just released a podcast on this subject ☞ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/615-your-own-personal-jesus/

The most popular image of Jesus Christ in the world—a white man with blue eyes, wavy brown hair, and a soft, peaceful gaze—comes from Head of Christ, a 1940 painting by Chicago artist Warner Sallman. It’s been reproduced over a billion times, shaping how millions imagine Jesus.

But its dominance also cemented a white Jesus in the cultural imagination. Scholars point out that the historical Jesus, a Middle Eastern Jew, likely had darker skin. Yet Head of Christ reinforced whiteness as central to Christian identity in America. As historian David Morgan puts it, “It gave white Americans a Jesus that was theirs.”

[–] JcbAzPx 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

White Jesus predates the '40s by quite a long way. European Christians have been depicting him that way for centuries. I'm pretty sure Americans had a white Jesus before then as well.

Sadly, it's hard to find accurate depictions of Jesus in the western world.

[–] Num10ck 1 points 1 week ago

i read that it was Da Vinci era likely due to instruction from the popes. some say Da Vinci's depictions of Jesus were self portraits.

load more comments (6 replies)