{"id":2374,"date":"2014-09-11T19:21:57","date_gmt":"2014-09-11T19:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2014-09-11T19:21:57","modified_gmt":"2014-09-11T19:21:57","slug":"they-are-just-images-arent-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/they-are-just-images-arent-they\/","title":{"rendered":"They Are Just Images, Aren\u2019t They?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cVisual images are powerful creations indeed. For into the depths of one soul does the image fall, impacting the very essence of the man.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

From those images that offer \u201cthe poignant evocation\u201d[1]<\/a> of an experience to those that train us in transcendences-ness, all images are powerful causing emotions that lead us to passion, love, and even war. In his book The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice, <\/em>David Morgan brings us through the labyrinth of religious artistry and the power that religious images have upon all viewers who, through those images, are impacted for better or for worst. The worst being, moved to violence, as one Indonesian Christian clergyman knew all to well. He chose to display Jesus through the art of Javanese shadow theater in order to avoid attracting the scorn and possibly provoke an attack on churches from Muslims antagonistic toward the use of images.[2]<\/a> Yet, they are just images, aren\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

How is it that we humans have come to value images, and the proper treatment of our images, so much so as to even justify the killing of anyone who we think has, according to our cultural standards, desecrated or devalued the same image we esteem so highly. Such was the case with the Cuban natives who buried and then urinating on the Catholic images brought to them by Columbus\u2019s men. The horrified Spaniards responded by having the men burned alive. But in their defense, the \u201cplanting\u201d and the \u201cpersonal physical offerings\u201d from the farmers were believed to be \u201cincorporating\u201d the new images of the new gods into their own visual practices and thus assure a great harvest. Their actions were innocent, even honorable, toward the new graven images of the gods that the Spaniards brought to them. Unfortunately the Spaniards did not see it that way and the Cubans paid with their lives. But they are just images, aren\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

Morgan states, \u201cSeeing\u2026is an act of worship, an observation of awe, but also a constructive act that transforms the spiritual into the material.\u201d[3]<\/a> Yet in what culture Morgan? Were not the Cuban farmers doing a much more visceral constructive act of transforming the spiritual into the material? By planting the images they believed that the spiritual would in fact bless\/honor\/esteem the material, i.e., their crops. Yet in our understanding that is not a suitable \u201cconstructive act of transforming\u201d art. For us it is more appropriate to place the image on our walls or museums where others can venerate and be tempted to mistakenly worship that which God commanded us not to worship. Has not God said, \u201cYou shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred<\/em> pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am<\/em> the Lord your God.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> And, \u201cYou shall not make for yourself a carved image\u2014any likeness of anything<\/em> that is<\/em> in heaven above, or that is<\/em> in the earth beneath, or that is<\/em> in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am<\/em> a jealous God.\u201d[5]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> But God, they are just images, aren\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

I appreciated gaining a better understanding as to how one interacts with an image. Morgan quoting Gossaert explains how there is a \u201ctriadic configuration: the celestial, the artistic agent, and the viewer who sees what the artist images. Each is, in one sense, the medium of the others.\u201d[6]<\/a> If the celestial is involved then at what level is it recognized? Meaning this, a young child draws a picture in which she is walking with Mommy, Daddy, and Jesus, the viewer recognizes the celestial guidance and the artistic agent, and cherishes the image. Someone else may simply throw away the same image as a childish scribble. When does the image become so honored that it would be a crime to tarnish, destroy, or \u201cplant\u201d the image? It\u2019s just an image right?<\/p>\n

Yet, if that young child was to die tragically there is no end to the effort that those parents would do to keep that \u201cchildish image\u201d unharmed and preserved in its original design. Woe to anyone who would dare to separate that image from the mother. Now that I understand. The image bears very personal meaning, deep emotion, and love. But an icon that is a representation of my God is not my God. There is no personal meaning, deep emotion, nor love beyond that which the image itself generates when I look upon it. I am no iconoclast I am just a missionary attempting to find the true incarnation of my Jesus in and through all the peoples that I come in contact with in my travels. \u201cWe, all of us, are distracted by so many practical things that we miss the mystery. We should stop at times and consider the mystery.\u201d[7]<\/a> Often that mystery is evident when looking upon a work of art that, in a symbolic way, gives voice to feeling and I am impacted deep in my soul. How would you answer the question, they are just images, aren\u2019t they<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> David Morgan, The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice<\/em> (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005), 96.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 157.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> The New King James Version<\/em>. 1982 (Le 26:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/sup><\/sup><\/a> The New King James Version<\/em>. 1982 (Ex 20:4\u20135). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Morgan, The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice<\/em>, 20.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 100.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cVisual images are powerful creations indeed. For into the depths of one soul does the image fall, impacting the very essence of the man.\u201d From those images that offer \u201cthe poignant evocation\u201d[1] of an experience to those that train us in transcendences-ness, all images are powerful causing emotions that lead us to passion, love, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,481,284],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-lgp4-2","tag-morgan","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2375,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions\/2375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}