Review: Elkins

Firstly this paper was incredibly difficult to read, I couldn't tell if that was because of my ADD, the quality of the scan, or because Elkins thought it would be funny to put every three lines into focus and then out of focus. Regardless it should not have taken me over an hour to read this paper, but it did, and I digress.

I think this essay had a lot of interesting dialogue and I was interested in viewing the images that were discussed, because I believed that they would aid the reading. I searched for the first few images without luck, but The Sexuality of Christ had a lot more results than I would have anticipated prior to reading Elkins. This image in particular is discussed as Elkins reviews pornography:

In this image Jesus is being visited by a young boy, possibly an angel, who carries a cross. He is also visited by a large female angel. This scene is possibly depicting the 8th day after Jesus's birth, the day that he was named and circumcised. The young boy is touching Jesus and all the attention of figures in this scene is focused on that. The female angel, Mary and Joseph are turned toward and looking at the young boy and his grasp on Jesus's foot. None of the movements are very active though, the angel seems to be dropping a hand that was previously raised in protest, and Joseph's gaze seems to be turning toward Jesus. Mary also has a softened look of interest. I believe that this picture is depicting a moment when Jesus's mortality and "human-ness" were evident.

Additionally, in this image the infant Jesus uses his own hand to cover his penis. This was done for two reasons: because the sight of a penis would distract from the painting as well as put it at risk for being destroyed and because seeing Christ's penis would have been a way of defiling him or making him "too human". This is clear because Elkins cites Steinberg as saying that "He was not a half god who had sent his image to earth, while remaining in heaven, but God himself, who could achieve perfect fusion of human and devine forms" (Elkins 118). In this quote Elkins is drawing on Steinberg, who wants to claim that Jesus was so godly that his sexuality was innately tied to his godliness. I disagree with this section.

I believe that in showing Jesus in such a human way, like the image above, it makes him seem more like a prophet or normal human, than as a radiant god. Images like this make Jesus seem much more godly:

In the first image Jesus is being touched, examined, and looked at by everyone in the scene. In the second painting Joseph and Mary are not touching Jesus, but rather Jesus is trying to touch them. Joseph is praying while Mary appears to be restraining herself from reaching out to Jesus. These actions are similar to the actions when meeting a great Lord, as Jesus is supposed to have been. In this painting Jesus is seen as much more Godly and therefore Joseph and Mary are considered much more unworthy of touching him.