Class Notes 4/21

Class Notes 4/21/16

I. Passion Narrative Recaps

            1. Each author wants to highlight certain themes, making them very different           angles

                        a. John: Pilot highlighted, prophecy, more dialogue, negotiating family                                     relationships

                        b. Luke: emphasizes innocence, Jesus talks with the bandits (saving                             one, but not the other)

                        c. Mark: Agony emphasized (why have you forsaken me?/grieved in                           the garden)  

II. Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

            1. white perspective, abolitionist, patronizing, pre-civil war

            2. character passive, submissive to his fate

                        a. an uncle Tom capitulates to white culture

            3. excerpt: Tom suspected of involvement with helping two runaway slaves. Legree (master) tells Tom to either give him information, or be killed. Tom            accepts his faith, and is whipped by two other slaves. These slaves are jealous           of Tom from previous events, but after whipping him, they take care of Tom         when the end of his life is imminent.

            4. How does it echo the passion narratives?

                        a. John’s passion narrative when Jesus is in the garden accepting his                           fate

                        b. dialogue between Legree and Tom parallels the conversation                                   between Jesus and Pilot

                        c. The hour is coming, but in the passion narrative it slows down, and                                     you actually experience the events. This echoes the lead up to Tom’s                                    death

                        d. Tom wishes he could sacrifice his blood to save Legree’s soul, and                            Jesus similarly sacrificed himself for those who sinned against him

                        e. Silence/pause after Tom and Jesus die

            5. animalistic imagery and language perpetuates negative stereotypes even while trying to be sympathetic

III. MLK and Black Liberationi Movement

            1. A white Jesus challenges notions of race and the assumption of white         power

            2. MLK’s image of Christ is a dominant white image, yet there’s a focus on the           character of Christ and the universal nature

                        a. idealized as a Christ figure after his death

            3. Black liberation movement say MLK didn’t go far enough

                        a. Vincent Harding: Jesus isn’t enough, we need to focus on black                                 liberation

            4. Albert Cleague: Church of the black Madonna; Christ becomes imaged        rhetorically and in theology as a black man

            5. Black Christ important even before the movement (Harlem renaissance)

IV. TV Show

            1. Michael replaces Sallman’s Head of Christ with black Jesus

            2. Michael claims the paintings are symbols—but symbols are open for          interpretation and mean different things to different people

            3. References Malcom X to convince mother to hang it up

            4. Mother agrees to hang up black Jesus only for black history week

                        a. They keep both images; both circle the US

            5. Michael hyped about black history month, and is disappointed in his          brother for not painting a heroic figure. Once he sees black Jesus, he choses         that one to be the winner.

            6. Harder for the mother to accept a Jesus different than the one who he grew         up with

                        a. she idealizes the white Jesus and MLK, but the son is shaped by the                                    black power movement

                        b. Represents history in a short clip

V. The Head of Christ (Warner Sallman 1941)

            1. Dominant image of Christ during this time period

            2. Sallman in advertising, and was commissioned to create the painting

                        a. mass produced in 40s

            3. Images of the time very sentimental; pictures shown on PP depict Christ as           a child

                        a. But WWI was going on

            4. So this Christ was supposed to be more serious, more stoic, holy looking

                        a. eventually seen as feminine

                        b. Richard Hook’s Head of Christ more gruff, looks like a normal guy

            5. there might be a dominant image, but there are other narratives affecting             people differently

VI. Jesus People

            1. Inspired by hippie movement, but are also Christian

            2. Embrace communal living, living simply, share, give to the poor

            3. They embrace Richard Hook’s Head of Christ 

VII. Examples of Art

            1. Folk art

            2. Renee Cox “It Shall Be Named” a collage of photographs making up Jesus   on the cross

            3. Ben Carson and his painting of him and Jesus in his house

                        a. evokes lynching, race based murder

                        b. lack of genitalia=culture’s emasculation of men

                        c. how does religion play into issues of race

            4. Janet McKenzie “Jesus of the People” 1999

                        a. Winning painting of a new image of Christ for a new millennium

                        b. yin yang and feather evoke peace, balance, and diverse people

                        c. some see it as gender ambiguous

            5. Rhetorical questions: What’s at stake in images of Christ? Why do we have            a variety? Why do people get upset about images of Christ? Why the        controversy?