The Revolutionary

Title: The Revolutionary
Artist: Churches Advertising Network
Medium: Printed poster
Size: Various
Date: 1999
Location: Various

This arresting picture of Jesus as a revolutionary, imitating the style of the famous image of 1960s revolutionary Che Guevara, was produced as an advertising poster encouraging people to go to church during Easter 1999. This poster image was produced by the Churches Advertising Network – an ecumenical charity, whose executive team comprises senior communications officers from the Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and URC churches; from the Catholic newspaper The Universe, and from the Church Army and Evangelical Alliance an independent group of UK Christian communicators. More of their work can be found on their website http://www.churchads.net/

One of the group, Peter Owen Jones, describes seeing the design for the poster, “We have a picture of Christ cast in the same pose as Che Guevara... as a piece of communication which is trying to say this man was a revolutionary – a spiritual revolutionary – it is simple and memorable”. Another member of the group which produced this version of Jesus said “Jesus was not crucified for being meek and mild. He challenged authority. He was given a crown of thorns in a cruel parody of his claims about proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Our poster has the most arresting picture our advertisers could find to convey all this – the image deliberately imitates the style of the well-known poster of Che Guevara.”