Jesusbilden i samtiden : ungdomars receptioner av nio samtida Kristusbilder

Put succinctly, these concern the fact that in contemporary Western society: 1) visual representations of the Jesus figure tend to be heterogeneous in character, created for varied individual purposes and independent of the traditional interpretive authority of the church; 2) individuals tend to independently construct their own faith-based belief systems outside of religious institutions, leading to an increased religious pluralism that is further enhanced by the impact of migration; and, 3) visual communication tends to be particularly emphasized to the detriment of a didactic theology of images which relies upon textual discourse in its representational teaching of the gospel. From the perspective of this study, the challenge posed by these three features of contemporary Western society is also linked to a decrease in religious (i.e., Christian) socialization. The contemporary (post-secular) tendency towards complex and heterogeneous interpretations of the image of Jesus, exemplified by the wide spectrum of interpretations found in the present study, calls into question the preferential right of Christian communities to interpret Christian iconography and challenges the interpretive authority of the church. This circumstance highlights the need for critical theological reflection on questions such as how to define "tradition" and whether to accept sources that fall outside the compass of formal Christian authority