tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/christianity-2092/articlesChristianity – The Conversation2024-03-28T05:49:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2267452024-03-28T05:49:47Z2024-03-28T05:49:47ZThe rocking story of how religion crept into popular music – where it remains even today<p>It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or '90s kid, you might be surprised to find many of your favourite tunes are more concerned about Jesus and God than you’d realised. </p>
<p>Many chart-topping songs in Western music delve into themes of faith (especially Christianity), spirituality and divinity. But unlike Christmas music, most of these come from a rock tradition.</p>
<h2>Early gospel makes the charts</h2>
<p>Hits by some of rock’s greatest guitarists, such as George Harrison, Lenny Kravitz and Prince, feature strong guitar riffs that create a sense of aural transcendence. These riffs, which involve a repeated note sequence or chord progression, help to define their songs.</p>
<p>This intertwining of guitar and Christian spirituality dates back to the emergence of rock music in the 1940s. American rock pioneer <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/sister-rosetta-tharpe-rocknroll-pioneer/">Sister Rosetta Tharpe</a> (1915–73), from the Pentecostal church, used powerful guitar riffs that surged with soulfulness. </p>
<p>Tharpe’s 1944 gospel song <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4-22b72muY&ab_channel=HistoryofRockMusic-Mostpowerfulrocksongs">Strange Things Happening Every Day</a> – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IfYroJOiMg&ab_channel=RCARecords">covered by Yola</a> for the 2022 film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_(2022_film)">Elvis</a> – is a great example.</p>
<p>Using electric guitar, and the theological message “Jesus is the holy light”, Tharpe’s was the first song to cross over from gospel into a mainstream “race” chart in the US. “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/popular-songs-of-the-day/rhythm-and-blues/">Race music</a>”, which eventually became R&B, was the term used to describe African American music (but generally just referred to secular music).</p>
<h2>The rise of spirituality and counterculture</h2>
<p>Christian rock also has roots in the 1960s US <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/1960s-counterculture">counterculture</a> “hippie” movement. The Jesus People brought a Christian vibe to this movement, leading to works such as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1971 rock opera <a href="https://playbill.com/article/look-back-at-the-original-broadway-production-of-jesus-christ-superstar#">Jesus Christ Superstar</a>, which is still being performed more than 50 years later.</p>
<p>Throughout the 1960s and '70s, plenty of songs exploring themes of God, faith and spirituality climbed their way into the Top 20. For example, Norman Greenbaum’s 1970 track <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2msh0jut2Y&ab_channel=CraftRecordings">Spirit in the Sky</a> became popular during the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/24/the-unlikely-endurance-of-christian-rock">Christian rock movement</a>. </p>
<p>It was joined in the same year by Harrison’s hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04v-SdKeEpE&ab_channel=GeorgeHarrisonVEVO">My Sweet Lord</a>, which is particularly interesting because of its mix of spiritual undertones, which reflect the West’s growing interest in Eastern spirituality at the time. </p>
<p>Along with the repetition of “lord” (which is said around 40 times) and the use of the Christian/Hebrew word “Hallelujah”, the song also includes chants of “Hare Krishna” and “Hare Rama”, praising the Hindu gods.</p>
<p>My Sweet Lord became the <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/culture/george-harrison-my-sweet-lord-music-video/">highest-selling single</a> in the United Kingdom in 1971, as well as the first solo number-one hit by a member of the Beatles. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. The song sparked controversy, and a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/08/archives/george-harrison-guilty-of-plagiarizing-subconsciously-a-62-tune-for.html">lawsuit that claimed</a> it was too similar to The Chiffons’s 1963 hit He’s So Fine.</p>
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<p>For some, My Sweet Lord is considered a Christian song – at least the until the Hindu chants begin. But the mixing of religious elements was seen by some conservative Christians as satanic, or pagan (even though Hinduism <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/is-hinduism-a-pagan-relig_b_1245373">isn’t a pagan</a> religion). </p>
<p>Music throughout the 1960s and '70s, while it still touched on religious themes, grew much more rebellious and edgy with bands like <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151027-the-satanists-who-changed-music">The Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath</a>. </p>
<p>Topics such as sex, drugs and hedonism became common – as did protesting against traditional values. From this cocktail emerged the view that rock was the <a href="https://www.udiscovermusic.com/in-depth-features/the-devil-has-all-the-best-tunes/">devil’s music</a>. </p>
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Read more:
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<h2>The 80s: when religion met raunchy</h2>
<p>The 1980s and '90s continued the trend of intertwining spirituality and popular music. Many of these tracks stirred deep discussions on faith, cementing music’s power as a medium for expressing complex themes.</p>
<p>Lenny Kravitz’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnqUK7XF54k">Are You Gonna Go My Way</a> (1993) was written to sound like the lyrics came from Jesus himself:</p>
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<p>I was born long ago, I am the chosen. I’m the one. I have come to save the day, and I won’t leave until I’m done […] But what I really want to know is, are you gonna go my way? </p>
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<p>Prince’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJhDltzYVQ&ab_channel=Prince">Lets Go Crazy</a> (1984) was a metaphor for God and Satan, hinted at in the line “are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Oh no let’s go!” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Madonna’s 1989 smash Like a Prayer made more than one wave when it topped the charts 35 years ago. The music video stirred up <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/from-the-archives-outrage-over-madonna-video-20190402-p51a0s.html">quite a controversy</a> by mixing the sacred with the profane. Among other things, Madonna is shown dancing among burning crosses, and kissing a black Christ who comes to life from being a statue.</p>
<p>The video conveys messages about prejudice, racism, violence and sexuality. Some networks refused to show it, deeming it inappropriate for children. Others aired it with a warning it might offend viewers. The Catholic Church was outraged and the Vatican condemned it. </p>
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<p>Nonetheless, the video achieved huge commercial success, winning MTV’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0003172/1989/1/">1989 Video Music Award</a> for Viewer’s Choice. Even now, it remains a pinnacle of music video art.</p>
<h2>Religion is still everywhere in music</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2023/02/10/sam-smiths-grammys-performance-criticized-by-conservatives-and-satanists/?sh=3339c55f30b1">most of us</a> won’t bat an eyelid when we see Lil Nas X <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/lil-nas-x-montero-call-me-by-your-name-video-church-of-satan-1147634/">giving Satan a lapdance</a>, and that’s probably because of the work of artists like Madonna. </p>
<p>It’s interesting that, despite a <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/religious-affiliation-australia">rise in secularism</a>, the intersection of the sacred and secular in music has persisted. Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, with its intermingling spiritual and sexual themes, is still one of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/17/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-film-rejected-song-became-classic">most popular songs</a> of all time.</p>
<p>Today, many of the world’s most famous contemporary artists continue the tradition of engaging with spiritual and religious themes. Take Drake’s 2018 hit <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVfcZ0ZcFM&ab_channel=DrakeVEVO">God’s Plan</a>, or The Weeknd’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jan/07/the-weeknd-dawn-fm-review">highly acclaimed</a> 2022 album Dawn FM, replete with spiritual undertones and religious symbolism. </p>
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<p>Perhaps it’s just in the nature of religion to evoke feeling and inspire, even for those who aren’t “religious” themselves. Or perhaps we’ve collectively realised musicians can experiment with themes and take risks, and it won’t bring about the end of the world. </p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226745/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Panizza Allmark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’d be surprised by how many of your favourite hits are about God or Jesus in one way or another.Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259022024-03-28T05:48:40Z2024-03-28T05:48:40ZWhat is the Stations of the Cross ritual, and why do Christians still perform it at Easter?<p>A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some enjoy the season of hot cross buns and egg-shaped chocolates; others forgo such luxuries during daylight hours due to their Ramadan fast. Jews have recently celebrated Purim and remembered the bravery of Esther; meanwhile, the Hindu festival of Holi begins.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, hordes in their colours flock to the footy; others get involved in the Good Friday Appeal; and certain Christians enact a medieval tradition of walking the way of the cross around the streets of Melbourne. </p>
<p>So what is it, and why is it still performed?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-wasnt-white-he-was-a-brown-skinned-middle-eastern-jew-heres-why-that-matters-91230">Jesus wasn't white: he was a brown-skinned, Middle Eastern Jew. Here's why that matters</a>
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<p>To enter into the Stations or Way of the Cross ritual is to enter into the last hours of Jesus before he was crucified, just outside Jerusalem around the year 33 CE. </p>
<p>Those last hours included a meal with his friends, prayer in a garden, his arrest and a trial that ends in the sentence of death by crucifixion. His body was then stripped and flogged, the cross placed on his shoulders to carry to the execution place. He stumbled under the weight of the cross, then was put on the cross to which he was nailed through his hands and feet before speaking his last words, and then dying. The last two stations, usually only visited on Easter morning, celebrate his resurrection from death.</p>
<p>The Stations of the Cross is a devotional and contemplative exercise, as pilgrims stop and pray, hear scripture, and ponder in silence the significance of each station, getting closer to the moment of Jesus’ death each time. </p>
<p>The practice of <em>memento mori</em> (remembering death) is found in a wide variety of religious and philosophical traditions. But Jesus’ death is a bit different – at least for Christians. At one level, Jesus died in a typical manner of execution for lower class people in the Roman Empire. As gruesome as it was, it was not unique or special. </p>
<p>But Christians quickly imbued this particular death with much more meaning. Jesus was believed to be the incarnation of God (that is, God in human form) and to have been raised from the dead three days later. And so his death and resurrection was interpreted as an event that brought salvation, forgiveness, and a new way of life into the world. It is this mystery Christians continue to celebrate all these years later. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584654/original/file-20240327-26-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">For Christians, the Stations of the Cross is an opportunity to reflect on every stage leading to Jesus’ crucifixion, and later resurrection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The Stations of the Cross has its roots in early Christian pilgrims visiting Jerusalem to walk in the final footsteps of Jesus. While the origins are unclear, it became popular in the late medieval period and was common across Europe by the 16th century. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mccia.org.au/way-of-the-cross/">Melbourne city version of these stations</a> include 14 bronze reliefs located at a wide variety of churches in and around the CBD. Individuals can walk these themselves or join the city churches at 10am on Good Friday, starting at St Francis’ Church. Pre-COVID, this walking in the way of Jesus attracted up to 3,000 people each Good Friday. </p>
<p>This public expression of faith can seem unusual in a contemporary Australian city like Melbourne. Australian culture sometimes encourages people to keep their faith private. Our religious tolerance strains at its limits when religion spills out of homes, synagogues, temples, churches, or mosques and into the public sphere. People walking around the city stopping to reflect on a violent death that took place more than 2,000 years ago can seem awkward, even embarrassing to those looking on. Others watch with interest.</p>
<p>This raises the question of the kind of secular society we want to live in. One version of secularism says that religion should be kept well out of the public sphere, practised in private, and should not inform a person’s participation in public life. France often tends in this direction (see, for example, repeated attempts to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-30/france-bans-muslim-abayas-in-school-sparking-secularism-debate/102792014">ban the hijab</a> in public). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/victim-or-victor-how-the-easter-story-still-resonates-today-203152">Victim or victor? How the Easter story still resonates today</a>
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<p>But another version of secularism says that while the state should not favour any particular religious or non-religious tradition, we are a stronger and richer society if we encourage all faiths and cultures to express themselves in public. Rather than hiding our deepest beliefs away, we should share them with each other.</p>
<p>On Good Friday afternoon, another tradition comes to life, as thousands gather to scream, yell and sing tribal songs as their teams fight it out on a football oval. To a non-AFL fan like myself, that gathering is equally strange. Yet, I can recognise the emotion and fervour as something familiar, something joyful, something that taps into our deepest desires and brings us together across cultural and social divides. </p>
<p>When footy games were first scheduled on this holy day for Christians, it was not without controversy. Headlines cried “<a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/religion-versus-sport-explaining-afl-games-on-good-friday-20140621-3al1d.html">religion versus sport</a>” and genuine questions about consumerism and work were raised. </p>
<p>For me, there is a certain delight in living in a society where not everyone is religious and even if they are, they are not religious in the same way. I’m glad to live in a society where such activities occur side by side, be they footy, Purim, Ramadan, Holi, or Easter. I am glad to live in a society where some yell at the footy and some pray in a city street – and some do both.</p>
<p>The Stations of the Cross is one more visible sign of our multicultural, multifaith society at work. We can be proud to live in a society where rituals that seem strange to some are nonetheless tolerated and even welcomed. This is something everyone can celebrate, whether religious or not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225902/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn J. Whitaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like a lot of things that happen at this time of year, the Stations of the Cross is a ritual – and an important one to many.Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of DivinityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262292024-03-27T19:07:26Z2024-03-27T19:07:26ZArt depicts Jesus in a loincloth on the cross – the brutal truth is he would have been naked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583785/original/file-20240323-20-9hf3zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=269%2C202%2C1964%2C1470&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around his waist. We now know, however, this has more to do with artistic convention than historical accuracy.</p>
<p>Featuring a loincloth goes back to the first Christian images of the crucifixion. Early examples include the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1856-0623-5">Maskell ivory panel</a> from early 5th-century Rome, and the depiction carved into the doors of the Santa Sabina basilica in Rome, built between 422 and 432 CE. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Panel from church door showing Jesus crucified" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584335/original/file-20240326-28-t89j1r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Door panel from the Santa Sabina basilica in Rome.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>The Santa Sabina depiction shows Jesus crucified alongside the two thieves. But even though their wooden crosses are not shown, the artists have taken care to give each figure a loincloth.</p>
<p>The loincloth adornment has become so firmly fixed since the 5th century that most people take it for granted. However, the historical evidence shows it is not something victims of crucifixion <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429289750">would have been permitted</a>. </p>
<h2>The naked truth</h2>
<p>There are five sources of evidence indicating Jesus was crucified naked. </p>
<p>First, all four New Testament gospels record he was stripped of his clothing at the cross. John <a href="https://biblehub.com/john/19-23.htm">includes the detail</a> that Jesus was stripped not only of his outer garment but also his undergarment – his <em>chiton</em>, or tunic. </p>
<p>There is no mention of a loincloth in any of these accounts. Early readers would not have needed to be told Jesus was fully naked. They would have understood what crucifixion involved. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/himtoo-why-jesus-should-be-recognised-as-a-victim-of-sexual-violence-93677">#HimToo – why Jesus should be recognised as a victim of sexual violence</a>
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<p>In support of this, early Christian writers make reference to Jesus’ nakedness. For example, Melito of Sardis, a 2nd-century bishop in what is now Turkey, <a href="https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf">writes</a>: </p>
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<p>The Sovereign has been made unrecognisable by his naked body, and is not even allowed a garment to keep him from view. That is why the luminaries turned away, and the day was darkened, so that he might hide the one stripped bare upon the tree.</p>
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<p>In the 4th century, the theologian and philosopher Augustine <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120116.htm">compared Jesus</a> with Noah, after Noah became drunk and fell asleep naked.</p>
<h2>Non-Christian depictions of the cross</h2>
<p>The second piece of evidence is a bloodstone amulet from the late 2nd or early 3rd century, often referred to as the Pereire gem (named after a former owner). It <a href="https://grbs.library.duke.edu/index.php/grbs/article/view/15935">shows</a> a bearded and fully naked male figure on the cross, surrounded by inscriptions that include “Son, Father, Jesus Christ”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ancient gemstone depicting Jesus crucified" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=704&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584336/original/file-20240326-24-tgwp5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Pereire gem depicts a naked Jesus on the cross.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is believed this gemstone was a magical amulet from the Eastern Mediterranean (Syria or Turkey). Its origins are likely non-Christian, since Christians were warned against magical images.</p>
<p>The image is probably the earliest representation of Jesus on the cross, and predates by about 200 years the Christian 5th-century depictions of the crucifixion featuring a loincloth.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexualised-jesus-causes-outrage-in-spain-but-christians-have-long-been-fascinated-by-christs-body-222343">'Sexualised' Jesus causes outrage in Spain – but Christians have long been fascinated by Christ's body</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Third, the <a href="https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2017/01/13/the-crucifixion-graffito-of-alkimilla-from-puteoli/">Puteoli graffito</a>, dated to the Trajan-Hadrian period of the Roman Empire (98–138 CE), is the earliest image so far discovered for any Roman crucifixion. It was unearthed in 1959 on the wall of an inn in Puteoli near Naples. </p>
<p>It shows a crucified figure pictured from behind. The horizontal stripes across the body suggest the figure has been whipped while naked, and then crucified fully naked.</p>
<p>Fourth, Dionysius of Halicarnassus (writing in the 1st century BCE) <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Dionysius_of_Halicarnassus/7C*.html">records the execution of a slave</a> who was marched to the place of execution naked. Dionysius does not specify that the execution was a crucifixion, but “slaves’ punishment” was a common euphemism for crucifixion. The passage is often cited as historical evidence for the Roman practice of naked crucifixions.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oo6-zvpfIdY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Puteoli graffito is visible on the wall 15 seconds into the video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shame and humiliation</h2>
<p>Finally, both Christian and Roman writings describe crucifixion in terms of supreme shame, not just extreme pain. The forced naked exposure of the victim would have been a powerful way to promote such <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-12341588">shame and humiliation</a>. Permitting a loincloth would undermine this. </p>
<p>The intense shame associated with crucifixion is also a likely reason why Christian artists did not show Jesus on the cross until the 5th century. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/was-jesus-really-nailed-to-the-cross-56321">Was Jesus really nailed to the cross?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When they finally began to show the scene, about a century after the emperor Constantine abolished crucifixions, they always gave Jesus a loincloth to reduce the shame and violence of the act. </p>
<p>So, there is no clear historical evidence in favour of loincloths at crucifixions. But there is firm evidence from Christian and non-Christian sources indicating victims were naked. </p>
<p>The practice of including a loincloth was an understandable response to a form of execution intended to deny the victim any dignity. For those interested in the history of crucifixion and how it was seen at the time, the loincloth needs to be seen as an artistic convention to soften the public shame of the cross.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tombs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Each Easter we see many images of Jesus on the cross – inevitably wearing a loincloth. But the historical evidence shows victims of crucifixion were fully naked to maximise shame as well as pain.David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2249092024-03-27T17:05:53Z2024-03-27T17:05:53ZWhy is Jesus often depicted with a six-pack? The muscular messiah reflects Christian values of masculinity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581073/original/file-20240311-24-gmrsj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C2360%2C1350&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">(L-R) The Rockox Triptych by Rubens (1613–1615), Christ as the Man of Sorrows by Maerten Jacobsz van Heemskerck and The Last Judgement by Michelangelo (1541).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp/Sistine Chapel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you ever wondered why so many images depicting the crucifixion show Jesus with a very defined, slender and toned body? Either slim, but with a six-pack, or displaying muscles and brawn. While these images are hardly a reflection of what little can be surmised about <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35120965">the historical Jesus</a>, they certainly reflect social and cultural ideas about masculinity and <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/96438/1/Edwards%2C%20Sporting-BR1%20copy.pdf">idealised notions of manhood</a>. </p>
<p>In many images of the crucifixion, Jesus is depicted as both strong and vulnerable. Crucifixion paintings showing a muscular messiah suggest that Jesus could perhaps physically have overcome his fate, had he wanted to. This interpretation of the crucifixion story amplifies the emotional and spiritual strength of his sacrifice.</p>
<p>The Bible is full of strong men and pumped prophets. Working the land is <a href="https://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/3-17.html#:%7E:text=Genesis%203%3A17%20In%2DContext&text=rule%20over%20you.%22-,17%20To%20Adam%20he%20said%2C%20%22Because%20you%20listened%20to%20your,the%20days%20of%20your%20life.">Adam’s punishment</a> for eating from the Tree of Knowledge. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206%3A14-16&version=NIV">Noah builds a massive ark</a>, filling it with every bird, animal and food. Samson has <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+14%3A6&version=NIV">superhuman</a> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+14%3A19&version=NIV">strength</a> in the book of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges+15%3A14&version=NIV">Judges</a> – his only weakness is women.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201&version=NIV">opening of Matthew’s Gospel</a> details Jesus’ genealogy in detail, and it is clear that he has other hardmen in his DNA. It speaks of Abraham and David, particularly. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2014&version=NKJV">Genesis 14</a>, we learn how Abraham gathered an army of over 300 men and launched an attack to save his family. In <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+21%3A+1-5&version=ESV">Genesis 21</a>, he also fathers a child at the age of 100 – his son, Isaac. </p>
<p>David is also mentioned as an ancestor of Jesus. He was famous for <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2017&version=NKJV">killing Goliath</a>, whose immense stature <a href="http://www.davidacook.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/reconsidering_the_height_of_goliath.pdf">has been estimated as 9ft 9in</a>. In <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/18-27.htm">the Book of Samuel</a>, David kills 200 Philistine men and <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_samuel/18-27.htm">brings their foreskins</a> to King Saul, so that he will allow him to marry his daughter, Michal.</p>
<p>While some portrayals of Jesus have caused outrage, like those, for example, that represent him as <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexualised-jesus-causes-outrage-in-spain-but-christians-have-long-been-fascinated-by-christs-body-222343">feminine or sexualised</a>, a similar outcry does not seem to follow the muscular Jesus. </p>
<p>There is a story in the gospels of Jesus’s physical strength, when he <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2021%3A12-16%2CLuke%2019%3A45-47%2CJohn%202%3A13-16&version=NASB#:%7E:text=13%20The%20Passover%20of%20the%20Jews%20was%20near%2C,My%20Father%E2%80%99s%20house%20a%20%5B%20b%5Dplace%20of%20business%21%E2%80%9D">drives out</a> those who were buying and selling in the temple, overturning tables in his anger. In the New Testament, the gospels even narrate a <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/406/LUK.11.21-28.ERV#:%7E:text=21%2D28%20ERV-,%22When%20a%20strong%20man%20with%20many%20weapons%20guards%20his%20own,with%20the%20other%20man%27s%20things.">Parable of the Strong Man</a>. </p>
<p>The endurance of physical torture before the crucifixion has been well documented in religious iconography, such as the <a href="https://www.catholic.org/prayers/station.php">Stations of the Cross</a>, as well as in films such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). Jesus also has to be mentally strong to overcome Satan, so depictions of his physical strength are perhaps supposed to echo his superhuman, spiritual strength.</p>
<h2>‘Behold the man!’</h2>
<p>Paintings that depict Jesus with a six-pack have influenced factions of Christianity. In the 19th century, the idea of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/6637/chapter-abstract/150662543?redirectedFrom=fulltext#:%7E:text=%27Muscular%20Christianity%27%20was%20a%20term,could%20and%20should%20promote%20this.">“muscular Christianity”</a> took hold. The term, invented in 1857, describes those Christians who see moral and religious value in sports. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Gods-Gym-Divine-Male-Bodies-of-the-Bible/Moore/p/book/9780415917575">God’s Gym</a> (1997), professor of religion Stephen Moore explores the quest for Jesus in a perfect human masculine form, and how this is connected to physical culture and male narcissism. Masculine Christian spirituality is often aligned with the values of <a href="https://cmn.men/collections/workbooks">courage, strength and power</a>.</p>
