This beautiful volume is adapted from Jaroslav Pelikan's classic work jesus Through the Centuries, which was hailed as "a masterpiece" by the Christian Science Monitor and as "a sweeping visual and conceptual panorama" by the New York Times Book Review. Pelikan, one of the most distinguished scholars of our era, has condensed the original text and enhanced the book with more than zoo new illustrations, most in color, that give a new dimension to his thoughts. His lively commentary that accompanies the illustrations provides fresh information on the art, architecture, individuals, and events that Jesus has inspired over the ages.

In this wise, informative, and sumptuously illustrated book, Pelikan discusses how each age created Jesus in its own image, discovering in his life and teachings the answers to fundamental questions of human existence and destiny. Studying the images of Jesus cherished by successive ages -- from rabbi in the first century to universal man in the Renaissance to liberator in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- Pelikan suggests that the way a particular age depicted Jesus is an essential key to understanding that era.