Lyle Jackson

"Picture Perfect Jesus" is highly recommended to anyone who has interest in art history, Protestant history, ecumenical relations, Christian spirituality, and the working of the Holy Spirit among non-Orthodox people. It is an important reminder to bridle a knee-jerk condemnation of every spiritual phenomenon that fails to line up with the exactitude of Orthodox tradition, especially when such phenomena seems to be moving people to take a step, however small, not away from the Orthodox Faith, but toward it. The documentary also reminds us that, while some Americans may be moving closer to Holy Orthodoxy, the policies and laws of the nation may be moving us, as a whole, away from the Faith. A further development in the history of Sallman's portrait, not mentioned in the video, is the official acceptance/veneration of Sallman's image of Christ by the Coptic Church in response to the miracles of healing and conversion which have been performed through it in the house of a Coptic family in the United States.… (mehr)