<p>While his ministry isn’t known for its exercise focus, Jesus’s fitness can be seen in some interpretations of the gospels. He <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204-6">walked for 40 days in the vast wilderness</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2019:17-42&version=NIV">carried a heavy cross</a> on his back. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Jesus feeding his disciples" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581658/original/file-20240313-24-a6n6ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=543&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration from the Armenian Daniel of Uranc gospel (1433) showing the feeding of the 5,000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feeding_the_multitude,_Daniel_of_Uranc,_1433.jpg">Matenadaran</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through the Eucharist (“take and eat, this is my body”), Jesus’s body became sacrament. This has palpable implications for many modern Christians. If Jesus’s physical fitness is a sign of his holiness, then it is something to aspire to.</p>
<p>Theologian Lisa Isherwood’s book <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Fat_Jesus/a7K1Bil8HcAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">The Fat Jesus</a> (2008) explores Christian women’s weight-loss cultures through programmes such as “Slim for Him”. Feminist theologian Hannah Bacon’s book <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/feminist-theology-and-contemporary-dieting-culture-9780567659958/">Feminist Theology and Contemporary Dieting Culture</a> (2019), meanwhile, analyses the problematic use of “sin/syn” to refer to “bad” foods in weight-loss programmes.</p>
<p>For some Christians, depictions of Jesus as strong and muscular represent the ideal of a man’s body. They interpret Biblical stories in ways that mirror these paintings. Many of these groups believe that Biblical ideas of <a href="https://www.mensalliancetribe.com/about/what-we-believe">masculinity are under attack</a>. In response, they put on events designed to attract men to church and promote the ideals of biblical manhood. Praising a muscular body ideal for men – and for Jesus – is part of that.</p>
<p>So next time you’re looking at a painting of Jesus in a church or gallery, do remember that such images reflect contemporary social and cultural attitudes to men’s bodies, rather than authenticity, in their artistry. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Greenough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Bible is full of strong men and pumped prophets.Chris Greenough, Reader in Social Sciences, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210712024-03-27T12:38:11Z2024-03-27T12:38:11ZThe roots of the Easter story: Where did Christian beliefs about Jesus’ resurrection come from?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583768/original/file-20240322-29-86j1i0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2013%2C923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mosa%C3%AFques_de_la_basilique_Saint_Paul_(Harissa)09.jpg">FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Easter approaches, Christians around the world begin to focus on two of the central tenets of their faith: the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. </p>
<p>Other charismatic Jewish teachers or <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/The_Jewish_Spiritual_Heroes%2C_Volume_I%3B_The_Creators_of_the_Mishna%2C_Rabbi_Chanina_ben_Dosa?lang=bi">miracle workers</a> were active in Judea around the same time, approximately 2,000 years ago. What set Jesus apart was his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+15.12-19&version=NRSVUE">followers’ belief in his resurrection</a>. For believers, this was not only a miracle, but a sign that Jesus was the long-awaited Jewish messiah, sent to save the people of Israel from their oppressors.</p>
<p>But was the idea of a resurrection itself a unique belief in first-century Israel? </p>
<p>I am <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">a scholar of ancient Judaism</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">its connection to the early Christian movement</a>. The Christian concept of Jesus rising from the dead helped shape many of the faith’s key teachings and, ultimately, the new religion’s split from Judaism. Yet religious teachings about resurrection go back many centuries before Jesus walked the earth.</p>
<p>There are stories that likely predate early Jewish beliefs by many centuries, such as the Egyptian story of the god <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100255831">Osiris being resurrected by his wife, Isis</a>. Most relevant for Christianity, though, are Judaism’s own ideas about resurrection.</p>
<h2>‘Your dead shall live’</h2>
<p>One of the earliest written Jewish references to resurrection in the Bible is found in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+26&version=NRSVUE">Book of Isaiah</a>, which discusses a future era, perhaps a time of final judgment, in which the dead would rise and be subject to God’s ultimate justice. “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise,” Isaiah prophesies. “Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three rows of yellowed manuscript on a scroll, with jagged edges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=190&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583783/original/file-20240323-28-o988y.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Great Isaiah Scroll: the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, which was probably written around the second century B.C.E.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_Isaiah_Scroll.jpg">Ardon Bar Hama/The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later Jewish biblical texts such as the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Daniel+12.2&version=NRSVUE">Book of Daniel</a> also referenced resurrection.</p>
<p>There were several competing Jewish sects at the time of Jesus’ life. The most prominent and influential, the Pharisees, further integrated <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2023%3A8&version=NRSVUE">the concept of resurrection</a> into Jewish thought. According to <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/war-2.html">the first-century historian Josephus</a>, the Pharisees believed that the soul was immortal and could be reunited with a resurrected body – ideas that would likely have made the idea of Jesus rising from the dead more acceptable to the Jews of his time.</p>
<p>Within a few centuries, the rabbis began to fuse together the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+37.1-12&version=NRSVUE">earlier biblical references to bodily resurrection</a> with the later ideas of the Pharisees. In particular, the rabbis began to discuss the concept of <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.111a?lang=bi">bodily resurrection</a> and its connection to the messianic era.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Beige stone boxes sit on the ground in rows, with a building with a golden roof in the distance." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584246/original/file-20240325-28-1nyx4d.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Jewish Cemetery on Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Graves face the Temple Mount, where some believe that the resurrection of the dead will culminate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:121224-Jerusalem-Mount-of-Olives_(27497923512).jpg">xiquinhosilva/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jews believed that the legitimate Messiah would be <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2011&version=NRSVUE">a descendant of the biblical King David</a> who would vanquish their enemies and <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/nets/edition/31-pssal-nets.pdf">restore Israel to its previous glory</a>. In the centuries following Jesus’ death, the rabbis taught that the souls of the dead <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1127503/jewish/The-Resurrection-Process.htm">would be resurrected</a> after the Messiah appeared on earth.</p>
<p>By the 500s C.E. or so, the rabbis further elaborated upon the concept. The Talmud, the most important collection of authoritative writings on Jewish law apart from the Bible itself, notes that <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Sanhedrin.10.1?lang=bi">one who does not believe in resurrection has no share in the “Olam Haba</a>,” the “World to Come.” The Olam Haba is the realm where these sages believed <a href="https://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/25/Q2/">one’s soul eventually dwells</a> after death. Interestingly, the concept of hell itself never became ingrained within mainstream Jewish thought.</p>
<p>Even now, the concept of God giving life to the dead is affirmed every day <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/146958?lang=bi">in the Amidah</a>, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mechayeh-hameitim-rethinking-the-resurrection-blessing/">a Jewish prayer recited</a> as part of the daily morning, afternoon and evening services.</p>
<h2>Old ideas, new beliefs</h2>
<p>The fact that the first followers of Jesus were Jews likely contributed to the concept of resurrection becoming ingrained into Christian thought. Yet the Christian understanding of resurrection was taken to an unprecedented degree in the decades following Jesus’ death.</p>
<p>According to Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus, a Jew from Galilee, entered Jerusalem in the days before Passover. He was accused of sedition against the Roman authorities – and likely other charges, such as blasphemy – largely because he was <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+21%3A12-13&version=NRSVUE">causing a disturbance</a> among the Jews getting ready to celebrate the holiday. At the time, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/passover-pesach-history/">Passover was a pilgrimage festival</a> in which tens of thousands of Jews would travel to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>After being betrayed by one of his followers, Judas, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26.47-68&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was arrested, hastily put on trial</a> and sentenced to be crucified. The Roman authorities wished to uphold the pax Romana, or Roman peace. They feared that unrest amid a major festival could lead to a rebellion, especially given the accusation that at least some of Jesus’ followers believed him to be the “<a href="https://ehrmanblog.org/why-was-jesus-crucified/">King of the Jews</a>, as was recorded later in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSVUE">Matthew’s</a> and <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+15.2&version=NRSVUE">Mark’s Gospels</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A close-up photo of a pale sculpture of a bearded man's face, looking in pain or tired, with gold letters above." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583782/original/file-20240323-24-cymdt5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crucifixes often display the Latin abbreviation ‘INRI,’ short for ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.’ This statue in Germany’s Ellwangen Abbey shows the abbreviation in three languages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ellwangen_St_Vitus_Vorhalle_Kreuzaltar_detail2.jpg">Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the Gospels, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27.32-28.10&version=NRSVUE">Jesus was put to death</a> on what is now Good Friday, and rose again on the third day – which today is celebrated as Easter Sunday.</p>
<p>Jesus’ early followers believed not only that he had been resurrected, but that he was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/first/themovement.html">the long-awaited Jewish messiah</a>, who had fulfilled earlier <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6.1-2&version=NRSVUE">Jewish prophecies</a>. Eventually, they also embraced the idea that he was <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/300246095">the divine Son of God</a>, although scholars still debate exactly how and when this occurred.</p>
<p>In addition, the nature of Jesus’ resurrection remains <a href="https://marcusjborg.org/posts-by-marcus/the-resurrection-of-jesus/">a source of debate</a> among theologians and scholars – such as whether followers believed his <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24.36-43&version=NRSVUE">resurrected body was made of flesh and blood</a>, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Cor+3.17-18&version=NRSVUE">or pure spirit</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the grander meaning of the resurrection, which is recorded in all <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+28%3A1-10%2CMark+16%3A1-11%2CLuke+24%3A1-12%2CJohn+20&version=NRSVUE">four canonical Gospels</a>, remains clear for many of the approximately 2 billion Christians around the world: They believe that Jesus <a href="https://www.religion-online.org/article/resurrection-faith-n-t-wright-talks-about-history-and-belief/">triumphed over death</a>, which serves as a cornerstone foundation of the Christian faith.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265722024-03-26T17:02:09Z2024-03-26T17:02:09ZExtinguishing lights and a great big bang: the ancient sights and sounds of the pre-Easter tenebrae service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584208/original/file-20240325-18-saxwku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The crucifixion of Christ inside Chester Cathedral.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chester-cheshire-england-uk-26-march-2433472355">PhotoFires|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Easter is a time of mixed emotions. According to <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/church-attendance-rises-second-year-running">Church of England figures</a>, up to a million people will go to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the joy and hope of the resurrection of Christ. But in the three days before that, churchgoers in many traditions come face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story: <a href="https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-our-collection/highlights/context/subjects/judas">the betrayal</a> Jesus faced at the hands of Judas Iscariot, his death on the cross and his burial.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A priest extinguishes a candle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A symbolic darkening.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/25389408003/in/photolist-EFzmrR-qYG4Vv-rsNXi9-rD326R-qYJtLH-rCVpZw-rCVwuq-rBaqre-rD2YZB-rCU4QJ-rVq5Li-rBaCTZ-rVnevu-rVnbds-rVn54J-rCVt5u-rCU9Bh-qYutdC-qYGikB-rVpYFH-rVpZK6-9XFueb-rVuA3a-6dSFu4-rCUe3m-qYuwAu-rVuvSM-EFzmxT-SxBjRf-rCuHh7-7qWKHW-e6w8nR-7QK7Y4-e6FJya-rVsi1e-TNcwt5-5rUMHg-9AJeZS-TNcwqu-7Q8vmN-7QNq9G-4zM5yA-buGoW5-ngK9DK-ngK8v2-2gC1u1M-rUWund-rUZgjH-qYgu1p-nivvzB">Lawrence OP|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the lesser known rituals of this pre-Easter period is an ancient exploration of darkness itself, known as <em>tenebrae</em>. Originally, this service took place late at night or early in the morning on the last three days of Holy Week, leading up to Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday).</p>
<p>For at least 1,200 years, the defining feature of tenebrae services has been the gradual <a href="https://alcuinclub.org.uk/product/175/">extinguishing of lights</a>. Enclosed in an increasingly darkened church, worshippers are reminded of the three days Jesus spent in the tomb following his death. </p>
<p>My research <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/research/research-projects/music-in-the-shadows.aspx">shows</a> that in the past it was actually quite common for worshippers to attend church in the middle of the night. Before electric light, sunset forced most daily activities to cease. Long winter nights afforded plenty of time both to sleep and to pray. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white nitrate negative image of a church service in 1941." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tenebrae service on Spy Wednesday at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/matpc.21011/">Matson photograph collection|LOC</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Darker than dark</h2>
<p>Since medieval times, the tenebrae ritual has had the feel of a funeral. It features <a href="https://archive.org/details/liberusualismiss00cath/page/302/mode/2up?view=theater">dirge-like chanting</a>, <a href="https://www.liturgies.net/Lent/Tenebrae.htm">doleful texts</a> and a pointed avoidance of ornament. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A large standing candelabra." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antoni Gaudi’s tenebrae hearse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:(Barcelona)_Tenebrae_Candelabra_-_Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD_-_Museums_of_the_Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia.jpg">Didier Descouens|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Latin verb <em>tenebrare</em> means “to darken” and this is probably the origin of the ritual’s name. A symbolic number of candles or lamps – historically this varied between five and 72, but is now most often 15 – is lit at the beginning of the service, and then, for each successive chant, reading or verse, one light is extinguished. </p>
<p>These are often placed on what is known as a “hearse” – a triangular or pyramidal frame that would also be placed above a coffin or tomb. (Only in the 17th century would this word be borrowed to describe a funeral vehicle.) By the end of the service, a single light remains, barely enough to see by. </p>
<p>The effect is hugely dramatic. There have been different interpretations of the ritual through the ages.</p>
<p>In his ninth-century commentary <a href="https://documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0776-0852__Symphosius_Amalarius__Liber_De_Ordine_Antiphonarii__MLT.pdf.html">On the Ordering of the Antiphoner</a>, the Frankish bishop Amalar of Metz understood the extinguishing of candles to represent the “the extinction of joy” brought about by Jesus’s crucifixion. Others saw a representation of the biblical figures and saints who had died bearing witness to this story, or a depiction of the waning light of Jesus the metaphorical sun.</p>
<p>Art objects have also provided layers of meaning. Standing some 25 feet tall, the giant <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/75710752@N04/8758144549">16th-century tenebrae candelabra</a> of Seville Cathedral is comprised of a metal hearse topped with 15 candles and as many carved figures.</p>
<p>As each candle is extinguished, a person seems to disappear, as if the faith of Christians is draining away. Similar objects are found in many Catholic churches, including the one designed by Antoni Gaudi for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. </p>
<p>Some medieval churches used a hand-shaped snuffer made of wax to put out the candles. Signifying the hand of Judas, this underlined the theme of betrayal.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4TFAR6oTz8s?wmode=transparent&start=57" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>At the end of tenebrae, the final light is customarily hidden. In the eery, disorienting darkness that ensues, there is a long tradition of a loud sudden noise being made. This bang or clatter is known as the <em>strepitus</em>. People <a href="https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/282/tenebrae-best-ways-to-make-the-strepitus/">might</a> slam a door, bang a book, stamp their feet or use percussive instruments. </p>
<p>The strepitus is thought to represent the confusion or shock the disciples experienced after Jesus died, or the earthquake that followed the crucifixion. Like many aspects of ancient ritual, though, the strepitus was probably functional in origin.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter">By definition</a>, the days around Easter always enjoy the light of the moon. But finding your way out of an unlit church can be a struggle. It seems the original purpose of the sound, then, was to signal to the sacristan (the warden in charge of the church building and its contents) to reveal the hidden candle again, so that everyone could safely return home.</p>
<p>Inevitably, sometimes things got out of hand. In his Latin <a href="https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503044033-1">commentary on the liturgy</a>, the 13th-century French bishop <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/thib14180">Guillaume Durand of Mende</a> described a form of tenebrae service that ended with shouting, wailing and a “commotion of the people” as congregants enacted both the disciples’ grief and the ironic cheers of Jesus’s enemies. One 19th-century author <a href="https://archive.org/details/ancientenglishho00feas/page/90/mode/2up">reported</a> a volley of musket-fire being used for the strepitus in Seville.</p>
<p>Today, the sounds of tenebrae are much more respectable. Performances by the eponymous, Grammy-nominated choir, Tenebrae, make a feature of candlelight and ancient church spaces. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nXYbEyvVXUk?wmode=transparent&start=36" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The ritual has also inspired countless famous classical works. The 16th-century English royal composer Thomas Tallis crafted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_OPTtfZdw">sensuous vocal setting</a> of tenebrae readings from the Old Testament’s Book of Lamentations. </p>
<p>In 1585, his younger Spanish contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria published almost three hours’ worth of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4up2bNlUkQvQhPFAwsWhM1?utm_source=generator">tenebrae polyphony</a>. A more operatic style appears in François Couperin’s exquisitely anguished <a href="https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W7081_120622">Leçons de ténèbres</a>, composed around 1710.</p>
<p>More recent examples include Stravinsky’s angular and unrelenting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpOOgOeab0">Threni</a>, a concert work from 1958, and Poulenc’s lesser-known <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCnnK7bvfc">Seven Tenebrae Responsories</a>, commissioned by Leonard Bernstein in 1961. </p>
<p>Among the many cherished settings of one medieval Tenebrae text, O vos omnes (a Latin adaptation of Lamentations 1:12-18), is a version by Spanish and Puerto Rican composer Pablo Casals. Written in 1932, it is still widely performed today. </p>
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<p>Casals was a <a href="https://www.paucasals.org/en/pablo-casals-and-the-united-nations/">peace activist</a> as well as a cellist. His simple, heartfelt strains transform <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+1.18&version=NIV">the words of the prophet Jeremiah</a> into an impassioned plea for our troubled times: “Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering.” </p>
<p>On Easter Sunday, many Christians will return from church having received a vital injection of hope for the world. But the tenebrae tradition, which some will also experience this week, has a useful role too. It helps us to come to terms with darkness in human history, and to find beauty even when it seems that hope itself is being extinguished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Parkes receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The ancient tenebrae tradition brings churchgoers face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story.Henry Parkes, Associate Professor, Department of Music, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247252024-03-17T12:54:12Z2024-03-17T12:54:12ZEvangelical bestsellers reveal diverse — and sometimes dangerous — ideas about morality<p>The bestselling evangelical Christian fiction of the 21st century couldn’t be more morally different — from itself. </p>
<p>For example, William Paul Young’s 2007 novel <em>The Shack</em> is about the kidnapping, abuse and murder of a child. Selling <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/books-magazines/books/this-man-wrote-a-small-book-for-his-family-and-it-became-a-bestseller/news-story/61e659773e0b5e0e0f4028fced403e05">more than 20 million copies</a>, it tries to understand how such evil can occur in a universe with a good and all-powerful God. Theologically wrestling with these events, it centres on ethics of harm, healing and reconciliation.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the most popular evangelical fiction of the turn of the 21st century was the 12-volume <em>Left Behind</em> series, about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-to-know-about-the-antichrist-148172">coming of the Antichrist</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/03/1167715957/armageddon-shows-how-literal-readings-of-the-bibles-end-times-affect-modern-time">the final End Times or Armageddon</a>. The series has sold more than <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/71026-lahaye-co-author-of-left-behind-series-leaves-a-lasting-impact.html">80 million copies</a>. Its violent action dwells on the persecution of Christians by <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/21">the global United Nations, led by the Antichrist</a>. It emphasizes themes of proper authority, in-group loyalty and traditional ideas about sex, sexuality and gender. </p>
<p>Moral Foundations Theory (MFT), developed by <a href="https://jonathanhaidt.com/">social psychologist Jonathan Haidt</a> and others, suggests that human societies configure their moral expectations differently from group to group, but they do so based on universal considerations of care, justice, liberty, purity, loyalty and authority. </p>
<p>At first, MFT seems to show that the spectrum of values represented in <em>The Shack</em> and <em>Left Behind</em> are just a matter of a diversity of ethical opinion. </p>
<p>But my new open-access research reveals a flaw within MFT itself: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13530">the moral intuitions exhibited by <em>Left Behind</em> are associated with social dominance and authoritarianism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four adults seen in a row." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579409/original/file-20240303-16-mky93v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The story of ‘The Shack’ focuses on care after harm has been done.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lionsgate)</span></span>
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<h2>Care, justice, liberty</h2>
<p>In MFT’s terms, <em>The Shack</em> prioritizes the ethics of care, justice and liberty. It has lots of theological dialogue about God’s fairness in the face of evil and suffering. Its explanations about <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/philosophy-and-religion/christianity/christianity-general/original-sin">free will and original sin</a> are traditional Christian theology and their persuasiveness depends on a reader’s prior beliefs.</p>
<p>It also focuses on care after harm has been done. The bereaved father of the daughter has a weekend away <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Trinity-Christianity">with the Christian God as Trinity</a>, healing and establishing friendships with God. The daughter is in heaven — compensation for a harm that cannot be undone. The novel is egalitarian: God the Father is an African American woman, God the Spirit an Asian American woman and God the Son a Middle Eastern looking man. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/popular-christian-novel-the-shack-finds-a-surprising-solution-to-the-problem-of-evil-polytheism-135668">Popular Christian novel ‘The Shack’ finds a surprising solution to the problem of evil: Polytheism</a>
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<p>Other moral foundations are present but less important. God’s authority is challenged. Group loyalty is downplayed. We feel revulsion at the killer’s pedophilia, but the focus is on the harms of abuse and murder, not so much violated sacredness.</p>
<h2>Authority, loyalty, sanctity</h2>
<p><em>Left Behind</em>’s moral foundations are nearly opposite to <em>The Shack</em>. They emphasize authority, loyalty, sanctity and justice as vengeance. The series is about overturned authority. It depicts the Antichrist as the UN Secretary-General usurping God’s proper rule.</p>
<p>Haidt notes that <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/73535/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt/">for conservatives, care is “blended” with loyalty</a>, and the same is true of the <em>Left Behind</em> series. The authors deem their Christian characters (who are occasionally martyred) worthy of care, but not so much <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/21">the billions of humans who suffer and die</a> during the tribulations. </p>
<p>In one sequence, the protagonist mocks abortion providers for losing business because unborn babies have been swept into heaven as the End Times begin. When the Antichrist refers to “fetal material that vanished,” we detect that the book frames abortion as being a problem about sexual sanctity, not a problem about harm.</p>
<h2>Apocalyptic genre</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man standing near an orange fiery hoop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581368/original/file-20240312-24-rnt6zg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Poster of the 2000 film ‘Left Behind’ based on the fiction of the same name.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Namesake Entertainment/Cloud Ten Pictures)</span></span>
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<p><em>Left Behind</em>’s genre — apocalypse — is also concerned with God’s justice, but the book’s justice entails revenge. In the final novel <em>Glorious Appearing</em>, warrior Jesus slays the Antichrist’s army, creating a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/21">“river of blood several miles wide and now some five feet deep.”</a> He then sentences most of the human race to eternal torture in the fires of hell.</p>
<p>The series does not feature egalitarianism: white Christian men are in charge of the Tribulation Force. Men and women are (supposedly) equal before God, but <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-complementarianism-the-belief-that-god-assigned-specific-gender-roles-became-part-of-evangelical-doctrine-158758">God has made them to “complement” one another</a> with different gender roles, with men in spiritual authority over their wives and children. </p>
<p>Insofar as female, non-white and Jewish characters come to God and accept the authority of evangelical white men, they can be considered part of the group.</p>
<h2>Not all ‘moral foundations’ are moral</h2>
<p>MFT proponents might argue that these two examples allow us to see the full range of ethics in contemporary (white) evangelical literary tradition and its cultures — even if evangelical cultures are lopsidedly conservative, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/">as their support for Donald Trump shows</a>. </p>
<p>On the contrary, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jacc.13530">my open-access article shows</a>, moral psychologists have empirically demonstrated that the authority, loyalty and sanctity intuitions preferred by conservatives are not actually matters of ethics at all. Rather, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-014-0223-5">MFT’s critics argue</a>, they are “dispositions associated with authoritarianism and social dominance.” </p>
<p>We might better think of authority, loyalty and sanctity intuitions as preferences for order rather than truly ethical foundations. Those preferences may have their place in human societies, but treating them as equal to ethics of care, justice and equality is a moral relativism that masks dangerous authoritarian tendencies.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/republicans-draw-from-apocalyptic-narratives-to-inform-demoncrat-conspiracy-theories-170529">Republicans draw from apocalyptic narratives to inform 'Demoncrat' conspiracy theories</a>
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<h2>Dramatization of a disordered world</h2>
<p>Even though <em>Left Behind</em> might be beloved by conservative “value voters,” its chief values, it seems, are not moral values at all. </p>
<p>The series emphasizes the Christian Right’s struggle amid declining demographics and challenges to its political power. The series also encourages the perception of threat among the Christian Right, and a continued sense of persecution by liberal secular elites. </p>
<p>What MFT does illuminate is <em>Left Behind</em>’s continued cultural power. <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/left-behind-rise-of-antichrist-review-kevin-sorbo-1235505908/">The series was adapted to film a sixth time just last year</a>, yielding yet another dramatization of a disordered world where loyalty, sanctity and authority are upended. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Official trailer for ‘Left Behind: Rise Of The Antichrist’ (2023).</span></figcaption>
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<p>Those intuitions find expression in apocalypse: an <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/1/21">extreme moral dualism wherein the besieged community’s political foes are imagined as the enemies of God</a> who must be opposed until God’s Kingdom arrives to restore order and deliver retributive justice. </p>
<h2>Range of moral foundations</h2>
<p>We can read contemporary Christian fiction for the considerable range of moral foundations that it expresses. Doing so reveals that our morals do not so much come from our religious traditions as much as another possibility: our psychological predispositions find the values we already have in culturally mediated religious traditions. </p>
<p>Christianity is a big space. Some people might be challenged by its moral tenets, but many more might discover confirmation of their political and psychological preferences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224725/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Douglas receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Endowment for the Humanities.</span></em></p>The ‘Left Behind’ series emphasizes themes of authority, loyalty and sanctity, but they are preferences for order, not moral matters.Christopher Douglas, Professor of American Literature and Religion, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236992024-03-06T13:34:26Z2024-03-06T13:34:26ZTattooing has held a long tradition in Christianity − dating back to Jesus’ crucifixion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579668/original/file-20240304-24-ukodpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C32%2C5316%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Christian Palestinian tattoo artist Walid Ayash draws a tattoo on the arm of a Coptic Egyptian pilgrim on April 28, 2016, at his studio in Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christian-palestinian-tattoo-artist-walid-ayash-draws-a-news-photo/525904928?adppopup=true">Thomas Coex /AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Holy Week and Easter are perhaps the most important days in the Christian calendar. Many associate those celebrations with church services, processions, candles, incense, fasting and penances. </p>
<p>However, there is another tradition that many Christians follow – that of tattooing. Historically, Easter was an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">important time for tattoos</a> among some Christian groups. Today, Christian tattooing happens in many parts of the world and all year around. Some Christians visiting Jerusalem around Easter will get a tattoo of a cross, or a lamb, usually on their forearms.</p>
<p>As a sociologist of religion and a Jesuit Catholic priest, I have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768620962367">long studied tattoos</a> as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070517">religious practices</a>. I have interviewed tattoo artists in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Loreto in Italy who have been continuing and recreating the tradition of Christian tattooing. Evidence is clear the practice started shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion and spread across Europe in later centuries. </p>
<h2>The first Christian tattoos</h2>
<p>The Romans, like the Greeks, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">tattooed slaves</a> and prisoners, usually with letters or words on their foreheads that indicated their crime. Soon after Jesus’ death, around the year 30 C.E., they started enslaving and tattooing Christians with the marks “AM” – meaning “ad metalla,” or condemned to work in the mines, a punishment that often resulted in death. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">Almost at the same time, Christians</a> who were not enslaved <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">got tattoos</a> of the early Christian signs such as fish or lambs in solidarity and to show that they identified with Jesus.</p>
<p>There were <a href="https://bc.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1410461075">no specific words in Latin or Greek for tattooing</a>, so the words “stizo,” “signum” and “stigma” were used. The word <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">stigma</a> also referred to the marks of nails on Jesus’ hands and foot, as a result of his crucifixion. Christians often got their own “stigmas”: a sign – usually a cross – in Jerusalem to honor Christ’s martyrdom. </p>
<h2>The beginning of a tradition</h2>
<p>There are several documented accounts of the tradition.</p>
<p>One from the third century mentions <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/25011055">Christians in present-day Egypt and Syria</a> getting tattoos of fish and crosses.</p>
<p>Another tells about the commentary that Procopius of Gaza, a theologian who lived between 475 and 538 C.E., wrote on the <a href="https://catenabible.com/com/5e88f313b1c7280cb341d0d2">Book of Isaiah</a> after he found that many Christians living in the Holy Land had a cross tattooed on their wrists. “Still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel,” he noted. </p>
<p>When a plague hit the Scythians, nomadic people living around the Black Sea, in 600 C.E., tattoos were believed to provide protection from the deadly disease. <a href="https://archive.org/details/theophylact-simocatta-whitby-1986/Theophylact_Simocatta_Whitby_1986/page/n9/mode/2up">Theophylact Simocatta</a>, one of the last historians of late antiquity, mentioned that missionaries among them recommended that “the foreheads of the young be tattooed with this very sign” – meaning that of a cross.</p>
<p>Many testimonies mentioned <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A64495.0001.001/1:11.1.48?rgn=div3;view=fulltext">Crusaders and pilgrims</a> returning from the Holy Land with a tattoo during the Middle Ages – a tradition that continued <a href="https://archive.org/details/fynesmorysons04moryuoft">in early modern times</a>, between the 16th and 18th centuries.</p>
<h2>Christian tattoos in Great Britain</h2>
<p>Other cultures used tattoos in different ways. When Romans came in contact with the Celts tribes that inhabited the British Isles in 400 C.E., they <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.5973126.8">called them Picts</a> because they were covered in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">body art</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white illustration showing a man and woman covered in body art, holding spears in their hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579672/original/file-20240304-30-netvij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The word Picts is derived from the name given to them by the Romans because of their painted bodies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-300-bc-male-and-female-picts-covered-in-body-paint-news-photo/51240502?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pope Gregory the Great sent envoys to convert the Celts to Christianity, followed by a visit from another Vatican delegation. While missionaries were against “pagan tattooing,” both delegations agreed that tattoos done for the Christian god were fine. The members of the second delegation in the late 700s even said, “If anyone were to undergo this injury of staining for the sake of God, he would receive a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">great reward for it</a>.”</p>
<p>Similar was the conclusion of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.5">Northumbria Council</a>, a church gathering in Northern England in 787: Tattoos done for the right god were acceptable. At that time, the Anglo-Saxon elite also had tattoos; the bishop of York, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.7">Saint Wilfrid</a>, for example, got a tattoo of a cross. </p>
<h2>Tattoos in Italy</h2>
<p>Around the 1300s, as the Christian kingdoms in the Holy Land were losing control with the coming of the Ottomans, there appeared in Italy shrines called “Sacri Monti.” These shrines were placed on “holy mountains” where devotees could pilgrimage safely, instead of risking their lives going to Jerusalem, which by then was under the control of the Ottomans.</p>
<p>These shrines were established in cities such as Naples, Varallo and Loreto. <a href="https://doi.org/10.5944/etfvii.6.2018.22922">Pilgrims could get tattoos</a> in some of these shrines. One place was Loreto’s sanctuary, established in the early 1300s. A relic from the “Holy House,” which, according to the Christian tradition, is the house where the Virgin Mary is believed to have received the news that she will bear God’s son, was brought to Loreto’s sanctuary. </p>
<p>Tattooing in Loreto’s sanctuary was a communal activity, done by carpenters, shoemakers and artisans, who <a href="https://archive.org/details/ilbelpaeseconver00stopuoft/page/486/mode/2up">brought their stalls and tools to the main square</a>
during the days of celebrations and tattooed whoever wanted to get a mark of their devotion. These tattoos typically used wood planks for transferring the design on the body, like a stamp. However, the city of Loreto banned tattooing for hygienic reasons in 1871, according to <a href="https://archive.org/details/costumiesupersti00pigo">Caterina Pigorini Beri</a>, an anthropologist, who was one of the first to document the practice. </p>
<p>But people kept getting them. A shoemaker, <a href="https://youtu.be/P_fNN880GGw?feature=shared">Leonardo Conditti</a>, was among those who kept doing tattoos in hiding during the 1940s. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/P_fNN880GGw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The history of tattooing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Present but unseen</h2>
<p>From the 1200s to the 1700s, the custom of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.4">Christian tattooing</a> was prevalent in Europe among peasants, seafarers, soldiers and artisans as much as among nuns and monks. They were getting crosses, images of the Virgin Mary, the name of Jesus, and some sentences from the Bible.</p>
<p>Following the Renaissance, however, European culture came to associate tattoos <a href="https://theconversation.com/tattoos-have-a-long-history-going-back-to-the-ancient-world-and-also-to-colonialism-165584">with those considered “uncivilized</a>,” such as peoples in the colonies, criminals and poorer Catholics. Many European intellectuals <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyoftattooi0000hamb">viewed Catholicism as a superstition</a> more than a real religion.</p>
<p>The word “tattoo” came to the Western languages after the French admiral and explorer Louis de Bougainville and British explorer James Cook returned from their trips to the South Pacific at the end of the 1700s. There, they saw local people getting marks on their bodies and using the word “tatau” to name those drawings. However, it does not mean that tattoos came back at that time. They had never left.</p>
<h2>The practice today</h2>
<p>These days, some churches in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1wmz40c.11">Middle East</a>, such as some <a href="https://archive.org/details/twothousandyears0000mein/page/n5/mode/2up">Coptic Christian</a> churches in Egypt, incorporate the practice of getting a tattoo into the baptismal rituals. </p>
<p>Indeed, Holy Land tattooing has never stopped. <a href="https://razzouktattoo.com">Wassim Razzouk</a>, whom I interviewed in 2022, is a 27th-generation tattooist – his family has been <a href="https://archive.org/details/coptictattoodesi0000cars/page/n7/mode/2up">marking pilgrims in Jerusalem since 1300</a>. Razzouk claims to have some of the 500-year-old wood planks his family used for tattooing. </p>
<p>Another tattoo artist whom I interviewed, Walid Ayash, does pilgrimage tattoos for those who visit the Nativity church in Bethlehem – a beloved custom among Arab Christians. He said that tattooing happens all year around, as long as there are pilgrims visiting the Nativity church. Although this year, as a result of the war in Gaza, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/3/27/easter-in-jerusalem-no-access-for-gazas-christians">Israeli authorities have restricted access</a> to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.</p>
<p>In Italy, <a href="https://youtu.be/mtkc-TJSBdA?feature=shared">artist Jonatal Carducci</a> is working on recovering the tradition of religious tattooing in Loreto. In a 2023 interview with me, he explained how he has painstakingly replicated the designs of the wood planks, which are both in the Museum of the Holy House and the Folkloric Museum of Rome. In 2019, he opened a parlor where Leonardo Conditti used to work. Visitors to the parlor can choose among more than 60 designs for their tattoos, including the Virgin Mary of Loreto, crosses and representations of Jesus’ heart.</p>
<p>This Easter, as some Christians get tattoos, this history might serve as a reminder of tattooing as a legitimate Christian practice, one that has been in use since the beginnings of the Common Era.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223699/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gustavo Morello does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Historically, many Christians got tattoos around Holy Week − usually a cross − to honor Christ’s martyrdom.Gustavo Morello, Professor of Sociology, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230932024-02-28T19:15:48Z2024-02-28T19:15:48ZPope Gregory XIII gave us the leap year – but his legacy goes much further<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578180/original/file-20240227-22-e28jpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C32%2C5363%2C3548&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On this day, February 29, conversations the world over may conjure the name of Pope Gregory XIII – widely known for his reform of the calendar that bears his name. </p>
<p>The need for <a href="https://palazzoboncompagni.it/en/podcast/the-gregorian-calendar/">calendar reform</a> was driven by the inaccuracy of the Julian calendar. Introduced in 46 BC, the Julian calendar fell short of the solar year – the time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun – by about 12 minutes each year. </p>
<p>To correct this, Gregory convened a commission of experts who fine-tuned the leap-year system, giving us the one we have today.</p>
<p>But the Gregorian calendar isn’t the only legacy Pope Gregory left. His papacy encompassed a broad spectrum of achievements that have left a lasting mark on the world. </p>
<h2>Rise to papacy</h2>
<p>Born in 1502 as Ugo Boncompagni, Gregory made many contributions to the life of the Catholic Church, the city of Rome, education, arts and diplomacy.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.unibo.it/en/university/who-we-are/our-history/famous-people-and-students/gregory-xiii">Before ascending</a> to the papacy, Boncompagni had a distinguished career in law in Bologna where he received his doctorate in both civil and canon law. He also taught jurisprudence, which is the theory and philosophy of law.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of Pope Gregory XIII by Lavinia Fontana" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575809/original/file-20240215-26-rm5ni5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An oil portrait of Pope Gregory XIII painted by Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lavinia_Fontana_-_Portrait_of_Pope_Gregory_XIII.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>His intellectual influence positioned him as a trusted figure in legal and diplomatic circles even before his election as pope in the 1572 conclave. Upon being elected he adopted the name Gregory, in honour of Pope Gregory the Great who lived in the sixth century.</p>
<h2>Movement in the Church</h2>
<p>One of Gregory’s major undertakings was reforming the Catholic Church in response to the Reformation, a movement which established a distinct new branch of Christianity, Protestantism, <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/protestant-reformation/">separated</a> from the Catholic Church. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revisiting-the-reformation-how-passions-sparked-a-religious-revolution-500-years-ago-86048">Revisiting the Reformation: how passions sparked a religious revolution 500 years ago</a>
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<p>Gregory aimed to implement the decisions of the Council of Trent, which met between 1545 and 1563, and defined key Christian doctrines and practices, including scripture, original sin, justification, the sacraments and saint veneration. Its outcomes directed the church’s future for centuries.</p>
<p>Gregory’s administrative reforms were aimed at <a href="https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam033/2002038836.pdf">centralising church governance</a> and its operations. As pope, he relished the practice of law, personally engaging in judicial deliberations and surprising his contemporaries with his legal acumen. </p>
<p>His papacy also marked a revision of Gratian’s Decretals, a collection of 12th-century church laws that served as a textbook for lawyers. Gregory aimed to correct numerous errors and unify the various versions of this foundational text of canon law. This culminated in the publication of an amended edition in 1582. </p>
<h2>Gregory’s dragon</h2>
<p>Pope Gregory lived at a time when emblematic and symbolic interpretations were central to the political and cultural discourse. In particular, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-91869-3_6">monsters</a> were interpreted as omens or divine signs and played a significant role in religious and political debate. </p>
<p>Gregory’s coat of arms, the heraldic emblem of the Boncompagni family, featured a dragon. As such, it <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25750536">drew criticism</a> from Protestant propaganda. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575810/original/file-20240215-30-fdl88e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII has a dragon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Pope_Gregorius_XIII_-_Ceiling_of_Santa_Maria_in_Aracoeli_-_Rome_2016.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>Anti-Catholic publications featured the Boncompagni dragon as an emblem of the Antichrist, drawing on the seven-headed monster in the Book of Revelation.</p>
<p>Rooted in biblical and mythological references, the negative imagery of Gregory’s dragon became a focal point for debates over the nature of papal authority, the legitimacy of Protestant criticisms, and the broader struggle to define truth and meaning in a rapidly changing world. </p>
<h2>A legacy enshrined in art</h2>
<p>Gregory’s legal legacy is celebrated in art, particularly in the <a href="https://factumfoundation.org/our-projects/digital-restorations/the-sala-bologna-the-vatican-palace/">Sala Bologna of the Vatican Palace</a>, which commemorates his and other popes’ contributions to the study and codification of law.</p>
<p>Gregory XIII’s pontificate (term of office) was marked by a comprehensive effort to renew and beautify Rome, improving both the city’s functionality and aesthetics. He had a particular focus on the <a href="https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/campidoglio-capitoline-hill">Capitoline Hill</a>, the political and religious heart of Rome since the Antiquity.</p>
<p>Gregory’s initiatives – which included restoring essential infrastructure such as gates, bridges and fountains – were part of a broader vision to emphasise the centrality of law in Rome’s history and culture. </p>
<p>This is demonstrated by him being honoured by a statue in the Aula Consiliare of the <a href="https://www.turismoroma.it/en/places/senatorio-palace">Senator’s Palace</a>. This hall was designed to showcase the importance of judicial proceedings.</p>
<p>Alongside his urban planning initiatives, Gregory’s commissioning of <a href="https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/76012/9781000865509.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">artworks and architectural projects</a> showcased his commitment to fostering a city that was not only the spiritual centre of Catholicism, but also a beacon of Renaissance culture.</p>
<p>In the Sala Regia hall in Vatican City, he commissioned a series of mural frescoes showcasing the triumph of Christianity over its enemies. He also commissioned an entire map gallery for the Apostolic Palace, to demonstrate the extent of Christianity’s spread over the world.</p>
<h2>Reforming the calendar</h2>
<p>Because the Julian calendar fell short by about 12 minutes each year, it was increasingly out-of-sync with the solar year. By the time Gregory’s reign began, this discrepancy had accumulated to more than 10 days.</p>
<p>To correct this, Gregory convened a commission of experts. Their work led to the publication of a formal papal decree in the form of the bull <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/calendar/The-Gregorian-calendar#ref793372"><em>Inter Gravissimas</em></a> on February 24 1582.</p>
<p>This decree not only fine-tuned the leap-year system, but also mandated the elimination of ten days to realign the calendar with the solar year.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575813/original/file-20240215-32-4r21bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1156&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first page of the bull <em>Inter Gravissimas</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inter_gravissimas#/media/File:Inter-grav.jpg">Wikimeia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Gregorian calendar reform signified a monumental shift in timekeeping. In 1582, October 4 was followed directly by October 15, correcting the calendar’s alignment with astronomical reality. </p>
<p>This adjustment, slowly adopted by Protestant nations, has had a lasting impact on how the world measures time.</p>
<h2>Faith, intellect and reform</h2>
<p>In St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, you will find a remarkable funerary monument to Pope Gregory XIII. Completed in 1723 by Milanese sculptor Camillo Rusconi, it incorporates representations of both Religion and Wisdom, personified by two statues flanking the pope.</p>
<p>Wisdom is shown drawing attention to a relief beneath the enthroned pope which illustrates the promulgation of the new calendar – the pope’s most significant achievement. At the base of the monument, a dragon crouches unapologetically.</p>
<p>It’s a fitting tribute to a pope whose tenure was characterised by the interaction of faith, intellect and reform – and which can now be marked as a cornerstone in European history.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578181/original/file-20240227-30-vjoxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A dragon, the heraldic emblem of the Boncompagni family, is carved into the base of the monument.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/The Conversation</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darius von Guttner Sporzynski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pope Gregory XIII was patron of Rome’s renaissance, and a legal luminary whose influence transcends the ages.Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Historian, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235192024-02-20T15:17:04Z2024-02-20T15:17:04ZReligious diversity is exploding – here’s what a faith-positive Britain might actually look like<p>The future of the UK’s Inter Faith Network (IFN), a long-standing charity that promotes dialogue and cooperation between Britain’s religious groups, is in doubt after the government announced it was <a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/rmc-briefings/devastating-outrageous-impending-closure-of-the-inter-faith-network/">withdrawing funding</a> for the group. Communities secretary Michael Gove has cited concerns that a member of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), with which the government has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/23/muslim-council-britain-gaza">suspended cooperation</a> since 2009, has been appointed an IFN trustee. </p>
<p>In response to Gove’s letter, the IFN <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/inter-faith-network-headed-for-closure-as-gove-minded-to-withdraw-funding">has said</a> it had never been advised “to expel the MCB from membership”. It also said that while the government might choose not to engage with the MCB, doing so “is not a sensible option open to the IFN if it is to achieve the purposes for which the government funds it in the first place”. </p>
<p>Founded in 1987, the IFN represents Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian faith groups. In the charity’s 37-year history, religious pluralism in the UK has grown exponentially – and is still growing despite an overall <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/uk-secularism-on-rise-as-more-than-half-say-they-have-no-religion">decline in religiosity</a>. </p>
<p>This underlines the importance of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-people-of-different-faiths-together-to-solve-the-worlds-problems-is-a-noble-goal-but-its-hard-to-know-what-it-achieves-170047">interfaith</a> dialogue the charity exists to promote. Indeed, the government-commissioned <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64478b4f529eda00123b0397/The_Bloom_Review.pdf">Bloom review</a> of England’s growing religious pluralism, published in 2023, made a similar point when examining how the government might best acknowledge the value different faith groups bring to society.</p>
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<img alt="A crowd of women in colourful saris." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Performers take part in the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi in Gravesend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gravesend-apr-6-performers-take-part-1078636838">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>The UK’s increasingly diverse faith landscape</h2>
<p>In 2018, the Pew Research Centre published “Being Christian in Western Europe,” a survey of religion in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/">15 western European countries</a>. The majority of the adults surveyed in 14 of the 15 countries considered themselves “non-practicing Christians”. </p>
<p>The survey found that the UK had roughly three times as many non-practicing Christians (55%) than church-going Christians (18%). It concluded that the notion of Christian identity remains a meaningful religious, political and sociocultural marker. </p>
<p>It also noted that many people have “gradually drifted away from religion, stopped believing in religious teachings, or were alienated by scandals or church positions on social issues.”</p>
<p>The rising number of people who subscribe to no religion belies the fact that the Christian proportion of the population is changing too. In 2023, British journalist Tomiwa Owolade <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2023/03/future-christianity-britain-african-christian">reported</a> on how demographic shifts are reshaping churches across the UK. Between 1980 and 2015, churches saw a 19% rise in attendance by non-white worshippers. </p>
<p>“Without immigration,” he wrote, “the decline of Christianity would be even more profound: it is largely white British people who are abandoning their faith.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An interior shot of a modernist church in England." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The St Francis of Assisi church on the Mackworth estate in Derby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/church-altar-4COdbEnGCmA">Rachael Cox|Unsplash</a></span>
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<p>Recent migration from <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/27-october/news/uk/chinese-church-is-fastest-growing-in-the-uk-study-reveals">Hong Kong</a> has seen the Chinese Christian community in the UK grow substantially. As of 2023, there are about 115,000 Chinese Christians worshipping at over 200 churches across the UK. </p>
<p>Newly arrived Chinese Christians bring with them a belief in the importance of Bible reading. They are strengthening Church of England congregations in cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol. </p>
<p>This highlights how migrant populations in the UK and more broadly in western Europe wield <a href="https://theconversation.com/tarry-awhile-how-the-black-spiritual-tradition-of-waiting-expectantly-could-enrich-your-approach-to-lent-222007">increasing influence</a> in terms of spirituality and belief. Between 2011 and 2021, the proportion of the population of England and Wales that identifies as Muslim has grown, from 4.8% (2.71 million people) to 6.5% <a href="https://mcb.org.uk/2021-census-as-uk-population-grows-so-do-british-muslim-communities/">(3.87 million)</a>. </p>
<p>Other fast-growing religious groups in the UK include Shamanism, whose followers have increased from 650 people in 2011 to <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/02/09/shamanism-is-britains-fastest-growing-religion">at least 8,000 in 2021</a>. Its emphasis on all things in nature – from people to the environment – being treated with dignity and respect distinctively appeals to the growing number of people in the UK who live with <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-communities-can-make-the-difference-in-winning-the-fight-against-climate-change-172192">climate anxiety</a>. </p>
<h2>How the government engages with faith groups</h2>
<p>Until now, UK politicians have largely only engaged with local faith groups in public when it has been politically expedient to do so. A primary motivation has often been to not be criticised by detractors for excluding communities on the basis of religion. This approach is underpinned by an Enlightenment theory of secularism, which sees engaging with issues of religion as unworthy of the looming headaches such engagement might cause. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People kneel down in a carpeted space with tall windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Worshippers in prayer in the Regents Park Central Mosque, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-england-february-18th-2009-crowd-1704858379">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The 2023 Bloom review, by contrast, calls for government to build constructive relationships with faith groups. “It should be the government’s responsibility,” Bloom writes, “to equip all civil and public servants with the basic factual knowledge to be able to recognise and understand the diverse religious life of the population.” </p>
<p>Appointed in 2019 by Boris Johnson, who was then prime minister, Colin Bloom was commissioned to explore what the government could do to better acknowledge and support the contribution faith groups make to society. He investigated how to better promote shared values and tackle harmful practices and how to promote both freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He also looked at how government officials might improve their faith literacy.</p>
<p>To be <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/religion-and-belief-literacy">faith literate</a> is to understand how belief systems differ and how those distinct from your own shape other people’s attitudes, values and experiences. In a bid to boost equality, Bloom recommends that government workplaces and educational settings adopt the term “faith-sensitive”. </p>
<p>As opposed to the flattening out of difference that a “faith-blind” approach can take, promoting faith-sensitivity encourages people in positions of authority to acknowledge, understand and treat with respect diverse belief systems. </p>
<p>The language the UK government uses on faith-related subjects matters. It models – for everyone living in the UK – how to best engage with <a href="https://theconversation.com/glasgows-museum-of-religion-has-been-saved-from-closure-heres-why-its-important-for-multicultural-britain-180002">diverse manifestations of belief</a>. </p>
<p>I would argue that Bloom’s emphasis on a faith-sensitive government approach does not go far enough. It implies that the government’s priority should be to not cause offense. Even better would be a “faith-positive” approach that actively ascribes value to the contributions faith communities can make to everyday British life.</p>
<p>Back in 2001, the IFN <a href="https://www.interfaith.org.uk/uploads/ar2002.pdf">said</a>, “Greater awareness about the faith of others is crucial as we enter the 21st century in the UK because ignorance is a major contributor to prejudice and even to conflict.” Two decades on, the shocking rises in incidents of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/feb/15/huge-rise-in-antisemitic-abuse-in-uk-since-hamas-attack-says-charity">antisemitism</a> and <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2023-11-09/i-was-terrified-islamophobic-incidents-up-by-600-in-uk-since-hamas-attack">Islamophobia</a>, in recent months, point to how urgently that remains true. </p>
<p>Early 20th century English writer G.K. Chesterton once affectionately wrote, “Let your religion be less a theory and more a love affair.” He was offering a framework to help British Christians better understand their faith. A similarly faith-positive approach to all of Britain’s belief systems would both recognise and value quite what people of faith can bring to wider British society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Christopher Wadibia receives funding from a postdoctoral research fellowship specialising in race, theology, and religious studies based at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.</span></em></p>The language the UK government uses on faith-related subjects matters. It models – for everyone living in the UK – how to best engage with diverse manifestations of belief.Christopher Wadibia, Junior Research Fellow in Theology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220072024-02-13T16:08:50Z2024-02-13T16:08:50Z‘Tarry awhile’: how the Black spiritual tradition of waiting expectantly could enrich your approach to Lent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575326/original/file-20240213-22-sxr5ms.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=233%2C26%2C4796%2C3925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/woman-in-brown-coat-raising-her-hands-Y_2P5icyKus">Brian Lundquist|Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, hundreds of millions of Catholic and Protestant Christians around the world celebrate <a href="https://theconversation.com/lent-is-here-remind-me-what-its-all-about-5-essential-reads-200269">the season of Lent</a>. For the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, observers devote themselves to fasting, prayer and acts of generous giving. </p>
<p>Lots of people, who might not be observant, also take this time to give something up. In 2023, Country Living <a href="https://www.countryliving.com/life/g26473567/give-up-for-lent/">ran a list</a> of 32 ideas for what you might want to curtail, from “commenting on social media”, “road rage” and “ignoring your health” to “speeding”, “snacking” and “single-use plastic”. </p>
<p>For Lent 2024, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has chosen a new book by British theologian Selina Stone, as his annual recommendation. Entitled Tarry Awhile: Wisdom from Black Spirituality for People of Faith, this selection speaks to the growing salience of Black spirituality globally, especially in regards to Christianity. </p>
<p>By 2050, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/">40%</a> of the world’s Christians will live in sub-Saharan Africa. Black spirituality will increasingly influence global Christianity as the 21st century continues. The Archbishop’s Lenten book choice cordially redirects religious literary attention to the influence of Black spirituality in Anglican thought. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People in a church service" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575339/original/file-20240213-26-pe4bf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">‘Black spirituality will increasingly influence global Christian praxis as the 21st century continues.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-white-and-red-striped-polo-shirt-_cdI8MkfkVI">Gracious Adebayo|Unsplash</a></span>
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<p>The most intriguing aspect of this selection, though, is what, for many, will be an infrequently used word in the title. “To tarry” is to <a href="https://www.oed.com/dictionary/tarry_v?tl=true">linger in anticipation</a> – be that of a person or an occurrence. In a Christian context, it is about waiting on God, expectantly. </p>
<p>“Tarrying gives us an opportunity to rest,” Welby writes in his foreword, “to see the realities of the world more clearly and to imagine more boldly what the world could be”. </p>
<p>Stone, in her introduction, says the practice recognises “the interdependence of the individual and the community for encounter with God”. She exhorts her readers – whether tarrying, as a tradition, feels like home to them or is entirely new – to be open, as they wait for the justice and peace so sorely missing from the world. </p>
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<h2>Tarrying in the Christian tradition</h2>
<p>The Bible uses the word “tarry” at least 30 times. In particular, as Stone highlights, it is the word (in the King James version) the Gospel of Matthew uses, when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. Overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, he asks his disciples to, “tarry here and watch with me”.</p>
<p>In biblical literature, tarrying refers to an individual or community patiently, longingly waiting in one setting or state for something. This might be a person or an event or an act of spiritual or political liberation. </p>
<p>The concept of tarrying surfaces in the historical development of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23957241">academic Christian theology</a>. It remains popular among Black Christians, but it is not exclusive to this religious group. In fact, it is not exclusive to religious communities in particular either. It is a term used by philosophers, psychoanalysts and religious leaders alike. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three men sit in prayer in a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575334/original/file-20240213-18-dk237e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tarrying means devoting time to stillness and prayer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/man-in-brown-dress-shirt-and-black-pants-sitting-on-black-leather-armchair-JcnSq7IYTKY">Luis Morera|Unsplash</a></span>
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<p>In Black Christian spirituality, the concept of tarrying exists as a familiar, mature spiritual ritual that practically manifests in a variety of ways. After a church service or an event concludes, worshippers might gather near the altar or remain in their seats, ignoring the socialising around them to devote extra time to prayer. A Christian might sit alone in an empty chapel lost in prayer, conveying their needs and anxieties to God, emboldened by the biblical view that God responds favourably to those who spend time with him. </p>
<p>Like meditating, tarrying prioritises mindfulness over negligence or indifference. It encourages you to live in a way that gives significance to each given moment. </p>
<p>Within the Pentecostal tradition, specifically, tarrying is seen as a spiritual discipline. It serves to clear the way for <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233642398_Tarrying_on_the_Lord_Affections_Virtues_and_Theological_Ethics_in_Pentecostal_Perspective">God’s presence to manifest</a> in even the most mundane, profane aspects of everyday life. Those who tarry prioritise doing so when the anxieties of everyday life compete for one’s mental, emotional, and physical attention – but fail. </p>
<p>Religiously, tarrying means replacing the attention seeking anxieties of everyday life with a focus on the spiritual, the social and the relational. Tarrying functions as an expression of love, devotion and desire. In a world where one’s attention can be diverted more quickly and easily than ever, tarrying is a choice to shun one thing for another. </p>
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<p>Culturally, tarrying calls for rejecting the rat-race mentality characteristic of capitalist societies. In many ways, it is antithetical to the modernist assumptions that drive the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2009.00500.x">glorification of secular reason</a> and the worship of production. </p>
<p>In this way, tarrying unambiguously relates to Lent. The Lenten emphasis on fasting, prayer and ideologically driven generosity and charitable giving aligns with tarrying’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-an-african-church-choir-made-a-difference-to-care-home-life-in-greater-manchester-190556">emphasis on communal life</a>. </p>
<p>Christians observing Lent give in the expectation that their giving will positively contribute to the life of another. In a world where people are often encouraged to forsake relationship for productivity, perhaps all of us would do well to partake in a little more tarrying in our everyday lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Christopher Wadibia receives funding from a postdoctoral research fellowship specialising in race, theology, and religious studies based at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. </span></em></p>Lenten traditions emphasise fasting, prayer and charitable giving. This aligns with tarrying as central to communal spiritual life.Christopher Wadibia, Junior Research Fellow in Theology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213992024-02-13T13:22:45Z2024-02-13T13:22:45ZWhy having human remains land on the Moon poses difficult questions for members of several religions<p>Sending human remains to the Moon on the first commercial lunar lander, Peregrine 1, on Jan. 8, 2024, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-remains-are-headed-to-the-moon-despite-objections/">along with scientific instruments</a>, caused a controversy.</p>
<p>Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, objected, saying that “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/05/world/peregrine-moon-mission-navajo-nation-objection-human-remains-scn/index.html">the moon holds a sacred place</a>” in Navajo and other tribal traditions and should not be defiled in this way. The inside of the lander was to be a kind of “<a href="https://elysiumspace.com/">space burial</a>” for remains of some 70 people. Each of the families had <a href="https://www.celestis.com/experiences-pricing/">paid over US$12,000 for a permanent memorial on the Moon</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/joanne-pierce">professors</a> <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">of religious studies</a> who have taught courses on death rites, we know that death rituals in the world’s religions have been shaped by millennia of tradition and practice. While these ashes didn’t make it to the Moon because of a <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=PEREGRN-1">propellant leak</a>, their presence on the lander raised some important religious issues: Beliefs about the polluting nature of the corpse, the acceptability of cremation and the sacredness of the Moon vary across traditions. </p>
<h2>Jewish death rituals and purification</h2>
<p>In ancient Judaism, certain activities were believed to be polluting, rendering a person unfit to participate in prayers and animal sacrifices offered exclusively at the Temple in Jerusalem. There were many ways in which one could become ritually unclean, and each level of pollution was cleansed by an appropriate purification rite. <a href="https://www.religiousrules.com/Judaismpurity03corpse.htm">Direct contact with a human corpse</a> was believed to cause the most intense form of pollution; even touching a person or object that had been in contact with a corpse would cause a lesser level of defilement.</p>
<p>After the Romans <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/destruction-second-temple-70-ce">destroyed the Temple in 70 C.E.</a>, Jewish religious practice changed dramatically, including rules about purification. These days, after a burial or visit to a cemetery, many Jewish people wash their hands to wash away negative <a href="https://outorah.org/p/64492/">spirits or energy</a>.</p>
<p>In Judaism, the bodies of the dead are to be buried or entombed in the earth. Cremation of human bodies, <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/510874/jewish/Why-Does-Judaism-Forbid-Cremation.htm">rejected for centuries</a>, has become more popular but <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/judaism-on-cremation/">still remains a controversial option</a> due to the older tradition of respect for the body as a creation of God – to be buried intact and without mutilation.</p>
<h2>Christian death rituals over the centuries</h2>
<p>Before Christianity developed in the first century C.E., <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9497-3_1">Roman civil religion</a> stressed the need to separate the living from the dead. Corpses or cremated remains were interred in burial places outside cities and town – in <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/city/necropolis">the necropolis</a>, literally a city of the dead. As in Judaism, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4314/actat.v26i2.52569">any visitor needed purification</a> afterward. </p>
<p>As monotheists, Christians rejected belief in the Greek and Roman gods and goddesses, including the <a href="https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Selene.html#:%7E:text=SELE%E2%80%B2NE%20(Sel%C3%AAn%C3%AA)%2C,371%2C%20%">Moon goddess called Selene or Luna</a>. They also refused to participate in Roman state religious rituals or activities based on pagan polytheism. Decades later, after Christianity became the official imperial religion, Christians moved the <a href="http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01019">remains of people they considered holy into towns and cities</a> to be re-entombed for easier veneration inside churches.</p>
<p>During the medieval period, ordinary Christians desired to be buried close to these saints in anticipation of the resurrection of the body at the second coming of Christ. Graveyards around the church were <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501753855/standing-on-holy-ground-in-the-middle-ages/">consecrated as “holy ground</a>.” In this way, Christians believed that the departed might continue to <a href="https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-medieval-pilgrimage/burial-ad-sanctos-SIM_00143#:%7E:text=Burial%20">benefit from the holiness of the saints</a>. Their bodies were considered sources of spiritual blessing rather than causes of spiritual pollution.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A relief showing a corpse being placed in a coffin as people stand around, one holding a tall crucifix." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574710/original/file-20240209-26-yavs36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fourth-century Christian burial depicted in relief at the Shrine of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, Milan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/9691_-_Milano_-_S._Ambrogio_-_San_Vittore_in_Ciel_d%27oro_-_Foto_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto_25-Apr-2007.jpg">G.dallorto, Attribution/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Increasingly today, cremation is considered acceptable, although the Catholic Church requires that cremated remains <a href="https://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and-sacramentals/bereavement-and-funerals/cremation-and-funerals">must not be scattered or partitioned</a> but buried or placed elsewhere in cemeteries. </p>
<p>Unlike some other religions, neither Judaism nor Christianity considers the Moon divine or sacred. As part of God’s creation, it <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter#:%7E:text=The%20">plays a role</a> in setting the religious calendars. In both Jewish and Christian spiritual writing, the <a href="https://blog.nli.org.il/en/jewish_moon">Moon is used as a spiritual analogy</a>: in Judaism, of the majesty of God, and in Christianity, of Christ and the church.</p>
<h2>Islamic beliefs on burial</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.icrc.org/law-and-policy/2018/11/01/respect-for-the-dead-under-islamic-law-considerations-for-humanitarian-forensics/">Cremation is strictly prohibited in Islam</a>. After death, the deceased is <a href="https://www.islamicity.org/5586/preparation-of-te-deceased-and-janazah-prayers/">ritually washed, wrapped in shrouds</a> and brought for burial in a cemetery as soon as possible.</p>
<p>After a <a href="https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/ep-1-the-janazah-prayer-for-those-left-behind">funeral prayer</a>, led by an imam or senior member of the community, the deceased is buried – usually without a coffin – with their head oriented toward the holy city of Mecca. The soul of the deceased is <a href="https://zamzam.com/blog/life-after-death-in-islam/">said to visit their loved ones</a> on the seventh and 40th days after death. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://quran.com/en/fussilat/37">Quran warns against worshiping the Moon</a>, as was done in pre-Islamic culture, because worship is due to God alone.</p>
<p>In September 2007, when the first Muslim astronaut from Malaysia got ready to go into space, the Malaysian National Space Agency <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2007-09-20-islamic-body-rules-on-how-to-pray-wash-die-in-space/">published religious directives</a> on burial rituals for Muslims in space. These directives said if bringing the body back wasn’t possible, then he would be “interred” in space after a brief ceremony. And if no water was available in space for the ceremonial rituals, then “holy dust” should be swept onto the face and hands “even if there is no dust” in the space station. </p>
<h2>Hindu and Buddhist funerary practices</h2>
<p>Hinduism is a diverse religion, and so funeral practices often vary according to culture and context. Most commonly, death and the period following a person’s death are associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/006996689023001007">ritual pollution</a>. Because of this, the deceased should be cremated within 24 hours after death.</p>
<p>The cremation of the corpse cuts the ties of the soul, or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/atman">atman</a>, to the body, allowing it to move on to the next level of existence and eventually be reincarnated. The ashes are collected and placed into an urn on the third day after cremation and immersed in a body of water, ideally a sacred river such as the Ganges.</p>
<p>Within Hinduism, the Moon has played an important role in conceptualizing what happens to the dead. For example, the ancient Hindu texts describe the spirits of the virtuous dead as entering Chandraloka, or the realm of the Moon, where they experience happiness for a time before being reincarnated.</p>
<p>In the many forms of Buddhism, death provides an opportunity for mourners to reflect <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/buddhist-death-rites/">on the impermanence of all things</a>. While in Tibetan Buddhism there is the tradition of “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/29757283">sky burial</a>,” in which the deceased is dismembered and left to the elements, in most forms of Buddhism the dead are usually cremated and, as in Hinduism, the corpse is considered polluting beforehand. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person lighting a candle at an altar, painted in red color, with white flowers in two vases and incense sticks in a small pot." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574713/original/file-20240209-16-vrekcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ritual being performed at a Thai funeral ceremony.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/funeral-watering-ceremony-thai-cultural-ritual-royalty-free-image/1831759719?phrase=buddhist+cremation&adppopup=true">Surasak Suwanmake/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In older forms of Buddhism in Nepal and Tibet, the Moon was understood to be <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38344#:%7E:text=Worship%20of%20the%20moon%20god">identified with the god Chandra</a>, who rides on a chariot. The Moon is also one of the nine astrological deities whose movement provides insight for reckoning individual and collective futures.</p>
<h2>Difficult questions</h2>
<p>In response to the Navajo objection that landing ashes on the Moon was a defilement, the CEO of Celestis, the company that paid for capsules containing the ashes, <a href="https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/biden-administration-to-consult-with-navajo-about-human-remains-on-the-moon/">issued a statement</a> stressing that launching containers of human ashes to the Moon is “the antithesis of desecration … it’s celebration.” </p>
<p>In the end, the question was moot. Peregrine 1 <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/15/world/peregrine-moon-lander-failure-nasa-scn/index.html">never made its soft landing on the Moon</a> because of an engine malfunction, and its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67962397">payload was destroyed</a> after entering the atmosphere. </p>
<p>As more people decide to send their ashes into space, however, religious conflicts are bound to arise. The key concern, and not just for the Navajo Nation, will be how to respect all religious traditions as humans explore and commercialize the Moon. It still remains a problem today here on Earth.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two scholars who study death rituals explain that the corpse is considered spiritually polluting in many religious traditions, while the Moon holds a sacred place.Joanne M. Pierce, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossMathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189092024-02-09T13:33:30Z2024-02-09T13:33:30ZFrom church to the mosque, faith and friends help Iowa’s African immigrants and refugees build a sense of home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571979/original/file-20240129-15-3xb35s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C1019%2C683&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Snow covers the replica of the Statue of Liberty outside the Decatur County Courthouse in Leon, Iowa.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/iasnow-covers-the-replica-of-the-statue-of-liberty-outside-news-photo/1918198236?adppopup=true">Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Think of Iowa, our home. Many people picture cornfields: the Great Plains of the American heartland. </p>
<p>One thing many outsiders may not know about this agrarian, <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/IA/PST045222">predominantly white state</a> where we teach is that it has become “a home away from home” for <a href="https://qctimes.com/news/state-regional/where-refugees-in-iowa-are-arriving-from/collection_65d7716d-54be-5521-9e8d-c8b78e26335d.html#1">a growing population of African immigrants</a>. These newcomers include migrants, immigrants and a few university students, as well as people fleeing violence in countries such as Sudan, Somalia, <a href="https://www.clingendael.org/pub/2022/conflict-in-the-penta-border-area/introduction/#:%7E:text=Introduction%20%7C%20Conflict%20in%20the%20Penta%2DBorder%20Area&text=Since%20December%202021%2C%20Benin%20has,December%202021%20and%20May%202022.">Benin</a> and <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo">the Democratic Republic of Congo</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/gwss/people/brady-gsell">social scientists</a> <a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/religion/people/osamamen-oba-eduviere">at the University of Iowa</a> we are both involved in <a href="https://dailyiowan.com/2023/11/01/nigerian-scholar-brings-unique-perspective-to-ui-homebuilding-in-the-heartland-project/">Homebuilding in the Heartland</a>, a community-based research project. Together with <a href="https://law.uiowa.edu/people/amy-weismann">colleague Amy Weismann</a>, we aim to build connections with this population and learn from African immigrants’ experiences as they resettle in Iowa. </p>
