A test I give to my Jesus of Nazareth students at the beginning and end of the semester, which I may have put on this blog before, derives from the North England Institute for Christian Education. This test asks questions of you and then of Jesus and, if done over a big group of people, will prove this: that we make Jesus in our own image rather than let ourselves be shaped by Jesus’ image. That is, everyone wants Jesus so much on his or her side that they make him fit. Jesus is a Republican, a Democrat, and a Marxist. And I could go on.
I give students this test at the beginning, and they record their score (how many of their answers are the same about themselves and Jesus) and then I ask them to do the same at the end of the semester (and the numbers don’t change much — which says I’m not teaching much, or they’re not learning much, or that our view of Jesus is fixed and hard to change).
See what you think of it — know this, there are no “right” answers to the Jesus part (which is the point). The point is that people tend to answer the questions in both groups the same — everyone wants Jesus on their side.
NEICE Images of Jesus (PDF)