The Scriptorium Daily

Month: January 2010

  • The Baptism of Christ: Part 7: The Son

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Christ in icons of the baptism is identifiable just as he is in any painting or icon: his traditional bearded face, and a halo (nimbus) with a cross inscribed in it. Of course there are exceptions: the Arian baptistery in Ravenna featured a beardless Christ, and in the post-Renaissance West, halos fell out of popularity…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 6, The Father

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    Fred Sanders
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    In this leisurely exploration of the image of the baptism of Christ, we finally turn to a description of the three persons of the Trinity. They are linked in the center of the image by the vertical beam of light, running down from the Father through the Spirit to the Son. The question of representing…

  • A Terrible Little Stroll with C.S. Lewis

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    Fred Sanders
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    Who, I ask you, wouldn’t enjoy taking a walk around the Oxford countryside with C.S. Lewis? Surely, no matter what you wanted to talk about, that many-sided man, that generous soul and omnivorous reader would be able to engage you in illuminating conversation. Surely. But no. In second volume of The Collected Letters of C.…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 5. Light

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    The feast of Christ’s baptism is called “the Feast of Light,” linking baptism with illumination in a tradition too ancient to trace. The apocryphal literature surrounding the New Testament is full of Jordan light imagery. The Gospel of the Ebionites reports that simultaneous with the voice of the Father, “a great light shone around about.”…

  • “The praise of God by crafting concepts”

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    John Webster on how Christian theology can be helpful: …only by recalling itself to its proper calling, which is the praise of God by crafting concepts to turn the mind to the divine splendor. But deeply important as they are, concepts are only serviceable as the handmaids of spiritual apprehension. (from “Life in and of…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 4. Angels and People

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Angels are not mentioned in the scriptural account of the baptism, but they are almost always presented in the iconography. Perhaps they are included because the baptism is read together with the temptation in the wilderness, which followed it immediately, and after which the gospels report that “the devil left Jesus, and suddenly angels came…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 3. The Jordan River

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    The landscape in which the baptism of Christ is usually portrayed is a rocky wilderness, with craggy mountain peaks in the background and cliff-like stony river banks on either side of the Jordan. While Jesus stands in the middle of the river itself, John is always portrayed in the classic icons as standing up on…

  • Epiphany (T.S. Eliot on the Magi)

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    Greg Peters
    in

    A wonderful poem to ponder today on Epiphany: The Journey of the Magi “A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The was deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.” And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 2. John the Baptist

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    Fred Sanders
    in ,

    Pictures of the baptism of Christ are visually busy, filled with characters and details. Since it’s a baptism, it makes sense to start with a close look at John the Baptist. John is an important New Testament character, and Christian artists have assigned him his own iconographic details. You can read all about it, and…

  • Mary Daly (1928-2010): Radical Feminist Theologian

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    The term “radical feminism” gets tossed around pretty loosely in theological circles, and usually means “feminism that goes farther than I’m comfortable with.” But there are such things as radical feminist theologians. Probably the most influential of them all, Mary Daly, died this week. This post (rather long, probably only of interest to theologians after…

  • The Baptism of Christ: 1. The Earliest Images

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    Fred Sanders
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    The baptism of Christ is among the earliest New Testament scenes selected for depiction in Christian art. Günter Ristow mentions this in Die Taufe Christi (Recklinghausen: Verlag Aurel Bongers, 1965, 12). It is found in the catacombs, on early christian sarcophagi, and in the very first christian monumental architecture. Given all the water imagery in…

  • The Baptism of Christ: Worth Pondering

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    Fred Sanders
    in

    Christmas is past, and in a church calendar that tracks with the life of Jesus, the season of epiphany is here. In some parts of the Christian tradition, that means it’s time to think about the wise men, who actually got to Bethlehem far too late to pose for the manger scene. In other parts…