<p>Despite their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/29/business/economy/storm-lake-iowa-immigrant-workers.html">contributions to the region’s labor force</a>, African immigrants across the Midwest are often overlooked and sometimes struggle to access resettlement services. However, religious institutions frequently play supportive roles as they adjust to their new home.</p>
<h2>From Africa to Iowa</h2>
<p>As of 2019, around 2 million Black immigrants from Africa <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/27/key-findings-about-black-immigrants-in-the-u-s/">were living in the United States</a> – a number that has tripled since 2000. The number of African migrants and asylum-seekers apprehended at the southern border of the United States <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/us/africa-migrants-us-border.html">has also increased</a> as people look for alternatives to Europe.</p>
<p>While these 2 million people represent <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/sub-saharan-african-immigrants-united-states?gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_waCLI8vIpEmY8eNaWT6c6Q9dxomQ-eNMYsLVqhl_6xuHYRNzCeF310aAnviEALw_wcB">a vast number of languages, cultures and religions</a>, about half of sub-Saharan African immigrants come from just five countries: Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Somalia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three men in casual clothing stand on small rugs outside, facing the same direction, with a tall fence in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570926/original/file-20240123-29-jcleg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Muslim immigrants from Senegal pray while waiting to be transported from the U.S.-Mexico border in Lukeville, Ariz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/immigrants-from-senegal-take-part-in-an-islamic-prayer-at-news-photo/1836551067?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Overall, most Black immigrants who come to the U.S. from any part of the world <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/27/key-findings-about-black-immigrants-in-the-u-s/">settle in the Northeast or the South</a>. However, about 1 in 10 make their home in the Midwest. <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/state-profiles/state/demographics/IA">According to the Migration Policy Institute</a>, around 30,000 of the 3.2 million people in Iowa were born in Africa.</p>
<p>Some newcomers are attracted to the region because of <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/article/why-they-come-to-iowa-a-closer-look-at-immigration-in-iowa/">economic opportunities</a>, especially in meatpacking plants. Others come through recommendations from friends and family members already living there.</p>
<p>Most of the people we interviewed are refugees and asylum-seekers fleeing countries with widespread conflict and describe harrowing experiences on their journeys to the U.S. Many came with the aid of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – the U.N. refugee agency – or <a href="https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/migration">the International Organization for Migration</a>. Some of the refugees first arrived in other states, including California and Michigan, before making their way to Iowa.</p>
<p>Upon arrival, many are excited to settle into the supposedly utopian society they have dreamed of. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-10-2019-0299">Reality begins to set in</a> as they face <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/state-profiles/state/language/IA">challenges with language</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J377v25n01_03">cultural shock</a> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-09-21/jamaican-immigrant-new-york-struggles-among-black-americans">and racism</a>. Adjusting to the cold climate is also difficult, as are day-to-day difficulties like getting winter clothes and snow boots, and even getting used to how much personal space Americans give each other.</p>
<p>Refugees and immigrants are eligible for short-term aid <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citizen-policy">with groceries</a>, <a href="https://hhs.iowa.gov/programs/programs-and-services/cash-assistance/fip-tanf">cash assistance</a>, <a href="https://hhs.iowa.gov/media/2949/download?inline=#:%7E:text=In%20Iowa%2C%20the%20majority%20of,and%20processes%20as%20U.S.%20citizens.">medical care</a> and English classes. Yet these resources are sometimes not enough. </p>
<h2>Safe − and sacred − places</h2>
<p>In interviews, most immigrants are grateful for friends, family, colleagues and the staff of the secular nonprofit and government agencies who help try to make their stay in Iowa comfortable. However, religious organizations also fill gaps in many arrivals’ new lives – not only with goods and services, but spiritually and socially.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several women in robes that cover their heads and bodies watch as a woman with a baby on her back demonstrates how to use a loom." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571966/original/file-20240129-17-3fshh3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">East African women participate in a program to connect immigrants and refugees with community services in 2019 at the senior center in St. Peter, Minn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/after-receiving-a-halal-meal-from-the-st-peter-food-club-news-photo/1265660867?adppopup=true">Elizabeth Flores/Star Tribune via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some of these groups, like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service – which recently <a href="https://www.globalrefuge.org/who-we-are/identity/">changed its name to Global Refuge</a> – are <a href="https://hhs.iowa.gov/programs/programs-and-services/refugee-services/resources">official resettlement partners</a> of the U.S. government.</p>
<p>Others, including <a href="https://catholicworker.org/directory/ia-iowa-city-cw-html/">Catholic Worker</a>, <a href="https://lsiowa.org/who-we-are/">Lutheran Services in Iowa</a>, <a href="https://dailyiowan.com/2019/12/09/local-nonprofit-ic-compassion-launches-new-refugee-counseling-program/">Iowa City Compassion</a> and the Catherine McAuley Center, a charity founded by Catholic nuns, help provide basic supplies, clothing and food, as well as help enrolling migrant kids in school. Religious groups also organize food drives for Thanksgiving and Christmas.</p>
<p>Some individual members of congregations take it upon themselves to help. One interviewee recalled, “It was snowing, and this elderly woman saw me and my baby around the church. She talked to me and helped to get items like an iron, table, and some sheets, and dropped me off after the shopping. She helped me so much.”</p>
<p>Religious places are also used as <a href="https://www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/2019-08-27/refugee-communities-seek-out-iowa-to-put-down-roots">safe spaces for African migrants’ stories</a>, highlighting the problems they are facing as individuals and as a community, and thinking of ways to proffer solutions. </p>
<p>For this research, our focus was on Christian and Muslim religious communities. Once in Iowa, many Christians and Muslims come to feel at home by forming groups in religious spaces such as choirs, women’s groups and Bible study – helping them build networks with people with similar experiences, while also connecting with non-African Iowans. Women we’ve interviewed in Des Moines, for example, say that chatting in mosque after prayers is an important part of their lives.</p>
<p>Some interviewees comment on their congregations’ inclusivity, which allows for their native languages to be used in songs and sermons, even in religious services with nonimmigrants. A few congregations also open up their spaces for African attendees to hold cultural events and get-togethers with familiar music and food. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The hand of someone wearing a white coat and a silver ring holds an orange and brown string of beads." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571977/original/file-20240129-19-66dhwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An immigrant from Mauritania fingers prayer beads while waiting to be processed by U.S. border authorities on Dec. 5, 2023, in Lukeville, Ariz.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/an-immigrant-from-mauritania-fingers-prayer-beads-while-news-photo/1833429149?adppopup=true">John Moore/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Change ahead</h2>
<p>However, during one of the interview sessions in one of the churches in Iowa City, a few respondents hoped for an increased sense of belonging in other kinds of social circles as well: community gatherings, workplaces and their children’s schools, for example.</p>
<p>Many of our interviewees complain about lack of assistance from the government during the assimilation process and advocate for additional support such as more citizenship education for newly resettled immigrants.</p>
<p>Yet, they are confident that with time, Iowa will diversify, making it feel more like home: a state where they can put down roots, worship among friends and even access African foods such as “ugali” cornmeal, pilau and jollof rice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Osamamen Oba Eduviere is affiliated with Refugee Alliance of Johnson County. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brady G'Sell is affiliated with the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County, IC Compassion and the Refugee Alliance of Johnson County. </span></em></p>Immigration may be concentrated on America’s coasts, but newcomers are putting down roots in Midwestern communities as well.Osamamen Oba Eduviere, Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies, University of IowaBrady G'Sell, Assistant Professor of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies and Anthropology, University of IowaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218872024-02-08T14:15:43Z2024-02-08T14:15:43ZThe rise of African prophets: the unchecked power of the leaders of Pentecostal churches<p>Over the last 20 years there’s been an unprecedented increase in charismatic Pentecostal prophets – or men of God as they’re called in Pentecostal parlance. Across Africa their unchecked influence has spread into social, economic and political institutions. </p>
<p>Pentecostalism is one of <a href="https://pmu.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Pentecostals-transformation-and-socia_2022_webb.pdf">the fastest-growing</a> strands of Christianity on the continent. In Zimbabwe, for example, the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministry <a href="https://www.phdministries.org/phdministries.php">claims</a> its membership rose from 45 to over a million in just five years. This is a significant number in a country with a population of <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=ZW">16 million</a>. Zimbabwe’s United Family International Church <a href="https://www.ufiministries.org/post/we-are-thanking-god-for-massive-growth-emmanuel-makandiwa-on-anniversary-celebrations">boasts</a> that over 70,000 attend its Sunday services.</p>
<p>Charismatic Pentecostal prophets are known for leading megachurches like these that emphasise <a href="https://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam031/00023022.pdf">faith healing, health and wealth</a>. They often <a href="https://moodle.swarthmore.edu/pluginfile.php/51999/mod_resource/content/0/Maxwell-_Delivered_from_a_spirit_of_poverty.pdf#page=7">attract</a> youthful and marginalised members of society. Most charismatic Pentecostal churches have an <a href="https://moodle.swarthmore.edu/pluginfile.php/51999/mod_resource/content/0/Maxwell-_Delivered_from_a_spirit_of_poverty.pdf">authoritarian governance structure</a> built around their founding prophets – what one historian calls a “<a href="https://moodle.swarthmore.edu/pluginfile.php/51999/mod_resource/content/0/Maxwell-_Delivered_from_a_spirit_of_poverty.pdf#page=4">personality cult</a>”. </p>
<p>Religious leaders are increasingly trusted in post-colonial African states. A 2017 survey <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/zimbabweans-place-most-trust-religious-leaders-ngos-and-president-mugabe/">found</a> almost 75% of adult Zimbabweans had more trust in religious <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/articles/zimbabweans-place-most-trust-religious-leaders-ngos-and-president-mugabe/">leaders</a> than elected ones. A 2022 study conducted in <a href="https://www.afrobarometer.org/publication/ad536-for-religious-leaders-in-africa-popular-trust-may-present-opportunity-challenge-in-times-of-crisis/">34 African countries</a> confirmed this trend: 69% of respondents trusted religious leaders; 51% trusted their president. Many followers believe it would be a demotion for a prophet to run for president because a prophet anoints leaders.</p>
<p>As an anthropologist who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WysPWb0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">studies</a> charismatic Pentecostal churches, particularly in Zimbabwe, I’ve carried out <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=WysPWb0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">research</a> on the power exercised by prophets. </p>
<p>Like leaders in other religious groupings, prophets exercise power and authority through control and manipulation of different forms of capital: spiritual, symbolic, human, political and economic. These forms of capital are as important for building religious communities as they are for protecting men of God when allegations of sexual abuse or corruption are levelled against them – as has been seen in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tb-joshua-scandal-the-forces-that-shaped-nigerias-mega-pastor-and-made-him-untouchable-221421">scandal</a> surrounding famed Nigerian prophet <a href="https://theconversation.com/obituary-tb-joshua-nigerias-controversial-pentecostal-titan-162232">TB Joshua</a>. </p>
<p>Political connections and economic resources can be used to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLajyiGz4JeyNQnWs8QEe-flPqe2xqrQAp">intimidate and muzzle</a> victims and survivors. Fear of spiritual retribution or retaliation also silences them. Here I outline how that power is established by prophets, their followers and societies.</p>
<h2>The prophets</h2>
<p>Charismatic Pentecostal churches are built around prophets who are viewed as possessing special gifts to mediate between humanity and God. The prophet’s <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/9780821417386/african-gifts-of-the-spirit/">word is final</a>. Questioning and doubting this word is viewed as the devil’s plot – through human agents – to undermine a man of God’s authority. It’s common practice for charismatic Pentecostal prophets to <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/a-few-musings-on-gumbura/">threaten doubters</a> with eternal condemnation, ailments or poverty. </p>
<p>Charismatic Pentecostal prophets are popular for their ability to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1eKNJi0nXI">heal</a> ailments. They provide an alternative healthcare system for those whose choices are limited by high costs in <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/exch/40/4/article-p336_3.xml">underperforming economies</a> like Zimbabwe’s.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tb-joshua-scandal-the-forces-that-shaped-nigerias-mega-pastor-and-made-him-untouchable-221421">TB Joshua scandal: the forces that shaped Nigeria's mega pastor and made him untouchable</a>
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<p>Prophets, in the eyes of their followers, are messiahs saving sections of society. <a href="https://www.ufiministries.org/testimonies">Testimonies</a> of people who are healed or freed from evil spirits are publicised via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1eKNJi0nXI">social media</a> and television channels. This draws in more followers and builds further trust in the prophets.</p>
<h2>Big money</h2>
<p>Pentecostal churches are financed through donations from members. Large membership translates into considerable funds. But charismatic Pentecostal movements, in general, lack <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2263/4090">transparency</a> and <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/makandiwa-wants-65m-lawsuit-dismissed/">accountability </a> in managing “free will” <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2015/11/01/prophets-of-profit/">donations</a>.</p>
<p>Many charismatic leaders have constructed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/12063312221130241">megachurches</a> with business empires in media, hospitality and mining. In <a href="https://d-nb.info/1269331817/34">most cases</a>, these assets are registered as the personal property of the prophets or their families. </p>
<p>With vast financial resources that aren’t taxed, charismatic Pentecostal prophets’ <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/preaching-power-and-private-jets-nigeria">lavish lifestyles</a> serve as “proof” of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/prosperity-gospel">prosperity gospel</a> they preach – that faith attracts money – while their followers pool resources to finance church operations.</p>
<p>Control of huge financial resources also allows prophets to hire top lawyers or afford <a href="https://www.thezimbabwemail.com/law-crime/under-fire-magaya-opts-for-out-of-court-settlement-in-homelink-us23-million-debt/">out-of-court settlements</a> when accused of abuse or corruption.</p>
<h2>Political connections</h2>
<p>Post-colonial political leaders in Africa largely view charismatic Pentecostal prophets as allies. This <a href="https://www.citizen.digital/news/first-lady-rachael-ruto-hosts-zimbabwes-prophet-ian-ndlovu-n305670">alliance</a> serves both parties.</p>
<p>Pentecostal gatherings are often attended by large numbers of people. Like other religious groupings, these numbers could translate to <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/thestandard/news/article/8506/makandiwa-sings-mnangagwa-praises">votes</a>. Several <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCQBqCD7AcY">charismatic Pentecostal Prophets</a> provide sitting and former presidents with (spiritual) advice and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dj0-26gNB0">assistance</a>. In return, politicians provide prophets with political protection. </p>
<p>Relations with political leaders often span <a href="https://mg.co.za/africa/2021-03-06-the-stunning-fall-from-grace-of-zimbabwes-vice-president/">several countries</a>, extending the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1558/pent.40930">network and influence</a> of prophets beyond <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtELsu5WhP4">national borders</a>. </p>
<p>As confirmation of their status, many men of God will imitate politicians by travelling in <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/news/article/169010/makandiwa-bodyguards-seize-newsday-camera">heavily guarded</a> motorcades. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCQBqCD7AcY">Imitation and proximity</a> to political leadership help make prophets “untouchable”.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sundaymail.co.zw/magaya-bombshell">Allegations of rape</a>, <a href="https://dailypost.ng/2014/09/20/synagogue-church-collapse-t-b-joshua-allegedly-offered-journalists-n50000-bribe-alter-reports/">corruption</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47131808">and</a> <a href="https://www.chronicle.co.zw/prophet-angel-sued-over-bentley/">fraud</a> <a href="https://zimmorningpost.com/israeli-businessmen-titans-target-prophet-magaya-for-us2-5-million-theft/">against</a> prophets can be leniently dealt with due to these connections and protection. </p>
<h2>Media empires</h2>
<p>Charismatic Pentecostal prophets have an impact on the Africa media landscape through powerful television and social media presence. Control and ownership of television channels allows men of God to be more visible in the public sphere than other clergies. This presence helps establish credibility, build trust and disseminate indoctrination.</p>
<p>These <a href="https://ezekieltvchannel.com/">media channels</a> are also spaces for <a href="https://www.yadahtv.co">shaping and managing</a> the public image of prophets – and can be used to counter harmful allegations against them. </p>
<h2>Members</h2>
<p>Pentecostal members form an army of foot soldiers who engage in recruiting new followers. They also form the first line of defence when prophets face criticism. Charismatic Pentecostal communities are tightly knit and coalesce around the men of God. </p>
<p>Relations between the clergy and laity are framed around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2017.1358193">familial</a> bonds, with the prophet as the spiritual father or “Daddy”. His followers are sons and daughters. Relations between powerful spiritual fathers who claim <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/news/article/151730/8216rapist8217-pastor-gumbura-owns-every-woman-in-his-churchcourt-told">ownership</a> of their spiritually weak children reflect the broader patriarchal system common in most African societies. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-starvation-cult-left-hundreds-dead-a-psychologists-view-on-how-to-support-people-as-they-process-tragedy-205135">Kenya’s starvation cult left hundreds dead – a psychologist’s view on how to support people as they process tragedy</a>
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<p>The men of God are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2017.1358193">epitomes</a> of both spiritual and secular authority. Scriptural texts are used to reinforce familial relations: disobeying the prophet is equated to disobeying one’s parents.</p>
<p>So why do charismatic Pentecostals stay in religious communities that “disempower” them? More than other religious groupings, charismatic Pentecostal prophets preside over <a href="https://doi.org/10.30965/27507955-20220002">economies</a> that systemically <a href="https://uficuk.co.uk/hope-and-love-ruth-makandiwa-shares-a-special-moment-with-the-less-privileged/">facilitate the distribution</a> of food, clothes, money and jobs within the church – often in the form of church donations to members considered poor.</p>
<p>In Zimbabwe, this economy is modelled around an indigenous social welfare system called <em><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6014163/">zunde ramambo</a></em> that’s managed by traditional chiefs. To some extent, charismatic Pentecostal prophets carry out the functions of chiefs who have long been responsible for the welfare of the people under them. </p>
<p>For entrepreneurs and young people with aspirations for a better future, church membership provides business opportunities and connections. Charismatic Pentecostals are obedient to the men of God for continued access to clients, service providers and mentors within the church. Many are, therefore, willing to downplay allegations of abuse levelled against the clergy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Josiah Taru has previously received research funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. </span></em></p>Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing strands of Christianity in Africa.Josiah Taru, Postdoctoral associate, Rice UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2053002024-02-07T19:17:37Z2024-02-07T19:17:37ZHidden women of history: Saint Perpetua, a young mother put to death in a Roman amphitheatre<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572119/original/file-20240130-23-f4mjgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C30%2C1946%2C1115&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mosaic depicting female saints, including Perpetua (second right) and Felicitas, in Ravenna, Italy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E06046">Nick Thompson/Cult of the Saints</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 203 CE, a young, African Christian woman named Vibia Perpetua was executed in a brutal fashion. </p>
<p>She and her fellow Christians were taken to the amphitheatre of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Carthage-ancient-city-Tunisia">Carthage</a> (now in Tunisia), where they were grievously wounded by wild beasts before their throats were slit by gladiators. This horrific scene formed part of the celebrations for the birthday of <a href="https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/biographies/geta/">Caesar Geta</a>, the son of the emperor Septimius Severus.</p>
<p>The Roman imperial state did not engage in a systematic, empire-wide persecution of Christians in the early third century. However, many believers like Perpetua were denounced to local officials, who put them in prison. They were executed when they refused to make religious offerings to the Roman gods and emperors. </p>
<p>The tales of early Christian suffering are recounted in texts known as hagiographies, or accounts of saints’ lives. Perpetua’s tale stands out among these works because she may have written much of it herself.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-throwing-christians-to-the-lions-67365">Mythbusting Ancient Rome – throwing Christians to the lions</a>
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<h2>Still breastfeeding when jailed</h2>
<p>The Latin text of the Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas was discovered at the Italian monastery of Monte Cassino in the 17th century. Most of it is written by an unknown narrator, who recounts the suffering of Perpetua and her fellow martyrs so that other Christians might learn from their experiences.</p>
<p>However, eight chapters are written in the first person singular. The narrator states these chapters are the work of Perpetua herself “just as she wrote with her own hand and according to her own perception”.</p>
<p>The narrator tells us Perpetua came from a respectable family, was educated and in her early twenties when she died. Her parents were still living. The Latin used to describe Perpetua’s family and upbringing indicates they were wealthy Roman citizens. </p>
<p>Perpetua was married and had a baby boy. She was still breastfeeding when jailed. Yet her husband is not otherwise mentioned and it would be very unusual for a wealthy woman to be nursing her own baby. This suggests Perpetua may well have been of much <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2011.01661.x">lower status</a> than the narrator assumed. </p>
<p>Perpetua’s account begins after she and four other Christians, including the enslaved woman Felicitas, have been arrested by Roman authorities. </p>
<p>Across the eight chapters, Perpetua describes her relationship with family members, her father’s attempts to convince her to renounce her faith, the visions she had in prison and her treatment by Roman soldiers and officials. The final part of the tale, which includes the execution scenes described above, is told by the narrator.</p>
<p>Perpetua’s style is straightforward (but not uneducated), her narrative sometimes detailed, at other times frustratingly vague. Above all, it is deeply touching.</p>
<h2>‘I was tormented by concern for my baby’</h2>
<p>Despite being aware her Christian faith will lead to her death, separating her from her child, Perpetua expresses a deep bond with her son. “I was tormented by concern for my baby”, she writes of her initial incarceration. </p>
<p>She is later allowed to suckle her baby, who had been “weak with hunger” without his mother. She is even given permission to keep the boy with her. The presence of the child meant that, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>prison was immediately transformed into a palace for me, so that I preferred to be there than anywhere else.</p>
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<p>After Perpetua and her fellow Christians are sentenced to die in the amphitheatre, she is filled with anguish for her child. But God intervenes. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And just as God willed it, the baby no longer wanted my breasts nor did they cause me pain, so that I was not tortured by worry for my son nor by aching in my breasts.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-87939">Mythbusting Ancient Rome: cruel and unusual punishment</a>
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</em>
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<h2>In her own words?</h2>
<p>But are they <em>her</em> words? Perpetua’s story was known to the African Christian intellectual <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tertullian">Tertullian</a>, who mentions her martyrdom in his book On the Soul, written five to ten years after her execution. This proves there was <em>a</em> Perpetua, but not that she was the author of these eight chapters.</p>
<p>Some sceptics point to the difficulty of obtaining writing materials in prison. Others observe that many martyr accounts make ambitious claims to be authentic, eyewitness narratives. </p>
<p>One important argument against such scepticism is the style of Perpetua’s Latin is quite different from the narrator’s. This could be the work of a clever male author changing his style to fit different voices, much like a modern-day novelist writing a story from different perspectives. </p>
<p>But as Perpetua’s narrative so aptly and movingly captures the female experience, the scale tips towards authenticity. </p>
<h2>Children and holy women</h2>
<p>The degree of Perpetua’s concern for and interaction with her child is unusual in accounts of Christian holy women. For example, Melania the Younger, who lived in Rome in the fifth century CE, desired to become an ascetic, which meant she needed to renounce all worldly ties, including her family. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Funerary px Marble funerary relief MET DP.</span>
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</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting of a young woman, Melania." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573898/original/file-20240206-26-ewigsh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of Melania the Younger in an Eastern Orthodox illuminated manuscript (circa 1000 AD).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Melania’s two children died young, she interpreted this as God’s endorsement of her desire to reject the conventions of Roman marriage and motherhood. </p>
<p>Another fifth century woman, Matrona, who aspired to a religious life in Constantinople, even abandoned her family and disguised herself as a man in order to enter a monastery. Matrona entrusted her little girl to another Christian woman to raise as her own. </p>
<p>This echoes the story of the enslaved woman Felicitas, whom the narrator says was eight months pregnant when arrested with Perpetua. We do not have Felicitas’ own words, but we are told she was worried her execution and martyrdom would be delayed because of her pregnancy.</p>
<p>After the other Christian prisoners pray she will go into premature labour so she might die alongside them, Felicitas gives birth to a little girl, whom she entrusts to a member of the African Christian community. Perpetua’s own son was left in the care of her family.</p>
<p>Some Christian women rejected motherhood in favour of devoting themselves exclusively to their faith, either through martyrdom or asceticism, while others engaged in child-rearing for the good of the larger community.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-olympias-who-took-on-an-emperor-dodged-a-second-marriage-and-fought-for-her-faith-212962">Hidden women of history: Olympias, who took on an emperor, dodged a second marriage and fought for her faith</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Family ties</h2>
<p>Perpetua’s tale develops this theme of Christian communities. In many early Christian texts, it is a woman’s husband who poses an obstacle to the holy path she has chosen, but in Perpetua’s narrative, it is her father.</p>
<p>She writes that her father was so worked up by the word “Christian” that “he launched himself towards me in order to tear out my eyes”, before thinking better of it and withdrawing. </p>
<p>When she is arrested, Perpetua writes,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I gave thanks to the lord because my father was not present, and I was refreshed by his absence. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565359/original/file-20231212-23-hji2xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Roman relief tondo with a portrait of a family, second century CE. Metropolitan Museum of Art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The father makes two further appearances in the narrative, showing his growing desperation. Visiting Perpetua in prison, he kisses her hands and prostrates himself before her feet, begging her to consider her family’s reputation. This is a typical theme of Christian hagiography, since the hero or heroine’s journey represents a rejection of the futures their family had planned for them.</p>
<p>He then confronts her during a public trial in the forum, brandishing her baby son while imploring Perpetua to make offerings to the Roman gods for the safety of the emperors and thus save herself.</p>
<p>In response, the Roman governor orders the old man to be flogged. She writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I grieved for my father’s situation as if it were me who had been beaten, I grieved for him in his wretched elderly state.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perpetua’s journey from fearing to pitying her father draws her closer to her Christian brothers and sisters, preparing her for the martyrdom that awaits. The idea of a “spiritual family” coming to take the place of a “natal family” is found throughout early Christian texts.</p>
<p>And yet the attention Perpetua’s account gives to her family and their suffering is unusual. She dwells on her concern for her son and father; her anxiety about her mother and brother and memories of another brother who died of cancer as a child.</p>
<p>It may be that this, less stylised, element of the text also reflects Perpetua’s own voice. We rarely receive such insights from hagiographies.</p>
<h2>Perpetua’s legacy</h2>
<p>The tale of Perpetua and her fellow martyrs grew in popularity in subsequent centuries. While Perpetua does not even mention Felicitas in her first-person narrative, the women became <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/849262/pdf">inseparable</a> in the Christian tradition.</p>
<p>They were venerated in Rome by the mid-fourth century. The writings of Saint Augustine show the Passion was read out in North African churches on their feast day (March 7).</p>
<p>In addition to the famous Latin text, there is also a Greek version. It probably dates to the fifth or sixth century CE, but was not known to scholars until the late 19th century, when it was discovered in Jerusalem. Since it was very rare <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/SLA/article/4/3/309/110916/Doing-It-in-GreekTranslating-Perpetua">to translate Latin texts into Greek</a>, this shows Perpetua’s story was considered to be so important it needed to be made accessible to the Greek-speaking communities of the eastern empire. </p>
<p>There are also shorter, fifth-century accounts known as Acts, which abandon the first-person narrative and instead include a detailed dialogue between the Christians and the Roman governor of Africa. </p>
<p>The Acts rewrite the narrative in various ways, providing Perpetua with a husband who appears at her trial along with other members of the family. Perpetua reassures her father that devoting herself to Christ and his glory is the only way that she will truly be a “perpetual daughter”. </p>
<p>Perpetua lives today not only through Christian veneration as a saint, but through this moving first-person account. This allows us to understand the motivations and sufferings of an African woman who lived almost 2,000 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caillan Davenport has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meaghan McEvoy has received funding from the British Academy, Dumbarton Oaks and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.</span></em></p>Perpetua was still breastfeeding her baby son when she was thrown in jail by Roman authorities. A Latin text movingly describes her suffering.Caillan Davenport, Associate Professor of Classics and Head of the Centre for Classical Studies, Australian National UniversityMeaghan McEvoy, Senior Lecturer in History, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227822024-02-07T12:03:04Z2024-02-07T12:03:04ZWhat a new plan to save the UK’s churches says about their purpose in society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573784/original/file-20240206-16-ne8gjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 19th-century starry ceiling of Carlisle Cathedral, last painted in 1970.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/carlisle-uk-august-22-2019-chancel-1961140774">Nina Alizada|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The National Churches Trust has <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/26-january/news/uk/national-churches-trust-draws-up-blueprint-to-show-how-to-save-churches-from-closure">launched</a> a <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/everychurchcounts">campaign</a> to save the UK’s historic churches. Backed by the actor Michael Palin, it highlights the need for a national approach to address what the trust has called the “single biggest heritage challenge” in Britain. </p>
<p>Entitled Every Church Counts, the plan covers six crucial points, including comprehensive professional support for the volunteers who keep places of worship open, dedicated public funding and more promotion for tourism to churches and chapels.</p>
<p>Church communities and other heritage organisations have <a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/rmc-briefings/national-churches-trust-on-saving-church-buildings/">lauded</a> this push to highlight the significance of places of worship within British heritage. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/st-martin-canterbury">Saint Martin’s Canterbury</a>, probably built during the Roman occupation of Britain sometime before 597, all the way to Liverpool’s grade II-listed <a href="https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-of-christ-the-king/">Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King</a>, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Frederick Gibberd, and completed in the 1960s, the UK’s urban and rural landscapes are inscribed with 1,500 years of ecclesiastic history. Without a comprehensive national plan to support places of worship, including those of non-Christian religions, <a href="https://www.alannacant.com/ukcatholicheritage">my research shows</a> that these physical repositories of British history and identity could be lost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A rural church and a graveyard with trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UK landscape is inscribed with 1,500 years of church history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/an-old-church-with-a-graveyard-in-front-of-it-hYQnaL4pzHE">Jakub Pabis|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The state of the UK’s churches</h2>
<p>In November, Historic England published its 2023 <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/heritage-at-risk-2023/">Heritage at Risk register</a>. It lists 4,871 historic buildings and sites in England at risk from disrepair or inappropriate changes. Although this total represents an overall decrease from 2022, places of worship are noteworthy for being the only category with a net increase since the previous year. The register now counts 943 sites, an increase of 24 from 919 in 2022.</p>
<p>The situation in Wales and Scotland is similarly challenging. Cadw, the Welsh government’s historic environment service, <a href="https://cadw.gov.wales/advice-support/historic-assets/listed-buildings/historic-places-worship#section-strategic-action-plan-for-historic-places-of-worship-in-wales">reports</a> that 10% of listed places of worship in Wales are vulnerable. Historic Environment Scotland, meanwhile, lists 195 religious buildings on the Scottish <a href="https://www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support/planning-and-guidance/buildings-at-risk-register/">Buildings at Risk register</a>. </p>
<p>Many churches are at risk of closure due to structural problems far beyond the capacity of local congregations to fix. Unlike some European countries, the UK government does not provide regular funding to churches for repairs. Even the national Christian denominations, such as the Church of England, the Methodist Church in Britain, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, are not able to keep up with the costs. </p>
<p>There are pots of money available through the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other grant schemes. However, these are highly competitive and the amounts they can offer do not always cover what is needed. </p>
<p>In 2013, the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark received over £900,000 to restore the <a href="https://www.augustine-pugin.org.uk/hlf-project/">Shrine of St Augustine</a> in Ramsgate, Kent. It was designed and built in the 1840s by architect <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-17218947">Augustus Pugin</a>, best known for designing the Elizabeth Tower in Westminster, home to Big Ben. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neogothic church with two towers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1198%2C824&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Catholic Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate, Kent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramsgate_-_St_Augustine%27s_RC_church.jpg">Whn64|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/04/Living-Stones-Patrimony-2023.pdf">A second phase</a> of repairs to the roof was undertaken in 2023 after a new public grant of £272,000, which also required St Augustine’s to <a href="https://www.augustine-pugin.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022Newsletter-14th-print-1.pdf">raise a further £68,000</a> from other funding sources and donations.</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 2017, the National Lottery Heritage Fund <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/our-work/places-worship">granted £970 million</a> to places of worship across the UK. It is currently distributing a <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/ps19million-increase-resilience-places-worship">further £1.9 million</a> through the National Churches Trust. But this is not nearly enough. The Church of England alone needs <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/impact/our-campaigns/future-church-buildings">£1 billion</a>, over the next five years, just to cover essential repairs. </p>
<p>One of the proposals put forward by the new campaign is to encourage local authorities and public bodies such as the NHS to use places of worship for their activities and events. This could channel other sources of funding into repairing and upgrading church facilities, while also providing much needed community spaces in areas where many have closed due to funding cuts. </p>
<p>Anglican churches regularly open their doors to baby and toddler groups, food banks and even large exhibitions like Peterborough Cathedral’s display of <a href="https://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/newsarticle.aspx/41/unofficial-galaxies">Star Wars memorabilia</a> or artist Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon <a href="https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/festival-of-the-moon/">travelling show</a>, currently at Winchester Cathedral. Research has <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/331520257/Full_text_PDF_final_published_version_.pdf">shown</a> this can be a way to bring life back to under-used churches, particularly rural ones.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A picture of a moon installed in a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An installation shot of the Festival of the Moon at Durham Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-giant-moon-is-in-the-middle-of-a-cathedral-OruKlyzTbn8">K. Mitch Hodge|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is a church for?</h2>
<p>However, expanding the use of a church <a href="https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/8783/12/AnExplorationOfTheTheologicalTensionsPV-DOWSON.pdf">can also be incompatible</a> with the religious beliefs of the faith community to which it belongs. For such groups, the sacred nature of their places of worship must be maintained. </p>
<p>This raises the question of what roles churches play in today’s society, a question I have researched in collaboration with the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales. Under Roman Catholic Canon Law, the entire church building is <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann1205-1243_en.html">considered sacred</a> due to the presence of the Blessed Sacrament within it. Activities hosted within churches (but not in auxiliary buildings, like halls) must be consistent with their holy nature. </p>
<p>Catholic churches sometimes struggle when applying for heritage support to meet expectations that their projects should be of value to wider society, which is usually assumed to have more non-religious priorities and needs. </p>
<p>However, everyone can benefit from such reserved places. They can <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/back-issues/wellbeing-and-the-historic-environment/">support</a> community mental health and wellbeing by providing quiet public spaces for reflection and tranquillity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person sits in a cloister with reflections on the wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sacred spaces provide moments of quiet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/man-sitting-on-brown-wooden-bench-TMEhe5Mrif0">Isaac Sloman|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Catholic churches, in particular, are typically kept open throughout week days, for all visitors, religious and non-religious alike. In urban areas with high levels of deprivation, they can sometimes be the only such spaces. </p>
<p>Further, historic churches would not exist today without the continuing faith and practice of worshipping communities. Other countries recognise people’s rituals, beliefs and traditions as part of what Unesco <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003">defines</a> as “intangible cultural heritage”. This refers to the practices, representations, knowledge and skills that provide people with a sense of continuity and cultural identity. </p>
<p>Social anthropologists rightfully <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2018/11/folklife-at-the-international-level-the-roots-of-intangible-cultural-heritage-part-iii/">question</a> how the idea of intangible cultural heritage can actually oversimplify the complex realities of people’s experiences. It can also be used to promote commercialising and exploiting culture at the expense of local people. </p>
<p>However, research also <a href="https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/308452-should-beliefs-or-history-decide-if-a-building-is-a-church-or-a-museum">shows</a> that the tangible and intangible qualities of heritage are inherently inseparable. Recognising the value that practices like bellringing and choral singing, say, <a href="https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/468/1/2_-_Allocution_Bouchenaki.pdf">contribute</a> to the belltowers and abbeys that host these aural traditions, will surely benefit their preservation.</p>
<p>The intangible cultural and religious elements of a place enhance the meaning and value of its built environment and material. Church buildings should be prized – and protected – for the vibrant living traditions of Britain’s diverse religious communities, as well as what they tell us about our past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research for this article is funded by the British Academy through the Innovation Fellowship scheme. It is a formal research partnership with the Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales. The project maintains research integrity and standards via University of Reading research processes.</span></em></p>Religious heritage in the UK faces a funding crisis. Both the buildings and those who worship in them need to be considered.Alanna Cant, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223432024-02-01T11:17:41Z2024-02-01T11:17:41Z‘Sexualised’ Jesus causes outrage in Spain – but Christians have long been fascinated by Christ’s body<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572452/original/file-20240131-21-g605ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C5551%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holy Week in Seville has attracted some controversy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/seville-spain-september-28-2022-view-2321982699">Kirk Fisher/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been backlash from some conservative Catholics in Spain this week, who object to an image of Jesus on a poster used to promote Holy Week in Seville. The image has been described as <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/homoerotic-christ-posters-holy-week-divides-spain-seville-667rcrrm0">homoerotic</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/29/spanish-catholics-denounce-offensive-jesus-poster/">effeminate, camp</a> and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/29/spanish-catholics-denounce-offensive-jesus-poster/">sexualised</a>. </p>
<p>Religious imagery is widespread in western popular culture, from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79fzeNUqQbQ">music videos</a> to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-pope-wears-prada-how-religion-and-fashion-connected-at-met-gala-2018-96290">fashion</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2NW_G20ioJ4">TV shows</a> to advertising. In her book <a href="https://sheffieldphoenix.com/product/admen-and-eve-the-bible-in-contemporary-advertising/">Admen and Eve</a>, writer Katie Edwards explains that “Eve is quite the money maker” and signposts the prolific use of Eve in marketing campaigns for products including <a href="https://www.origsin.com/original-sin-hard-cider-genesis">cider</a>, <a href="https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/snow-white-eve-apples">cereal</a>, <a href="https://tobacco.stanford.edu/cigarettes/womens-cigarettes/eve/">cigarettes</a> and <a href="https://www.fashiongonerogue.com/dkny-be-desired-perfume/">perfumes</a>. </p>
<p>In my own research, I have explored representations of <a href="https://www.bibleandcriticaltheory.com/vol-16-no-1-2020-profit-over-prophet-a-critical-analysis-of-moses-in-advertising-christopher-greenough/">Moses in advertising</a>. The figure of Moses, an elderly, male, disabled prophet from the book of Exodus, is usually replaced by young, nude women shown parting the red sea, in various advertisements including <a href="https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/pool-ea7d93d0-b491-4333-99e8-299bc10fbb21">one for suncream</a>. </p>
<p>While the use of religious characters such as Eve and Moses often goes unnoticed, adverts that use the image of Jesus frequently cause an outcry. There’s been a backlash against using his image in advertising, including for <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-41997936">Greggs’ vegan rolls</a>, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/phones4u-jesus-ad-samsung_n_952666">Samsung mobile phones</a> and even <a href="https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/jesus-mary-what-a-style">jeans</a>. </p>
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<h2>The history of icons and the church</h2>
<p>The current outrage in Spain has precedents. There has been anger about explicit images of Jesus used in films about his life such as Monty Python’s <a href="https://www.montypython.com/film_Monty%20Python's%20Life%20of%20Brian%20(1979)/14">“blasphemous”</a> film Life of Brian (1979) and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004), which depicts the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/passion-of-the-christ-15-years-mel-gibson-jim-cavieziel-movie-reaction-christianity-a8788381.html">crucifixion as a bloody sacrifice</a>. Some portrayals of the crucifixion have been implicit, such as Cersei’s walk of shame in <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4z7zlm">Game of Thrones</a>, which echoes the <em><a href="https://www.holylandsite.com/via-dolorosa">Via Dolorosa</a></em> — the path Jesus walked to the crucifixion.</p>
<p>Certain denominations of Christianity, such as Pentecostalism and Methodism, do not engage with icons or images of God, following their prohibition in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020%3A4&version=NIV">book of Exodus</a>. Yet, icons have a long and significant history in the Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions, as objects worthy of veneration. </p>
<p>Representations of Jesus are prolific in this sense. The depiction of the crucifixion – his semi-nude, broken body on a cross – adorns churches and jewellery worldwide. So much so that we have become almost desensitised to the violence depicted in this type of image. These images are often in children’s classrooms if they attend faith schools. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crucifix necklace" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572496/original/file-20240131-15-40nwq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The depiction of the crucifixion adorns jewellery worldwide.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/crucifix-necklace-on-marble-background-2184162495">Jack Hamilton Photography/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Christianity and the body</h2>
<p>Art critic Leo Steinberg’s book, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo4092467.html">The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern Oblivion</a> (1983), showcases how crucifixion imagery was once quite explicit, as historically many images did not afford Jesus the modesty of a loincloth. Jesus’ body has always been a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Indecent-Theology/Althaus-Reid/p/book/9780415236041">site of controversy</a>, despite Christianity being a religion that is quite concerned with bodies. </p>
<p>Christianity is an embodied religion, where beliefs are not simply spiritual, but are enacted through, by and on the body. Think <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201%3A18-25&version=NRSVACE">immaculate conceptions and virgin births</a>. Sacraments such as baptism (immersion in water), anointing and the Eucharist involve physical movements (praying, bowing) and the senses (tasting, smelling) alongside visual, sacred symbols.</p>
<p>God becoming flesh – the incarnation – is the basis of Christian understandings of Jesus. In Roman Catholicism, there is a belief in <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/transubstantiation-for-beginners">transubstantiation</a>, that Christ is present in the consumption of the bread and wine (representing body and blood) during holy communion. The bread, or wafer, literally becomes Christ’s body for human consumption, following Jesus’ instruction <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Matthew%2026%3A26">“take this and eat it, this is my body”</a>. In her book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Indecent-Theology/Althaus-Reid/p/book/9780415236041">Indecent Theology</a> (2000), the late queer theologian, Marcella Althaus-Reid describes such an activity as “cannibalistic”. </p>
<p>In my own book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Bible-and-Sexual-Violence-Against-Men/Greenough/p/book/9780367562878#:%7E:text=The%20Bible%20and%20Sexual%20Violence%20Against%20Men%20argues%20that%20the,world%20and%20biblical%20texts%20themselves.">The Bible and Sexual Violence Against Men</a> (2021), I explore how Jesus is presented as asexual, both in the Bible and in Christian theology. The Bible tells very little of Jesus’ sexuality, and for a Jewish man in his thirties, the absence of wife and family would have been noticeable.</p>
<p>Asexuality seems to be a family affair. It’s suggested that his earthly parents, the virgin Mary and Joseph were both abstinent or celibate. Such celibacy is prescribed for priests in Roman Catholicism, and marriage is tackled in Paul’s <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%207-9&version=NIV">letter to the Corinthians</a>, where he says “it is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do”.</p>
<h2>Representation and reception</h2>
<p>Those in Spain who have objected to Jesus being portrayed as “effeminate”, “camp” or “sexualised” seem to imply that there is something wrong or deviant about such portrayals. More globally, this speaks back to the legacy of homophobia in certain conservative Christian settings and the use of <a href="https://theconversation.com/using-the-bible-against-lgbtq-people-is-an-abuse-of-scripture-110128">the Bible in this</a>. The debate continues, even with inclusive advancements from Pope Francis in relation to the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/pope-francis-eases-barriers-blessing-same-sex-marriage-1864328">blessing of same-sex unions.</a></p>
<p>While controversies reign around the image of a “sexualised” Jesus in Spain, this portrayal has a more obvious controversy that has not received attention. Jesus, a Middle Eastern, <a href="https://theconversation.com/jesus-wasnt-white-he-was-a-brown-skinned-middle-eastern-jew-heres-why-that-matters-91230">brown-skinned man</a>, has been white-washed. The depiction of Jesus as a white European is <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-how-jesus-came-to-resemble-a-white-european-142130">problematic</a>.</p>
<p>In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is reported to ask: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2016%3A15-16&version=NIV" title=""">“Who do you say that I am?</a>. Representations and images of Jesus are often context specific and context based – and therefore the reception of such images are, too.</p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Greenough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Those in Spain who have objected to Jesus being portrayed as ‘effeminate’, ‘camp’ or ‘sexualised’ seem to imply that there is something wrong or deviant about such portrayals.Chris Greenough, Reader in Social Sciences, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212122024-01-28T17:19:37Z2024-01-28T17:19:37ZMore than religion: why some of Israel’s staunchest support comes from the Pacific Islands<p>One of the most perplexing yet poorly understood aspects of the international diplomatic response to the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/israel-war-on-gaza/">ongoing Gaza conflict</a> has been the overwhelmingly pro-Israel orientation of Pacific Island states. </p>
