# Jesus Christ — Culture and Anarchy character guide

> Jesus Christ in Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Christ

**First appearance:** 0002-culture-and-anarchy

## Snapshot

The figure whose life of self-renouncement the narrator holds up as the model of perfection, the crown of Hebraism and the pattern of true sweetness and light.

## Who they are

He stands at the meeting point of the book's two great forces, the Hebrew passion for conduct and the Hellenic passion for seeing things as they are, since his religion teaches that the only perfect freedom is a service. The narrator invokes him not as a doctrinal authority but as the living proof that self-conquest and intelligence can be one, that renouncement is as true a law of human life as liberty. He matters because the argument's final hope, that England might walk by true light with the same zeal it once gave to imperfect light, is unimaginable without his example.

## In the story

### [Chapter I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/i)

His words 'My kingdom is not of this world' are central to the debate over Church establishments and their interpretation.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/characters/jesus_christ
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/characters