I can't find an artist's name to go with "Undefeated" on the site that sells prints of it, "Art for God"; they appear to be an evangelical art collective that produces Christian imagery "for the 21st century." Individual creators aren't important to them, apparently, since to their way of thinking, all credit goes to God. That'd be impressive if the work wasn't so awful, inspired, it seems, by the soulless mass-produced crap churned out by purely commercial enterprises, posters of kittens on tree limbs and the New York City skyline. The artists responsible for "Undefeated" are so intent on blending into the culture that they've erased individual style. All that's left is a Beegee on steroids. Who is this picture for? The fellas, who don't want a sissy-Christ, as Hubert Humphrey once called the Jesus of liberal churches? Or the ladies, who want a Christ who's all man and all soul?
If anyone could answer that question, besides the artborg that created "Undefeated," it'd be Steve Prothero, author of a fascinating book called American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon. Steve has a new book coming out next month, Religious Literacy, which will be a response to what he calls "a nation of religious illiterates." Presumably, that includes even the art collective behind "Undefeated," whose 21st century ambitions are better described as a revival of the 19th century "muscular Christianity" movement, a rather ugly response to the idea that industrialization was leading to office-coddled girlie men incapable of pursuing British empire and American manifest destiny. Steve also has a new blog, at which you can find his controversial Harvard Divinity Bulletin article "Belief Unbracketed."
