Seminar to discuss Jesus as cultural icon
The North Idaho College chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international honor society for two-year colleges, will present a seminar focused on Jesus as a cultural icon Thursday.
The seminar is part of the chapter’s exploration of this year’s Phi Theta Kappa honors study topic “Popular Culture: Shaping and Reflecting Who We Are.”
The seminar, “Jesus in America: Personal Savior or Cultural Hero?” will be at 4 p.m. in Room 102 of the Meyer Health and Sciences Building on NIC’s main campus. The focus will be on why for the past four centuries religious and secular Americans have been so attached to Jesus, an icon two-thirds of Americans view as both divine and as a man who walked the Earth in ancient Palestine.
With contemporary examples, such as What Would Jesus Do? armbands and films such as Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” the seminar will explore how the “new birth” that Jesus preached matches with the traditional secular American belief in new identities for individuals and new beginnings for the nation.
The seminar will be presented via a videotaped lecture by Richard Wightman Fox, a professor of history at the University of Southern California as well as the author of several books, including his latest “Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession.”
The event is free and open to the public and will include refreshments.