Debates about the depictions of Jesus never fail to amuse me. The images we've grown up with and which some evangelicans take to be canonical are actually fabrications. Early Christian depictions of Jesus were actually based on the template of Apollo, like some sweet shepherd boy. When they found that the images weren't commanding the respect of the population, they decided instead to switch to a more imposing Zeus-like template, hence the beard and robes. Even in the ancient world, it was all about branding and marketing, and for people to get bent out of shape over an image which actually has little historical accuracy to begin with amuses me more than upsets me.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-09-07 03:17 am (UTC)