Who Do Men Say That I Am?

This book examines the idea that people in non-western cultures develop images of Jesus based on pre-existing, socially-constructed theologies rather than traditional western interpretations of the Gospel accounts; and that non-western images of Christ will be more revealing of aspects of cultural needs and local theology than historical or traditional features of Jesus of Nazareth. The research examines scholarship dealing with images of Jesus created by people indigenous to Asian, the Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American cultures, while examining the western images of Christ in order to compare them with the non-western cultural images of Christ. The cumulative examination of all the cultural images of Jesus portrays a universal icon who belongs to the whole world.