America's changing images of Jesus, Stephen Prothero contends here, are a kind of looking glass into the national character. Even as most Christian believers cleave to a traditional faith, other people give Jesus a leading role as folk hero, sage, hippie, and Black Messiah. Coming to grips with these variations, Prothero discusses Thomas Jefferson, who took scissors to his New Testament to cut out supernatural references; the Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who fit Jesus into their own traditions; and the artists who adapt Jesus for stage and screen.