KNOXVILLE — What does Jesus look like? Through the years, and from culture to culture, the image has varied.
David Morgan David Morgan, the Duesenberg Professor of Christianity and the Arts at Valparaiso University, will visit the University of Tennessee on April 18 to discuss “The Search for the American Jesus.” The lecture begins at 7 p.m. at the Frank H. McClung Museum Auditorium. It is free and open to the public.
Morgan will explore the vital role images have played during the last 150 years as American Christians have tried to envision Jesus. By examining how people have depicted Jesus and the ways they’ve have displayed, venerated, exchanged and circulated these images, Morgan will explain how seeing Jesus has been integral to understanding and experiencing him among diverse groups of believers.
Morgan is author of several books on religious art and imagery, including “Visual Piety” (1998); “Protestants and Pictures” (1999); and “The Sacred Gaze” (2005). His latest book, “The Lure of Images: A History of Visual Media and Religion in America,” will be published his summer.
Morgan is co-founder and co-editor of “Material Religion,” an international scholarly journal that studies religious objects, images and spaces. He also chaired the International Study Commission on Media, Religion and Culture, a traveling think tank that explored the intersection of religion and media around the world.
For more information about the lecture, contact Alexis Boylan, UT assistant professor of art, at (865) 974-9390 or aboylan@utk.edu.
This event is sponsored by UT’s Visiting Artist Designer and Scholar Committee (VASCO), the Humanities Initiative, the departments of English and religious studies and the School of Art.
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Contacts:
Alexis L. Boylan, (865) 974-9390, aboylan@utk.edu
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu