Hey guys,
I just wanted to say I thought we had one of the best guest speakers of the semester!! Dr. Gatti was extremely interactive and just an overall fun person to talk with and learn from. I was amazed at how informal she was, saying things like "baby Jesus" and "penis Jesus." She provided good, concise notes on the whiteboard and truly attempted to relate to students' views on Christian imagery and its purpose in Christian Traditions.
I consider myself a visual learner, and seeing the countless postcards and computerized images made it easier for me to understand Dr. Gatti. I also think the pictures (especially the postcards) facilitated many of the conversations about Christian imagery that we had today. Because I am so detail oriented, I looked carefully at each postcard that I held. I've never felt so focused on such stunning images! With the help of Dr. Gatti, Annie and I were able to draw some similarities between our postcards (I would love for people to comment the similarities they discovered between their postcards and others' postcards)!
What do you all think about the different types of Christian imagery? Do you like seeing Christ dead, alive, present but not, etc? Do the images we looked at in class interest you to travel to certain locations that contain these images? I've been to some locations in Europe that have such stunning imagery and architecture, including Bath, England, Westminster Abbey in London, Notre Dame in Paris, the Berlin Cathedral, Palace of Versailles, the Louvre in Paris, the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, and more (I'm sure there are some of you that have been to many more places in Europe than I have haha). Seeing the postcards in class today only motivates me to explore even more!
Hey Andy! I agree that Dr. Gatti's engagement with our class was great! I too am a visual learner and the activity with the post cards really stuck with me. Like you, it inspired me to travel throughout Europe and more of the world to discover the different depictions there are to see of Christ as well.
ReplyDeleteThe postcards that interested me the most were the ones in which Christ was not necessarily present as a person, but still insinuated that Christ was there. For example, the postcard of the empty throne was fascinating. It was a lavish throne clearly meant for a king of some sort, and have divine symbols all throughout the rest of the image. Christ was not present as a person, yet we were able to find all sorts of examples and reasoning as to how we knew the image contained Christ.
The postcard that I had contained an ivory-carved image of Christ as a person, as well as a handful of images that Christ was depicted in in a non-bodily way. Christ was made present in the large amethyst gem, in the ivory lion, and more. I found it interesting how we were able to connect these images to Christ with information that we have learned throughout this semester.
I look forward to continue connecting more information that we will learn in class to things that we have discussed already to gain a deeper understanding of Christian tradition overall.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete*I'm glad you liked Dr. Gatti! I thought you might!
ReplyDeleteHey Andy, I just wanted to respond to your question on whether we liked seeing Jesus dead versus alive and I think that is an interesting concept. The postcard that I had was Jesus' crucifixion and He appeared to be dead. Often times I think that images of Jesus on the cross, at least the ones I have been exposed to, have Him alive. I think Christian religions have a hard time depicting Jesus as weak because of how powerful He is seen to be. When I researched this idea, I found that in Eastern crucifixes, Jesus is often depicted as dead, but Western crucifixes are more likely to show Him alive. On my postcard Jesus looked skinny and defeated and I definitely think I like seeing Him alive more than dead on the cross. Any one else have any comments on that?
ReplyDelete