Weekend Event—Rita Nakashima Brock

September 24-25, 2010

Fri. 7:30-9pm - Sat. 9 am-2:30pm

Saving Paradise:

How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

A riddle: why are images of the crucified Christ absent from early Christian art? After visiting Mediterranean and European sites sacred to early Christians a provocative answer comes forth—the dying Christ never appears in early Christian art because early Christians did not believe Christ’s redemptive death had opened a heavenly afterlife for the faithful. Rather, early Christians looked to Jesus as the exemplar who showed how to defy injustice by creating paradise on Earth in a loving community. In this theory, images of Christ’s passion and death invaded Christian art only when the Church started using a theology of otherworldly salvation to recruit the forces necessary to build a Christian empire.

Upcoming Weekend Events

Friday & Saturday, 10/22/10 & 10/23/10 - BISHOP JOHN SPONG, Retired Episcopal Bishop

Friday & Saturday, 2/25/11 & 2/26/11 - JOHN DOMINIC CROSSAN, Professor, Speaker, Author

Friday & Saturday, 4/15/11 & 4/16/11 - PAUL KNITTER, Professor, Speaker, Author

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