<p>During the voting on two United Nations resolutions (<a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/%20wp-content/uploads/2023/11/N2332702.pdf">October 27th</a> and <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/protection-of-civilians-and-upholding-legal-and-humanitarian-obligations-ga-10th-emergency-special-session-draft-resolution/">December 12th</a>) calling on Israel to reduce the death and suffering of Palestinian civilians, many Pacific countries voted either <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/12/pacific-island-states-continue-disproportionate-support-of-israel-at-the-un/">against the resolution or abstained</a>. </p>
<p>Why would these small island countries, on the other side of the world and with no direct links to Israel, choose to either oppose or not support this essential humanitarian gesture?</p>
<p>Explanations of this anomaly have rightly placed emphasis upon the <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/11/how-asia-pacific-states-voted-on-the-uns-israel-palestine-resolution/">intensely Christian character of Pacific societies</a>. </p>
<p>Adherence rates in most Pacific countries sit above 90%. Across the region, Israel and Judaism are exalted as the sacred foundations of their faith. Governments drawn from these societies duplicate these views, which are then borne out in international forums such as the UN. </p>
<p>Such an analysis is not wrong, but it might be obscuring other factors that contribute to staunch support for Israel. If the breadth and strength of Christian faith was the basis for supporting Israel, why then did other fervently Christian nations such as <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Brazil-President.pdf">Brazil</a> or <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/640795-gaza-nigerias-senate-calls-for-ceasefire-in-israel-palestine-war.html">Nigeria</a> support the resolutions? </p>
<h2>The role of kinship in the Pacific Islands</h2>
<p>There is one hugely important characteristic of the region’s culture that has been overlooked: <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/kinship">kinship</a>. </p>
<p>Kinship is fundamentally about a sense of togetherness. It may be created either biologically, through processes like parenthood, inheritance and so forth, or culturally, through marriage or adoption. Ultimately what it refers to is how and why people are related to each other.</p>
<p>The centrality of family, relatedness, blood and descent for Pacific society cannot be overstated. Kinship is the machinery of the region’s societies, the gears, levers and pulleys by which all communities function.</p>
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<p>Of crucial importance in this respect is that kinship and family dictate and regulate access to all manner of material benefits, from marriage through to the benefits of <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jso/7117?lang=en">economic development projects</a>. If you can convincingly argue that your ancestors dwelt in or were even physically a part of a given territory, then you establish access to the relevant benefits. </p>
<p>Kinship is not simply a matter of who is related to who and who came from where. It is something thoroughly pragmatic and instrumental, a social charter for who gets what. As such, it follows that these structures warp and bend to fit novel scenarios.</p>
<h2>Linking kinship and geopolitics</h2>
<p>How can this Pacific cultural strategy help us understand the region’s geopolitical leanings? </p>
<p>First, we need to return to the basics of the Christian faith. It is not an overstatement to say that the ultimate goal of all Christians is to enter heaven.</p>
<p>A second crucial point is that the Bible explicitly mentions in several places that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and that they enjoy this privileged status by virtue of their genealogical descent from the ancient Israelites. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealand-can-learn-from-south-africa-the-gambia-and-others-when-it-comes-to-international-accountability-221114">New Zealand can learn from South Africa, The Gambia and others when it comes to international accountability</a>
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<p>Such an arrangement makes perfect sense for Pacific peoples, whose entire ways of life are built on gaining benefits through family and kinship. </p>
<p>It should come as little surprise, then, that a common strategy adopted across the region in order to close the distance between themselves and the chosen people of God has been to accommodate them within local kinship networks. It is an ancient technique now applied on a fully global scale. </p>
<p>Just as various Pacific communities produce ancestral narratives that describe claims to different types of wealth, so too have they created family stories that position them squarely within the sphere of Christian sacredness. </p>
<h2>Belief and diplomacy</h2>
<p>In a variety of ways, people have woven Jewish people, their sacred geography, and the state of Israel, into their own kinship networks. </p>
<p>This may occur directly, as communities assert membership of the ten lost tribes of Israel. Various passages in the Bible describe the expulsion and resettlement of ancient groups by the then dominant Assyrian kingdom. </p>
<p>Jewish and Christian theologians later deduced that these exiled groups were still out in the world somewhere and had given rise to a range of populations. This theory became popular across the Euro-American Christian world in the 20th century. </p>
<p>It appears that this idea eventually found its way into the Pacific, especially Melanesia, where local people now advance the claim they have descended from these dispersed tribes, a strategy designed to ensure their salvation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spirit-of-resistance-why-destiny-church-and-other-new-zealand-pentecostalists-oppose-lockdowns-and-vaccination-170193">Spirit of resistance: why Destiny Church and other New Zealand Pentecostalists oppose lockdowns and vaccination</a>
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<p>The kinship connection may also occur indirectly, through <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ocea.5102">expressions of spiritual affinities with Jewish people</a>. In any case, it is in a truly Pacific manner that kinship networks have opened and then closed around those things they wish to extract value from.</p>
<p>Since the politicians of the Pacific are drawn from populations that created familial intimacy with Israel and the Jewish people, it is inevitable these biases unfold in their diplomatic decision making. </p>
<p>It is worth noting, too, that recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/25/biden-pacific-islands-aid-china#:%7E:text=During%20the%202022%20summit%20the,climate%20crisis%20and%20maritime%20security.">promises of substantial aid money</a> from the United States – Israel’s strongest ally – have likely strengthened this attitude. </p>
<p>But it is not clear whether this stance is permanent. We will have to wait and see whether religion continues to trump ethical considerations, as wider <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/02/politics/biden-administration-warning-israel-gaza-civilians/index.html">international support for Israel slowly erodes</a> in the face of the disaster taking place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fraser Macdonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pacific Island support for Israel in the United Nations goes beyond a shared Judeo-Christian belief system. It involves a fundamental emphasis on community based on connection and relationships.Fraser Macdonald, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2129622024-01-23T18:59:24Z2024-01-23T18:59:24ZHidden women of history: Olympias, who took on an emperor, dodged a second marriage and fought for her faith<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560321/original/file-20231120-25-33mqpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=398%2C802%2C3181%2C4174&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Olympias the Deaconess. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Print by Boëtius Adamsz. Bolswert in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Olympias was born to a wealthy family in the fourth-century CE, probably in the capital city of the Roman empire: Constantinople (now Istanbul).</p>
<p>Not to be confused with the mother of Alexander the Great (who lived around 800 years earlier), this Olympias is remembered in various texts as a patron of the church and a champion of female ascetics, a determined advocate for her friends, and a faithful and dedicated Christian. </p>
<p>A sad fact about the early Christian period is that very few texts written by women survive. Olympias was well educated and acquainted with bishops and even the emperor. We know she wrote letters to some of these men, but only the men’s letters to her remain. </p>
<p>There are stories about her life as well, and some about her monastery and her bodily remains after her death, but most of these were also written by men. Nevertheless, these sources can give us insight into the life of a formidable woman who opposed the emperor and fought for her way of life and her faith.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-enheduanna-princess-priestess-and-the-worlds-first-known-author-109185">Hidden women of history: Enheduanna, princess, priestess and the world's first known author</a>
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<h2>A husband chosen</h2>
<p>When Olympias was born, in the second half of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was rapidly becoming more Christian. The emperor Constantine (306-337) had converted to Christianity in 312, legalising the religion a year later and promoting it through patronage of the church. His nephew, the emperor Julian (361-363), briefly tried to restore the empire to Roman religion (“paganism”) but his reign was short and his religious campaign unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Olympias was orphaned as a child. When she was between the ages of 12 and 15, her guardian chose a suitable husband for her. Nebridius was the prefect of the city of Constantinople, roughly equivalent to a city mayor. This was his second marriage. According to some sources, his son from his first marriage was older than Olympias. She is unlikely to have had much say in the match.</p>
<p>Olympias’s family was wealthy and she would have taken a substantial dowry with her on marrying. The law decreed Nebridius had to keep that fortune safe for her as a dowry for a second husband in case of his death. And indeed, Nebridius lived less than two years after their marriage. Olympias was now a widow and probably only about 17.</p>
<p>When she was widowed, according to an anonymous <a href="https://sourceschretiennes.org/collection/SC-13">Life of Olympias,</a> the emperor Theodosius tried to marry her off to a relative of his named Elpidius. Her extensive wealth - she owned property all over the empire including palaces in Constantinople – made her quite a catch. </p>
<p>But Olympias refused, apparently declaring </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if the Lord Jesus Christ had wanted me to live with a man, he would not have taken away my first husband.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A celibate life</h2>
<p>She told the emperor she wanted to live a celibate life as a monastic rather than marry again.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560323/original/file-20231120-29-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Olympias the deaconess.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This, at least, is the way the Life presents it. We cannot be certain this is an accurate representation of Olympias’s interactions with the emperor. Given the life she went on to lead, it seems clear she had a particular devotion to God and a strong desire to live an ascetic, celibate life. </p>
<p>But there are other reasons in this period why a young widow might not want to marry again. Mortality rates for women in childbirth were high, as were infant mortality rates. If she married again, she might die in childbirth, or her child might die soon after. </p>
<p>There were good theological reasons to remain unmarried too. There were debates in the early church about whether a second marriage counted as adultery and many theologians encouraged women to remain a <em>univira</em> – a “one-man woman”. </p>
<p>Perhaps Olympias was also keen to maintain some financial independence. Another marriage would bring her squarely under the authority of another man. Perhaps she hoped by remaining a widow she could use her wealth as she saw fit.</p>
<p>If this was her aim, she was disappointed. When Olympias refused to marry Elpidius, the emperor Theodosius commanded the prefect of the city, Clementius, be guardian of all her possessions until Olympias turned 30. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-did-all-roads-actually-lead-there-81746">Mythbusting Ancient Rome -- did all roads actually lead there?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A determined young woman</h2>
<p>The Life gives Olympias a pithy reply in which she says she is glad to be relieved from the burden of her wealth and begs Clementius to distribute her wealth to the poor and the churches.</p>
<p>This fifth century CE text presents Olympias as a determined young woman who is not afraid to advocate for herself and fight to live her chosen way of life.</p>
<p>A few years later, Theodosius relented when he saw how dedicated Olympias was to the ascetic life, restoring her fortune. This enabled Olympias to establish a monastery or holy house for women in Constantinople. </p>
<p>She built it right next to the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) and lived there with many other female ascetics. The proximity of the monastery to the church is likely one of the reasons that Olympias became such close friends with <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08452b.htm">the bishop John Chrysostom</a>. John, who became archbishop (Patriarch) of Constantinople, was given the name “Chrysostom” (“Golden-Mouth”) because he preached fabulous sermons. Over 700 of his sermons survive.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560326/original/file-20231120-25-nu0f1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An early Byzantine mosaic from the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia depicting Saint John Chrysostom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johnchrysostom.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Olympias was ordained a deaconess by the archbishop Nectarius when only around 30. (It was unusual to be made a deaconess before the age of 60.) Such a role gave Olympias the authority to act for, and on behalf of, women in the church, as the guide and protector of the women who came to join her in her holy house. </p>
<p>She used her wealth and new status as deaconess to support the poor and the works of the church, becoming a strong advocate for Chrysostom. She became a patron and friend of other bishops too.</p>
<p>When Gregory of Nyssa, theologian and bishop in Cappadocia, wrote a commentary on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_of_Songs">Song of Songs</a>, around the year 394, he <a href="https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/pubs/061613P.front.pdf">dedicated it to Olympias</a>. She had suggested he should write it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have enjoined upon me, both in person and by your letters, a study of the Song of Songs, and I have undertaken it because it is suited to your holy life and your pure heart.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hagia-sophia-remains-a-potent-symbol-of-spiritual-and-political-authority-143084">Why Hagia Sophia remains a potent symbol of spiritual and political authority</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An advocate for her friend</h2>
<p>When Chrysostom was sent into exile, for reasons that remain a bit unclear, he wrote regularly to Olympias. Seventeen of his letters to her survive, more than from him to any other person. She kept advocating for him and was angry with those who had deserted him. </p>
<p>Chrysostom told her Jesus’ friends had also deserted him. He was impressed by Olympias’s perseverance even under suffering – her ill health didn’t stop her from being a “tower”, a “haven” and a “wall of defence”.</p>
<p>Perhaps he was referring to the protection Olympias gave to monks who had been banished for their support of Chrysostom. When an ally was imprisoned, Chrysostom wrote to Olympias to strategise about how to get him released.</p>
<p>These actions, protecting the supporters of the exiled bishop, were ultimately Olympias’s downfall. She was persecuted, wrongfully accused of causing a fire in the city and sent into exile to Nicomedia (modern Izmit, Turkey) where she died, probably in 409.</p>
<h2>A significant figure</h2>
<p>Although she died in exile, Olympias was a significant figure who fought against the mould women were supposed to fit into, supporting a lot of people along the way. </p>
<p>The anonymous Life describes her as practising hospitality in a similar way to the Old Testament patriarch Abraham, fighting for self-control like Joseph, suffering patiently and faithfully like Job and being martyred like <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14564a.htm">the legendary early Christian, Thecla</a>.</p>
<p>In the seventh century, a woman named Sergia became the leader of Olympias’s monastery in Constantinople. Sergia <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jerome-Chrysostom-Friends-Translations-Religion/dp/0889465428">wrote about</a> finding Olympias’s bones in the wreckage of another monastery and bringing them back to her own. </p>
<p>When a later Patriarch anointed the remains, Sergia says, they bled until his hands were full of blood. </p>
<p>This rather frightening miracle had a big impact on the assembled audience. Sergia records many people were cured of diseases by Olympias’s remains after this bloody episode. </p>
<p>Such miracle stories, which seem so strange to us, show Olympias’s continued importance in the monastery she founded and the city which was her home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Gador-Whyte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A formidable woman born in the second half of the fourth century and widowed at around 17, Olympias was not afraid to advocate for herself – or her friends.Sarah Gador-Whyte, Research Fellow in Biblical and Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205062024-01-04T17:19:44Z2024-01-04T17:19:44ZUkraine’s churches are adopting the western calendar – but not everyone is happy<p>Everywhere in Europe, rituals to mark the winter solstice have long been focused on the Christian narrative of the birth of Jesus. Yet in the <a href="https://sharpgiving.com/thebookofscience/items/bc0046.html">ancient Julian calendar</a>, which has gradually been falling out of synch with the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, Christmas Day now falls on January 7, over two weeks later.</p>
<p>A reformed calendar was first disseminated in 1582 on the authority of Pope Gregory XIII. While most of Europe has come to recognise the Gregorian calendar for both religious and civil purposes, a number of eastern Slavic churches – both Orthodox and Catholic – have retained the Julian calendar in their liturgical life.</p>
<p>Given the deeply embedded sacred character of church rituals, <a href="https://orthodoxtimes.com/orthodox-church-of-ukraine-changes-calendar/">passing a law</a> that brings Christmas forwards is a brave intervention on the part of secular authorities. Yet this is what Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky, has recently done. The legislation, signed in May 2023, is without precedent since the era when the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Stalin <a href="https://www.rbth.com/history/335706-how-stalin-banned-christmas">sought to abolish Christmas altogether</a>.</p>
<p>Eastern Christianity dominates throughout Ukraine, but unlike the Roman Catholic Church in Poland it is not unified. In the west of the country, Greek Catholics are the most numerous kind of Christian. Historically, differentiation from Roman Catholics mattered more than flagging differences with the Orthodox churches. </p>
<p>Western Ukraine is where nationalist sentiment was strongest in the 20th century. A <a href="https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/16601/ukrainian-catholic-church-moves-to-new-calendar">recent consultation</a> by the Greek Catholic bishops indicated that a majority of the faithful now favoured a switch to the western calendar. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, Orthodox Christians have been bitterly divided by politics. Zelensky’s law was not a bolt from the blue. It was the culmination of years of struggle on the part of nationalising elites to create a unified Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) that was not subject to the authority of the Moscow patriarch. </p>
<p>Even before the Russian invasion, priests and believers who had previously known only the latter orientation were under immense pressure to transfer their affiliation to the OCU.</p>
<p>The shift to what is referred to in ecclesiastical diplomacy as the revised Julian calendar (largely corresponding to the Gregorian calendar) is presented as being in no way anti-Orthodox. It is above all a way to assert difference from Russia. As Father Andriy, a young Orthodox priest, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67801204">told the BBC</a>, this is simultaneously perceived as a “returning back to Europe, where we belong.” </p>
<h2>Costs and benefits</h2>
<p>But the course of Zelensky and the OCU is not without risks. It necessarily sows division within families whose members belong to different Orthodox churches, celebrating Christmas on different days. In 2023 there was <a href="https://english.nv.ua/life/xmas-2023-not-day-off-for-ukraine-50377635.html">no public holiday on December 25</a> due to martial law, while January 7 2024 is a holiday because it falls on a Sunday. </p>
<p>In future, many families will doubtless observe both holidays. If citizens enjoy a public holiday on the December 25 but continue to take days off work to enjoy private celebrations two weeks later, the change will have economic costs.</p>
<p>Symbolic costs and benefits are harder to quantify. The authorities point out that Orthodox countries within the EU (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania) have long made use of the <a href="https://orthodoxwiki.org/Revised_Julian_Calendar">revised Julian calendar</a>. The transformation may nonetheless be experienced by some Ukrainians as cultural westernisation. </p>
<p>It is a more radical westernisation than the original establishment of the Greek Catholic Church in the wake of the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-christianity/eastern-orthodoxy-in-russia-and-ukraine-in-the-age-of-the-counterreformation/61295A30CD7401FA0507032EC3407208">Counter-Reformation</a>, which colonised eastern Christianity but allowed the faithful to retain not only their distinctive rituals but also their calendar. </p>
<p>It remains unclear if Zelensky’s changes will be followed up consequentially to affect all the saints’ days that provide the believer with orientation and meaning through the entire year. Moveable feasts are more elusive but ecclesiastical committees are already hard at work to standardise the timing of Easter.</p>
<p>In short, the new legislation may be not welcome to all Ukrainians. As for the Greek Catholic minority in Poland, these Ukrainians too have been swept along. </p>
<p>But while the anti-Russia message is popular here too, not everyone welcomes the abandonment of a ritual calendar that survived the socialist era intact but must now be abandoned because of a nationalising neighbour. To have holy water blessed on January 6, when their Jordan coincides with the Epiphany of the dominant Roman Catholic Church, may feel like a diminution of the pluralism of their society.</p>
<p>The top-down imposition of a new religious calendar and suppression of local diversity are often seen from the outside as cultural imperialism. These processes are frequently overlooked when they take place within Europe, among different kinds of Christian. Perhaps we shall know that Russia has lost its war in Ukraine when the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church embraces the revised Julian calendar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220506/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Hann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Orthodox church has sought to distance itself from Russia, but changing the calendar means abandoning a principle that survived decades of Soviet repression.Chris Hann, Emeritus Director, Max Planck Institute for Social AnthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2109412023-12-27T09:10:11Z2023-12-27T09:10:11ZHorse skulls and harmony singing – two winter customs which bring people in Wales together<p>Imagine you’re having a quiet evening at home when suddenly there’s a knock on the door. You open it to find a boisterous crowd carrying a horse’s skull mounted on a pole and draped in ribbons – the <em><a href="https://museum.wales/articles/1187/Christmas-Traditions-The-Mari-Lwyd">Mari Lwyd</a></em> has arrived. </p>
<p>The <em>Mari Lwyd</em>, meaning “grey (or pale) mare”, is a Christmas and new year custom in areas of south Wales dating back to the 18th century. A horse’s skull is placed on a pole and covered in a white sheet, decorated with ribbons. A person, concealed under the sheet, carries the pole and operates the horse’s jaw, making it snap. A group of stock characters accompany them including Sergeant, Merryman, Punch and Judy. </p>
<p>The procession goes from house to house and the group sing verses asking for admittance. The household is expected to respond, also in verse. And so begins a (sometimes very long) improvised poetic contest or rhyming ritual known as <em>pwnco</em> before the group is finally invited into the house and offered food and drink.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AcvvWcDLagY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Mari Lwyd goes from door to door but would you let her in?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several explanations have been proposed as to the origin of the custom. Some argue that its roots lie in a pre-Christian fertility <a href="http://www.folkwales.org.uk/mari.html">ritual</a>. Others have argued that the <em>Mari Lwyd</em> has associations with the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2791759">Virgin Mary</a>. </p>
<p>The custom is clearly connected to the practice of <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/art-collections/wassailing-ritual-and-revelry#">wassailing</a>, where groups of merrymakers go from one house to another asking for food and drink. It may be linked to other folk performances found elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, including the <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100300697">hobby-horse</a> tradition. </p>
<h2>Plygain</h2>
<p>Further north, a tradition celebrated in Montgomeryshire, where I was brought up, is much less colourful and firmly located within a religious context. Deriving from the Latin “pullicantio” (cock crow), the <em><a href="https://museum.wales/articles/1185/Christmas-Traditions-Plygain-Singing/">plygain</a></em> (pronounced “plug-ine”), was an early-morning service originally held on Christmas Day in parish churches and then also in nonconformist chapels, beginning in candlelight and continuing into daylight. </p>
<p>It is now mainly an evening service, although some stalwarts still adhere to the early morning tradition. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A trio singing plygain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After a congregational hymn, a reading and a prayer, the vicar or minister will announce, “<em>Mae’r blygien yn awr yn agored</em>” (the plygain is now open). There is no programme; rather, a party of singers will get up and make their way to the chancel or the <em>sêt fawr</em> (the elder’s pew in a chapel), and sing a carol, unaccompanied and with no conductor. </p>
<p>These are often from the same family and with an ancient pedigree, their frayed carol books (usually old notebooks) having been passed down through the generations. A tuning fork is often used to pitch the tune – I’ve even seen it struck against a singer’s tooth. </p>
<p>The carols would often have been composed by local poets and sung to popular tunes of the time. They do not describe solely the birth of Christ and frequently focus on the crucifixion. Often very long, they are usually sung in three-part harmonies. </p>
<p>The <em>plygain</em> ends with the spine-chilling sound of <em><a href="http://daibach-welldigger.blogspot.com/2020/12/welsh-carols-15-carol-y-swper.html">Carol y Swper</a></em> (the Supper Carol), when all the men in the congregation come forward to sing. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Carol y Swper performed at a church in Montgomeryshire.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Revival and reinvention</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, the <a href="https://museum.wales/stfagans/">St Fagans National Museum of History</a>, or the Welsh Folk Museum as it was then known, began <a href="https://museum.wales/collections/folksongs/?action=background">collecting</a> different genres of Welsh folk songs. These included <em>plygain</em> carols and <em>Mari Lwyd</em> verses. This has helped to renew interest in both traditions. </p>
<p>The museum hosts annual <em>Mari Lwyd</em> <a href="https://museum.wales/stfagans/whatson/12104/Christmas-Traditions-The-Mari-Lwyd-Performances">performances</a>, while many a Cardiff pub-goer will likely be startled by the sudden appearance of a snapping horse’s skull. The practice has evolved over time – visits can be pre-arranged, participants will sing from song sheets, the <em>Mari</em> may even be made of cardboard. In fact, anything goes.</p>
