Dear Readers,
I finally got the Facebook page for The Jesus Question all set up: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Jesus-Question/184363658274467. Give it a “Like,” if you’re so inclined! Continue reading
One of my favorite Christmas songs is Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. It’s a late-sixteenth-century German hymn of unknown authorship, inspired by the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” The harmonies were arranged by Michael Paretorius in 1609. Since then, there have been sixteen known English translations/adaptations of the carol, but the most famous one is “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” by Theodore Baker in 1894. Some other translations are “Behold, a Branch Has Flowered,” “The Noble Stem of Jesse,” “A Spotless Rose is Blowing,” “The World’s Fair Rose,” and “There is a Rose Tree Blooming.”
Below is a recording by John Rutter and the Cambridge Singers, as well as an indie rendition by Sufjan Stevens.
This T-shirt, designed by a company called “The Funny Farms,” was meant as a joke, but VirtuousPlanet.com offers it for sale in all seriousness, for those who want to promote its truth. (Click here to see their other Christmas T-shirt selections.) A Christian e-tailer, Virtuous Planet “strive[s] for moral excellence, and our goal is to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere.”
This is not a friendly shirt, nor is it morally excellent. I resent any parent who would put this on their toddler. If you don’t want to do the whole Santa thing with your child on the grounds that it’s a lie, that’s fine, but don’t spoil the magic for other kids with this combative statement—all the more reprehensible in this size-2T form, for its forcing a two-year-old to be the killjoy, and an unwilling party in such ultra-conservativism.
The story of Jesus’ birth is well-known by most: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born nine months later to a teenage virgin in the overcrowded city of Bethlehem in Judea. Star and angels heralded his birth, leading wise men and shepherds to that manger where he lay, that God-man whose coming had been foretold by Jewish prophets many times over.
The settings of these events are likewise well-known: interior (Annunciation), desert (Journey of the Magi), field (Annunciation to the Shepherds), stable (Nativity). Especially the last one, which has become part of the all-too-familiar Christmastime image that decorates front lawns, altars, tabletops, and mantles all season long.
So what would happen if we were to replace these traditional backdrops with more contemporary ones? Would it make the story less foreign, less stale? Would it help us to celebrate Christ’s advent in a more conscious and grateful way? Continue reading
Found at T-Shirt Watch.
“Dr. Seuss Bible” is a sketch by the Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, whose eponymous TV show aired late-night on three networks from 1989 to 1994. Even though CBC, HBO, and CBS all had rights to the show, only HBO chose to air this particular episode, due to anticipated controversy. And so “Dr. Seuss Bible”—the final sketch of season 1, episode 20—aired only once, in 1990 on HBO. And even though the network’s editing was and is much lighter than that of other networks, it still insisted on removing a shot of a nail going through Jesus’ hand, and it dubbed over the profanity that he utters in response.
Hm, I think I’d like to buy some vowels.
Found at S^cred Clothesline.
At my church, as part of the Sunday morning liturgy, we spend time in both private and corporate confession. The corporate prayer, which we read aloud together as a body, is usually taken from Arthur Bennett’s The Valley of Vision (The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), a collection of prayers which Bennett selected and adapted from the vast corpus of Puritan literature.
I wanted to share with you guys today’s excerpt, which I’ve supplemented with visual meditations:
“Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be yours alone.
Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, c. 1944. Oil on board support. Tate Collection.
Found at zazzle.com.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper (c. 1495) is one of the most readily recognized and reproduced images in the world. Yet as commonplace as the scene has become, artists are still finding ways to make it new—by experimenting with different mediums, for example.
Here are ten playful renditions of The Last Supper, most of which were created in the last two decades. All save one are compositional copies of Leonardo’s version, but instead of tempera, these artists used basic foods, household items, toys, or the walls of their workplace to create their masterpieces.
I’ve tried to order them from earliest to most recent, though some guesswork was involved, as not all of them are dated.
10. Out of rock salt
Antoni Wyrodek, "The Last Supper," 1936-45. Chapel of St. Kinga, Wieliczka Salt Mine, Poland.
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
This bas-relief is located in the Chapel of Saint Kinga, a place of worship located 330 feet underground in the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland. Excavation for this 10,400-square-foot chamber started in 1896 and continued until 1963 and was the work of three individual miners (Antoni Wyrodek and brothers Józef and Tomasz Markowski), who did it all in their spare time. Continue reading
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