The Body of Jesus is a big topic – and we are approaching it with the help of two fascinating scholars, Allen Callahan and Rachel Havrelock, the stars of the documentary series “Who Was Jesus?” that premiered on the Discovery Channel in 2009. I want to say more about them; but before I do, let me pause and reflect on the topic itself.
La Pietà
There are few religious traditions in which the physical embodiment of divinity is as central as it is in Christianity. Just think about the life of Jesus as it is reported in the gospels. His good works are related to bodily objects, from healing to feeding; and his sanctity is revealed through such physical acts as walking on water. Even his death on the cross is an eminently embodied experience, one, moreover, that is enshrined as Christianity’s key symbol. Relics attributed to Jesus dot Europe’s churches; and his body, at once divine and battered, figures in a rich tradition of visual representation, from the great Renaissance masters to Mel Gibson. And then, of course, there is the Eucharist itself.
All of this has been ample ground for historical and theological research – and it will be the topic of a much-anticipated CHF event. To me, it is the participation of Allen Callahan and Rachel Havrelock that makes it so special. In Allen and Rachel, we have two scholars who approach the Body of Jesus from distinct and unusual perspectives.
Allen is one of the leading African-American theologians working today. An expert in biblical languages and literature, biblical theology, and hermeneutics, he is the author of The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible, a path-breaking study of black culture and its creative and resistive appropriation of the biblical narrative. The meaning of Jesus is central to this work, which Callahan traces in texts from W.E.B. Du Bois to Toni Morrison.
Rachel is a biblical scholar as well. But she is a professor of Jewish Studies. Rachel thus approaches Jesus through the religious and cultural tradition from which he emerged. The result is a fascinating recontextualization of Jesus’s life and teachings – one that also has ramifications of our understanding of his bodily manifestation.
Bringing together an African-American and Jewish perspective on the Body of Jesus, Allen and Rachel will engage in a dialogue that promises to be one of CHF’s most fascinating events.
Discussion
#611: Sat, Nov. 13 2:00 - 3:00 PM
Tags: Christianity, Jesus, theology, The Body
