David and John Wayne
Flat readings of the David story often turn him into a sort of John Wayne character. A gunslinger, a good-bad guy that has to do what no one is willing to do in order to get the job done so that everyone lives happily ever after.
The western is sort of the quintessential American myth. These are the stories we tell ourselves to understand who we are. They are told to characterize something essentially American. Historian Kristen Kobes du Mez recently wrote a book called Jesus and John Wayne in which she chronicles ways that American evangelicals have sort of reimagined Jesus in the image of…
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