A Grace of Sense - theological aesthetics

Jesus' sexuality is a difficult issue for Christians. I still remember when I was a young theology student in the late 1980's, at the time of Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ . Outside the movie theater there were pious believers giving tracts that told that the movie was wrong. What was particularly abhorrent for conservative Christians was the episode where Jesus married Mary Magdalene and raised a family. In the movie it was just a dream of the Christ at the cross, a vision of the life of an ordinary man he could have had. Scorsese, or Nikos Kazantzakis, whose novel the movie was based on, did not claim it to be true. Nevertheless, the very idea of Jesus having sex - or even thinking about it - was enough to raise righteous indignation.  This moral indignation did not appear as theologically wise for the young student. According to the Scripture, Christ was tempted in every way as we are. Does it include sexual temptations? Not necessarily, respond some major ...

  Que tu es belle, mon amie, que tu es belle! Tes yeux sont des colombes, derrière ton voile. Tes cheveux sont comme un troupeau de chèvres, suspendues aux flancs de la montagne de Galaad. Tes dents sont comme un troupeau de brebis tondues, qui remontent de l'abreuvoir; Toutes portent des jumeaux, aucune d'elles n'est stérile. Tes lèvres sont comme un fil cramoisi, et ta bouche est charmante; Ta joue est comme une moitié de grenade, derrière ton voile. Ton cou est comme la tour de David, bâtie pour être un arsenal; Mille boucliers y sont suspendus, tous les boucliers des héros. Tes deux seins sont comme deux faons, comme les jumeaux d'une gazelle, qui paissent au milieu des lis.(Cant.4:1-5)  La langage érotique du Cantique des cantiques a toujours bouleversé la pensée théologique - des hommes, on peut supposer. Un des grands commentateurs chrétiens, Grégoire le Grand (6eme siècle), pour sa part, explique l'usage biblique des membres feminins avec une mise en garde:...

  Moses said, "I pray thee, show me thy glory."And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live." And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen." (Ex 33, 18-23) When Gregory of Nyssa (d.395) explains this passage in his Life of Moses, his point in question is the endless eros , interminable longing for God that can never attain its fulfillment or rest in a complete satisfaction.  "This truly is the vision of God: never to be satisfied in the desire to s...

 The Swedish theologian Anders Nygren wrote some 90 years ago his groundbreaking study Den kristna kärlekstanken genom tiderna (Engl. "Eros and Agape"). The basic idea of Nygren is simple: There are two main forms - or motives - of love. The first is eros, that means human desire for fulfillment. Love as eros is aimed at the person/thing that I am wanting, that satisfies my longing and fills the empty space in my heart. The second form of love is agape, that does not seek for its own, but is generously giving itself to the other. This, precisely, is the Christian love promoted by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. The cross of Christ unfolded the meaning of agape: self-surrender until death. "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." (1 Jn 4,10) In Nygren's view, eros appears as the selfish kind of love, whereas agape has a more divine and disinterested aura. Nygren, the Lutheran bishop, finds the...