<p>Today, the <em>Mari</em> (in various guises) is thriving, and can be found as far afield as the USA and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/welshzombiechristmashorse/">Australia</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1477386261761564672"}"></div></p>
<p>The <em>plygain</em> is still going strong in Montgomeryshire and, indeed, all over Wales and beyond. Around 50 <a href="https://plygain.org/dyddiadur.htm">services</a> are held during December and January. </p>
<p>And this tradition, too, has undergone many changes. Several collections of <em>plygain</em> songs have by now been published enabling new carollers to participate. </p>
<p>In 2020 and 2021, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yifxPBea1f0">virtual</a> <em>plygain</em> took place during the pandemic. A bilingual <em>plygain</em> <a href="https://www.plygain.org/home.htm">website</a> has also been set up and a new carol composed specifically for women’s voices, so that women, too, have their <em>Carol y Swper</em>. </p>
<p>Purists would argue that traditions should not be revived and re-invented. But it is in the nature of traditions to change and constantly evolve – they must do so in order to survive. </p>
<p>We should continue to celebrate the modern-day versions of the <em>Mari Lwyd</em> tradition and the <em>plygain</em> because they contribute to a shared sense of identity and instil in participants a sense of belonging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sioned Davies does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Mari Lwyd and the plygain are two prominent Welsh traditions celebrated over Christmas and the new year.Sioned Davies, Emeritus Professor of Welsh, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
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<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189282023-12-12T09:50:26Z2023-12-12T09:50:26ZCelebrating Christmas on December 25 began as early as 2 century CE, history shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562632/original/file-20231128-29-8pdnly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C7500%2C4989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are several views about the origin of Christmas celebrations and when they actually began.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kipgodi/shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people, including Christians, believe the origin of Christmas is the pagan feasts to worship the solar god <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/sol-invictus-history-mythology-facts-roman-sun-god.html">Sol Invictus</a>, Saturn’s god <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturnalia-Roman-festival">Saturnalia</a>, or the Persian solar god adopted by the Romans, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mithraism">Mithras</a>.</p>
<p>Academically, this view is also known as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23358685">historical religions theory</a>. The theory suggests the Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-common-is-the-common-era-how-a-d-and-c-e-took-over-counting-years-168719">CE</a> to replace the pagan celebrations.</p>
<p>However, several ancient manuscripts and theories reveal that the original celebrations of Christmas began even earlier than 336 CE.</p>
<h2>Determining Jesus’ birth date</h2>
<p>Some sources from 200 CE implicitly and explicitly show how December 25 was determined as the date of Jesus’s birth. </p>
<p>Hyppolitus (170-235 CE), a prominent theologian of the Catholic Church in Rome, mentioned the date of Jesus birth in his 204 CE work, “Commentary on Daniel”. </p>
<p>He <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24607042?seq=1">stated</a> Jesus was born “in Bethlehem, eight days before the calendar of January [December 25], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday]”. </p>
<p>In this context, Hyppolitus used <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/julian-calendar.html">the Julian calendar</a>, a solar calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE.</p>
<p>But in Jewish tradition, the date of conception of holy person coincides with the date of death. Early Christians believed that March 25 was when Jesus was crucified.</p>
<p>Based on this theological assumption, the calculation shows that Jesus’ conception also happened on March 25. This means, Jesus was born exactly nine months later, or on December 25. This theological-based calculation is known as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23358685">Calculation Theory</a>.</p>
<p>The theory suggests Jesus’s birth date has not linked to the pagan rituals to worship Sol Invictus, Saturnalia and Mithras, since the pagan feasts were not celebrated on December 25.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/5499535/Steven_Hijmans_Sol_Invictus_the_Winter_Solstice_and_the_Origins_of_Christmas_">Sol Invictus</a> was likely celebrated on August 8, 9, or 28, October 19 or 22, or December 11. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/58/58-2/JETS_58-2_299-324_Simmons.pdf">Saturnalia</a> was celebrated between December 17-23. </p>
<p>As for <a href="https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-the-cult-of-mithras/">Mithras</a>, there is no compelling evidence that it was celebrated on December 25. </p>
<h2>The origins of Christmas celebrations</h2>
<p>Three different manuscripts further prove Christmas was celebrated before 336 CE. <a href="https://archive.org/details/didascaliaaposto00gibsuoft/didascaliaaposto00gibsuoft/page/18/mode/2up?q=epiphany"><em>Didascalia Apostolorum</em></a>, <a href="https://archive.org/details/bookofpontiffsli0000unse"><em>Liber Pontificalis</em></a>, and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/105846268/December_25th_and_the_Epistle_of_Theophilus">Epistle of Theophilus</a> The texts provide information on the pastoral life of early Christians, their religious ceremonies (liturgies) and the names of popes.</p>
<p><em>Didascalia</em> is an ancient text from 250 CE. The text mentions the celebration of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the ordinary people. The Catholic Church celebrates Epiphany to commemorate the visit of three wise men in Bethlehem. </p>
<p>The Eastern Orthodox and Orthodox churches celebrate the Epiphany to commemorate the baptism of Jesus. Epiphany is part of of Christmas feast in the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Orthodox Churches.</p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/didascaliaaposto00gibsuoft/didascaliaaposto00gibsuoft/page/18/mode/2up?q=epiphany">The <em>Didascalia</em> text states that</a> Epiphany is celebrated every January 6 in the Julian calendar. When we convert this date to the Gregorian calendar, a solar calendar that has been widely used since <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/julian-gregorian-switch.html">1582 CE</a> until now, the Epiphany falls on December 25.</p>
<p><em>Liber Pontificalis</em>, which contains a short biography of the popes, suggests the celebration of Christmas in 2 century CE. <a href="https://archive.org/details/bookofpontiffsli0000unse">The text reveals</a> that Pope Telesphorus (125-136 CE) instructed the celebration of Jesus’s birth. The text does not mention the date of the festival. However, <em>Liber Pontificalis</em> proves that the Christmas celebration’s history is older than we used to know. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/105846268/December_25th_and_the_Epistle_of_Theophilus">Epistle of Theopilus</a> mentions December 25 as the date of the celebration of Jesus birth. The text suggests that the celebration was prior to 196 CE, thus, it is likely the Christmas has been celebrated before that.</p>
<p>The three texts above prove that the origin of Christmas is not Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, or Mithras celebrations, and that Christians have been celebrating Christmas since 2 century CE.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218928/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martinus Ariya Seta tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Some historians say Christmas has been celebrated since 336 AD. But some evidence shows it actually started even earlier.Martinus Ariya Seta, Dosen, Universitas Sanata DharmaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2152112023-12-11T18:56:21Z2023-12-11T18:56:21ZWas King Herod the Great really so ‘great’? What history says about the bad guy of the Christmas story<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564389/original/file-20231207-21-moqskm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C1022%2C927&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Herod the Great − though in the Gospel of Matthew, he wasn't so great.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-4-ad-bust-of-emperor-herod-the-great-news-photo/51243879?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>King Herod will sound familiar to anyone who’s heard the Christmas story. King of Judea when Jesus of Nazareth was born, the ruler attempts to find and kill the baby after hearing that the “King of the Jews” has just been born.</p>
<p>Tricked by the Magi, the wise men whom Herod had sent to determine where the infant was, a raging Herod decreed that all children 2 and under who live near Bethlehem are to be killed. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202&version=NRSVUE">The Gospel of Matthew</a> contains the famous account of this “slaughter of the innocents,” and of Mary, Joseph and Jesus’ flight to Egypt.</p>
<p>Interestingly, King Herod’s storyline is not found in any other biblical texts nor in Roman records. Yet it is pivotal in Matthew’s Gospel, which contrasts Herod’s mission, death, to that of the baby Jesus, life.</p>
<p>So who was the real King Herod – and why would Matthew’s Gospel include him?</p>
<p>I am a scholar who studies <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/redefining-ancient-borders-9780567025210/">the interpretation of Matthew’s Gospel</a>, as well as <a href="https://religiousstudies.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/aaron-gale">the Jewish roots of Christianity</a>. Historians in the field know a fair amount about Herod’s life, and the actual facts are somewhat surprising.</p>
<h2>‘King of the Jews’</h2>
<p>Writers such as <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/">the Jewish historian Josephus</a>, who fought against Roman rule in the first century C.E. before eventually allying himself with Rome, have provided detailed accounts regarding Herod’s deeds. In addition, modern archaeologists have excavated many sites associated with him, including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCEaIiWHe8k">the possible location of Herod’s tomb</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A richly illustrated medieval manuscript shows a scene of a family superimposed over other illustrations." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564391/original/file-20231207-15-6d1oqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A manuscript illumination of the Magi visiting Jesus, made in the Netherlands in the 16th century, shows the Magi before Herod at the bottom of the image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/manuscript-illumination-with-adoration-of-the-magi-ca-news-photo/1288526680?adppopup=true">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to historical accounts, Herod the Great was the regional <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/g7501s.ct002407/?r=-0.407,0.293,1.722,1.087,0">king of Judea</a>, which contained the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. He ruled from about 37 B.C.E. until his death in 4 B.C.E., at a time when Judea was still under Roman influence. Most scholars estimate that Jesus was born <a href="https://www.patheos.com/answers/when-was-jesus-born">between 6 and 4 B.C.E.</a> – during Herod’s reign, as Matthew’s Gospel indicates.</p>
<p>Since Herod was <a href="https://lexundria.com/j_bj/1.284/wst">appointed by Rome</a> to rule over Judea, a mostly Jewish region, he was literally “king of the Jews.” However, Herod may not have actually been Jewish at all, at least by birth. </p>
<p>He was likely from the region known as Idumea, to the south. Herod’s father had likely been forced to <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/antipater-ii-or-antipas">convert to Judaism</a>, as scholars believe many Idumeans were, while his mother was <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-14.html">an Arabian princess</a>. However, as Josephus points out, the two groups intermingled quite extensively, with some Idumeans, perhaps including his father, willingly adopting Jewish customs.</p>
<p>Josephus even declares that Herod was basically a Judean, though it is likely that many of the native Jews in Judea would have been skeptical of their king’s claims to be truly Jewish and <a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/king-herod/#footnote-905">viewed him as an outsider</a>, especially if he did come from Idumea. However, Josephus does indicate that Herod would <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-15.html">ally himself with Roman leadership</a> whenever he deemed it prudent.</p>
<h2>‘Great’ but severe</h2>
<p>Herod the Great proved himself a skillful builder, responsible for the planning and construction of projects such as the city of Herodium; the extravagant harbor <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1480/">at Caesarea Maritima</a>, on the Mediterranean Coast; and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1040/">the mountain fortress of Masada</a>, which was located in the middle of the unforgiving desert near the Dead Sea.</p>
<p>Most famously, perhaps, was Herod’s rebuilding and expansion of the Jewish <a href="https://rsc.byu.edu/new-testament-history-culture-society/temple-herod">temple complex in Jerusalem</a>. This project alone took decades to complete. Herod’s remodeled temple was a much more grandiose structure than Solomon’s original temple, built about a thousand years earlier. Josephus noted how <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/josephus/complete.iii.vi.v.html">it resembled a white, snow-covered mountain</a> – that is, the parts of it that were not covered in gold.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of men in black and white clothing, seen from the back, face a tall tan-colored stone wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564395/original/file-20231207-21-mufqrx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish men pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, part of Herod’s expansion of the temple complex.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-jewish-community-gather-to-pray-at-the-news-photo/1779946594?adppopup=true">Israel Fuguemann/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regardless of whether Herod was actually Jewish, he contributed to the preservation of Judaism. He succeeded in exempting Jews from serving in the Roman military and having to engage in emperor worship, preserving their ability <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-16.html">to practice Judaism in relative peace</a>. </p>
<p>Herod also proved himself a brilliant <a href="https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2018/08/uw-religion-today-king-herod-the-economic-power-of-government-spending.html">economic strategist</a> who greatly increased the wealth of Judea by engaging in ventures such as international trade, which included the sale of balsam wood and copper. He contributed funds to national and international endeavors, including <a href="https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2016/08/uw-religion-today-king-herod-president-of-the-olympic-games.html">the Olympic Games</a>, and it is said that he even <a href="https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/herods-wealth/">averted a regional famine</a>.</p>
<p>Yet Herod’s sinister reputation as a tyrant was probably well deserved. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An ornate painting depicts a woman in white with long dark hair walking down steps and looking back toward a downcast king on a throne." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564383/original/file-20231207-19-ig0a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Herod sentenced his own wife to death, suspecting her of plotting to kill him: ‘Mariamne Leaving the Judgement Seat of Herod,’ by painter John William Waterhouse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_William_Waterhouse-Mariamne_Leaving_the_Judgement_Seat_of_Herod-1887.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because he constantly feared a rebellion, he would execute anyone he deemed a threat to his reign, including his own first wife and three of his sons. In addition, he was reported to have <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/josephus/ant-15.html">excessively taxed his constituents</a> to help support his economic programs.</p>
<h2>Similar stories?</h2>
<p>There is no historical record of any “massacre of the innocents” – even the tyrannical Herod most likely never condoned such an action. </p>
<p>If that was the case, why does Matthew’s Gospel mention King Herod so prominently in Jesus’ birth narrative?</p>
<p>Matthew’s version is considered <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2019/09/16/the-gospel-of-matthew-within-and-without-judaism/">the most Jewish of the Gospels</a>, the four biblical accounts of Jesus’ life in the New Testament – for example, it advocates for <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A17-19&version=NRSVUE">upholding Jewish laws</a>. In other words, Matthew’s Gospel was likely written by Jews for a mostly Jewish audience late in the first century C.E., when the Christian movement was still in its infancy.</p>
<p>Matthew’s audience would have been familiar with the existing Hebrew scriptures, including the famous story of Moses’ childhood, when he escapes the pharaoh’s edict <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.1.16?lang=bi&aliyot=0">to kill all the newborn sons</a> of his Hebrew slaves. Biblical scholars have made the case that Matthew’s Gospel intentionally compared Jesus with Moses, who saved the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, to convince the intended audience that Jesus, too, was a long-awaited savior.</p>
<p>To strengthen the similarities between Jesus and Moses, this argument goes, the authors of Matthew had Herod threaten Jesus in the same manner that the pharaoh threatened the Hebrew children. The Jewish audience of Matthew would have connected the two narratives, in which good ultimately triumphs over evil. The Gospel story further villainizes Herod, whose son, <a href="https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/which-herod-was-which-sorting-out-the-five-herods/">also called King Herod, or Herod Antipas</a>, was ruling at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion around 30 C.E.</p>
<p>Herod may have been a splendid builder and a savvy economist – and technically the “King of the Jews.” But in the eyes of the Gospel authors, it was Jesus who truly <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%202&version=NRSVUE%20%22%22">deserved that title</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215211/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Gale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Historians know a fair bit about Herod the Great, the king of Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth.Aaron Gale, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, West Virginia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2136332023-12-08T17:59:39Z2023-12-08T17:59:39ZViva Guadalupe! Beyond Mexico, the Indigenous Virgin Mary is a powerful symbol of love and inclusion for millions of Latinos in the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563435/original/file-20231204-19-x0bvex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C13%2C2986%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose H. Gomez stands with people celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe's feast day in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CaliforniaDailyLifeLadyofGuadalupeLosAngeles/cf7e9e11e0fb4ab9aea57b8a3b6ed4bb/photo?Query=guadalupe%20virgin&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1025&currentItemNo=62">AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Dec. 12 is a special day for millions of Catholics around the world, especially those of Mexican descent. Known as el Dia de la Virgen Guadalupe, it is a popular feast day that celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe: a brown-skinned, Indigenous <a href="https://theconversation.com/vatican-centralizes-investigations-on-claims-of-virgin-mary-apparitions-but-local-catholics-have-always-had-a-say-204611">vision of Mary</a> that Catholics believe appeared to a peasant in 1531.</p>
<p>The story of Guadalupe’s appearances is recounted in <a href="https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/belief/item/5559">a text called the Nican Mopohua</a>, which means “Here It Is Told” in Nahuatl, an Aztec language. The Nican Mopohua describes Jesus’ mother appearing multiple times to <a href="https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020731_juan-diego_en.html">Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin</a>, an Indigenous convert to Catholicism, about a decade after the <a href="https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/the-history-of-the-americas/the-conquest-of-mexico/for-students/what-the-textbooks-have-to-say-about-the-conquest-of-mexico">Spanish had conquered Aztec Mexico</a>. After her fourth and final apparition to Diego, Catholics believe that her image imprinted onto his cactus-fiber robe, known as a “tilma.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://clas.uiowa.edu/religion/people/kristy-nabhan-warren">a scholar of Catholicism</a>, I have long been fascinated by the adoration of the Virgin Mary. Often seen as a symbol of inclusive love, the Virgin of Guadalupe has become especially beloved <a href="https://www.store.tsehaipublishers.com/product_info.php/religion-spirituality/american-woman-p-204">by migrants and Latinos in the U.S.</a>, who view her as a protector.</p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814758250/the-virgin-of-el-barrio/">research on Guadalupe</a> has brought me to deeply moving shrines in her honor in the United States: candle-filled, flower-laden places, from South Phoenix, Arizona, to Columbus Junction, Iowa, from Catholic parishes to family homes and yards.</p>
<h2>Miraculous cloak</h2>
<p>According to the original story of Guadalupe, the Virgin provided Juan Diego with Spanish roses – a type not grown in Mexico – to convince Archbishop Juan de Zumárraga that the apparitions were real. After seeing the roses, and the transformation of Juan Diego’s humble cloak into a holy relic, he declared the apparitions miraculous and built a chapel to honor la Virgen.</p>
<p>The original chapel, <a href="https://mexicocity.cdmx.gob.mx/venues/old-parish-church-of-the-indians/?lang=es">the Capilla de Indios</a>, where Juan Diego lived for the rest of his life, still stands in Mexico City. It is flanked by a museum, a Carmelite convent, the Old Basilica – built to honor la Virgen – and the modern one, where the famous cloak has hung since 1976. </p>
<p>Millions of people – Catholic and non-Catholic, Latino and non-Latino – <a href="https://apnews.com/article/religion-mexico-pandemics-covid-2254c4d0ed206e5f245ddb2275d5459e">have made pilgrimages</a> to the shrine to pray, to give thanks and to pay respects to this Indigenous manifestation of the Virgin. Affectionately called “la Virgencita,” she is depicted as a symbol of motherhood, care and concern for her children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds a brightly colored poster of a man holding a picture of the Virgin Mary as she waits in a crowd in a concrete plaza." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563447/original/file-20231204-29-iolfko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman displays a poster of Juan Diego during an outdoor Mass in Los Angeles on July 31, 2002, the day Pope John Paul II canonized him in Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-displays-a-poster-of-juan-diego-during-a-mass-at-the-news-photo/51681990?adppopup=true">Hector Mata/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some scholars question <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Mexican_Phoenix.html?id=Q9_OP2FIUGQC">the historical veracity</a> of the Nican Mopohua, the Catholic Church has approved the story of the apparitions. Pope John Paul II named the Virgin of Guadalupe “<a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2022/feast-our-lady-guadalupe-us-bishops-migration-chairman-reaffirms-churchs-solidarity">Patroness of the Americas</a>” and “Star of the New Evangelization” in 1999, indicating her central role in spreading Catholic Christianity in the Americas. </p>
<p>In 2002, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20020731_canonization-mexico.html">John Paul II canonized Juan Diego</a> as the first Indigenous North American Catholic saint, with his own feast day on Dec. 9.</p>
<h2>La Virgen Morena</h2>
<p>The official sanctioning of the apparitions certainly has contributed to Guadalupe’s popularity. Yet it is her humble origins and relatability that have made adoration for the Virgin endure.</p>
<p>Specifically, it is <a href="https://www.bc.edu/bc-web/centers/church21/publications/c21-resources/c21-resources-articles/TheFaceofOurLadyofGuadalupe.html">la Virgencita’s Indigenous origins</a> – a “morena,” as Spanish speakers refer to a woman with dark hair and dark skin. Unlike other famous apparitions of the Virgin Mary, most of which describe her as looking white and European, la Virgen represents Meso-Americans’ rich heritage, recognizing the dignity of non-European cultures.</p>
<p>As the scholar of religion <a href="https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/lbarba">Lloyd Barba</a> <a href="https://www.fordhampress.com/9781531504885/american-patroness/">has written</a>, “For centuries now, Guadalupe has represented Mexicans’ mythologized histories of race, peoplehood, and nation.” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/10/us/eric-r-wolf-76-an-iconoclastic-anthropologist.html">The folklorist Eric Wolf</a> considered Guadalupe <a href="https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/etherism/docs/121%20HW2.Guadalupe.pdf">a “master symbol</a>,” something that “enshrines the major hopes and aspirations of an entire society.”</p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.store.tsehaipublishers.com/product_info.php/religion-spirituality/american-woman-p-204#!tab2">the special connection</a> between Latinos and Guadalupe taps into the vexed, violent history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. A colonized people, many Mexicans have long rallied around la Virgen in times of distress and need, and her image has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/537957">a unifying symbol</a> during wars and revolutions. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/september-16/">Father Miguel Hidalgo</a>, a leader of the 1810 Mexican War of Independence, paraded banners with la Virgen’s image. So did the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata and his band of reformers <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/537957">during the 1910 Mexican Revolution</a>.</p>
<p>And among many Latinos, whether practicing Catholics or not, she is believed to be a mother <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-27-ca-2979-story.html">who loves her children, no matter what</a>: a woman who stands by them whether they are poor, rich, single, married, queer or straight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A handful of men in white attire walk down a city street carrying a banner with a faded picture of a woman in a blue cloak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563456/original/file-20231204-17-vpjopl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Runners in a Mexico-to-New York relay race carry a painting of the Virgen de Guadalupe during a procession in 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NYAntorchaGuadalupana/b12f81250cc94dfbb3d4783d93e925d8/photo?Query=guadalupe%20virgin%20migrant&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=22&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Beloved, both sides of the border</h2>
<p>Dec. 12 is a joyful day, with traditional Mexican foods and music.</p>
<p>A large statue of la Virgen is carried through the streets, and “<a href="https://omnesmag.com/en/newsroom/world/america-latina/matachines/">los Matachines” dancers</a> wear gorgeous Indigenous garb as they honor her, marking the day as sacred. Whether you visit Chicago, Phoenix or West Liberty, Iowa, you will find a communitywide celebration of Guadalupe, open to all.</p>
<p>Painted murals of Guadalupe brighten concrete and stuccoed buildings across the U.S., and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20615685">little home shrines called “altarcitos</a>” feature small statues of la Virgen, Jesus and a panoply of saints, along with candles and photographs of family members, both living and departed.</p>
<p>Indeed, la Guadalupe is a powerful master symbol of a woman who gives hope, love and assurance – especially to those who feel marginalized or oppressed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristy Nabhan-Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The famous apparition of the Virgin Mary has come to symbolize Mexico, but other groups – particularly migrants and Latinos north of the border – also feel a special connection to Guadalupe.Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Associate Vice President of Research, University of IowaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.