Christ Has Died, And Died, And Died...

After weeks of picking it up, putting it down, and picking it up again, I have finally finished Rita Brock's and Rebecca Parker's Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire (http://savingparadise.net/). It was fascinating to read, and it pinpointed some parts of Christian Theology that have always made me uncomfortable.

The authors spent a great deal of time looking at early Christian art and discovered that there were very few images of the crucified Christ during the first 1,000 years or so of Christianity. Images of Paradise and the resurrected Christ dominate Christina art for the first millennium. Not until the late 900's did Christ crucified begin appearing in Christian--primarily western Christian--art. From then on the dying Christ became a primary image.

The first section of Saving Paradise looks at the early Christian imagery and examines the theology, ritual, and teachings of the early church in light of those images. In the second section the authors show the changes in the church and the culture that "killed" Christ and became mired in the crucifixion, eventually exiling Paradise to the next world.

Having read Saving Paradise, I find my subsequent reading on a variety of topics about Christianity/from a Christian perspective colored by Brock's and Parker's work. Or rather, I find my discomfort with and awareness of the "victim/atonement" theology in these other books heightened. I have a feeling that it will take a while for this to settle into my thought process...

As I would expect, response to the book definitely depends on the reader's place in the Christian continuum. You can find a couple of the more thoughtful reviews (to my mind, though I may not agree with them), which I found after finishing the book, by following the links below.

Peace,
Jeff

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/recommendation-and-review-saving-paradise-by-rita-nakashima-brock-and-rebecca-ann-parker

http://www.psr.edu/saving-paradisehow-christianity-traded-love-world-crucifixion-and-empire-review-tat-siong-benny-liew

http://www.theocentric.com/theology/eschatology/saving_paradise.html