SoulWork
Holy Incarnation!
We've received a number of emails and letters recently from people who are concerned that Christianity Today may have committed blasphemy. But the real question is whether Christians can ever avoid the charge of blasphemy: "the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary; first definition).
In his The Heretical Imperative, sociologist Peter Berger noted that the word heresy is based on the Greek root meaning "to choose for one's self." To commit heresy is to choose one's belief, rather than submitting to the teaching of the tradition one is born into. Today few are born into an unquestioned tradition. In a pluralistic world, each of us must choose our beliefs. Even those who choose traditional, orthodox faith are still choosing, and thus are practicing "heresy." Today, argues Berger, we have no choice but to choose our beliefs, that is, to commit "heresy."
Given the nature of Christian claims about who God is and what he has done in Christ, I wonder whether we also have something like a "Blaspheming Imperative." Or more precisely: Can we ever escape scandalizing people from time to time?
First, let's note the concerns of readers regarding our September cover story on "hipster Christianity." On the cover, we showed Jesus in one of those classic "Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock" paintings, and then put Wayfarer sunglasses on him. This image offended a few readers. Three examples:
The Christian school where I work subscribes to Christianity Today and I feel it is an important magazine to have displayed in our library. The cover of the September 2010 issue will undoubtedly offend many within this school community and for that reason it will not go on the shelf.
After receiving my Sept. issue of CT, I immediately tore the cover off! Think how inconceivable it would be for a Muslim publication to depict Mohammed in that way. Please … Jesus is the Lord of Glory!!
What happened to honoring and respecting our Lord?
Would Jesus wear sunglasses if we were walking the earth today? If he did, would this denigrate his majesty? Some people apparently think so.
The other article that has concerned readers is my column "Divine Drama Queen." In that piece, I compared God to an angry Italian housewife throwing dishes, and to an overly dramatic man who throws himself in front of cars. Three more examples of reader concerns:
How can you be associated with such blasphemy?
You ought to be ashamed of yourself printing such blasphemous, God-demeaning junk.
You need to take time to spend on your knees before the Almighty, Omnipotent, Omnipresent Creator of the Universe.
Why does it bother us to imagine Jesus throwing a few dishes in the kitchen when he overturned tables in the temple? Still, many people have a fixed image of God as high and lifted up, holy and magisterial, and they naturally don't want their image tarnished.
But is it possible to tarnish the image of God any more than he has already tarnished it? To put it another way, if we're anxious to protect the reputation of the holy, infinite, immutable, and all powerful YHWH, we probably should stop talking about the Incarnation.
The Incarnation means that the transcendent God took on mutable flesh; pure Spirit assumed a decaying body; holy divinity trafficked with sinful humanity.
Let's get specific, lest we forget what was really entailed in this ugly business. God was initially wrapped not in swaddling clothes but in birth matter. He had blood coursing through his veins, fecal matter through his intestines, and urine through his urinary tract. God chewed and swallowed food, and sometimes vomited from drinking bad water or eating contaminated food. God sweated; he had body odor. He had dirt caked around his toes and ankles, splinters under his skin, and scabs from cutting himself in the carpentry shop. His hair was probably greasy and matted. He had pimples in his youth. He had wax in his ears. He had sexual thoughts, albeit without lusting. He had a penis and hair in his armpits. His frail human body gave out on him every night. At that point in the day, he had to put acts of love on hold; he was just too tired to keep going.
SoulWork
In "SoulWork," Mark Galli brings news, Christian theology, and spiritual direction together to explore what it means to be formed spiritually in the image of Jesus Christ.
Mark Galli
Galli is editor of Christianity Today and author of God Wins, Chaos and Grace, A Great and Terrible Love, Jesus Mean and Wild, Francis of Assisi and His World, and other books.
- Christian Athletes Are Not Role Models
- On the Death—and Life—of Innocent Children
- Closer than Ever to the Breath of God
- Making Non-Sense of the Colorado Shootings
- Mastering the Golf Swing of Life
The 'Handicap Icon' Gets New Life
Sidelining the Stigma of Mental Illness
Not part of the community? Subscribe now, or register for a free account.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
Newsletters
Google
Join the Conversation
Displaying 1–5 of 35 comments
See all comments
susan s.
Fully Human. What does that really mean? We are the ones who are NOT fully human. Jesus "knew" what was in their hearts! WE do not. WE are Not like Jesus, but he became like us ONLY HE was Fully God! Why are we trying to make HIM like us. WE are to become LIKE him! NO ONE is walking with the FATHER and OBEYING HIM as JESUS demonstrated...purely because HE WAS NOT LIKE US nor did HE live on the earth LIKE US!
susan s.
God AFFIRMED humans. HE pronounce what he created GOOD. HE loves us. He loved Adam and Eve before the fall and he loved them after. I would rather that I get to know God through what His Holy Spirit reveals in His Word to me because His Son has saved me by His Grace through His Gift of Faith. It is not that complicated. Just get to know Him and keep on going deeper and deeper into the beauty of our Lord and Savior. I keep on learning how to love Him back and tell Him and show Him. We will become like HIM. He is NOT like us nor will He ever be like us. Look at Who He is until you can see Him. I read this magazine but it is not necessary to give us a visual nor do true believers need someone else to show us how we should 'see' Jesus. There are just too many freelance writers and preachers and voices messing with the minds of believers in my opinion. We are each responsible to seek Him and learn from the Holy Spirit given us and the Word of God.
Paul Bond
I heard Jesus described as the most evil man that ever died. Did he not take all our sin upon himself?
Dave Palmer
We only know what he wore at his birth, his death - and in Revelation. I'd like to know how he chose what to wear each day - but we are given no hint. We can't even deduce such things from the Old Testament. There is no record even of the Pharisees or anyone else criticising his dress sense. Perhaps what he wore was completely unremarkable. And what he said and did was so strong and clear that how he looked just didn't rate. Also I'd guess that he would be unique in that, in His mind, image meant exactly zilch. Perhaps those who regarded the CT article as blasphemous may hold exclusively to the Revelation image of Jesus, and don't see Him still incarnate in us, mixing it on the streets, in the jails and hospitals and factories and schools, as well as in church?
Steve W.
Dude, they're sunglasses, not pagan tattoos! My goodness, when all our time and effort goes into criticizing a magazine cover, there is something really wrong with the American Church. Here's a heads up, God is not dethroned by kitschy pictures of him in contemporary garb. He's not made less sovereign because someone chooses to imagine him as an Italian housewife or mexican farm worker or African American preacher. God is God no matter what we say do or post on magazine covers. I have a hard time believing that Jesus is sitting in heaven at the right hand of God fuming over the "disrespect" shown to him by a magazine cover that has him wearing sunglasses. Rather my bet is that he is pretty upset over the fact that his children are arguing about a picture of him while the world is full of suffering and injustice. Do you want to see Jesus for real? Go and hang out with a prostitute, an orphan, a street rat, a prisoner. After all that's where Jesus said he'd be...