The recent movie The Kingdom paints a fairly bleak picture for future Arab-Western relations. In the fictitious movie, several F.B.I. agents are sent to Saudi Arabia in order to investigate a mythical bombing of American oil workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Both sides do not trust each other and a "clash of cultures" is well documented (everything from profanity and scantily clad Western women versus an austere moral code by Islam to out and out war . . .).
But, in Jesus Christ's Kingdom (whether it is the ultra-orthodox group in the Catholic Church called Opus Dei or Franciscan monks and sisters or Pentecostal televangelists) there is a role for something that actually celebrates the human body! No, this does not mean the MTV style decadence, but instead in the tradition of the best of Catholic and Orthodox (and Protestant) artwork, a view that human physicality, when rightly ordered, is GOOD!
In fact, as the depiction of the Pieta shows, Christ's body (as held in his mother's hands following the crucifixion . . .) is shown in full anatomical splendor! To not be "physical" in the Christian understanding of salvation is to be heretical even! Christ died a real death and rose a real new life through a physical resurrection! Yes, this is a mystery of the faith, but a mystery clothed in the human physique itself!
So, when the naysayers are wanting all human expressions of the body to be drowned out, remember that Christ Jesus died for all of us and died for our bodies! Not only are our "minds" saved (or our hearts!), but yes, even our legs, upper torsoes, and chins, ears, noses, etc.
So, painters and sculptors of the world, be inspired!
The LORD is honored by work that is GOOD!
Love in Jesus Christ, Rob
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