What does God look like?
Posted: Sunday, November 16, 2008
by Sara O'Rourke
In 692, at the Council of Trullo, in its 82nd canon, the Council decree[d] that the figure in human form of the Lamb who taketh away the sin of the world, Christ our God, be henceforth exhibited in images, instead of the ancient lamb (Philip Labbe and Gabriel Cossart, Sacrosancta Concilia 6.1124).
This was a vital decision that bore an explosive creativity throughout the Church that was to last until the present day. Indeed, this one decision broke ice with the ancient connotations of some of today's most powerful symbols - the crucifix, for example, would have been very bizarre in the times of the Romans, just as gallows would be inappropriate today to represent humanity's Saviour.
And hence, if, as the cultural and social climate of decades and whole centuries have shaped the tone of the discipline of History in the Modern era, the image-boom of the seventh century encouraged the rewriting of religious History, should we really trust any of the images we have today as the true reflection of our messiah?
With Art, objectivity is never the aim. An artist diguises a deeper sentiment, a darker secret, with layers of oils and complex assemblement of the picture. It is likely, in my opinion, that what we are shown today to be 'Christ' is in fact not literally, physically and accurately Christ, but a depiction of what he and his religious beliefs meant for other people. There is no epistemology, when it comes to Christ. We have no true knowledge of what he looked like, and thus inference is made more difficult. All we can do, in terms of making logical assumptions to construct an image of the Father's Son, is to take into account the evironment; i.e. his locus, movement, its weather and climate etc, combined with devising a likely average man model based on any information (whether it be images or description) available.
But to do that would take away immesurably from the beauty of imagery. Without a foundative photograph of Christ, we are free to portray him in which ever way enables us to feel close to him. In the anglophone West, Jesus is predominantly a white man, whereas across the pond he can be seen as a black man, sometimes with a beard, other times beardless. The depiction, in any case, says 'He was one of us.'
Perhaps inevitably, perhaps through skill of the Church, the pure volume of imagery and description that has inondated the world has rendered the chance of culminating everything into one, single image, virtually impossible. This achieves two things; first, it maintains the illusive and holy mystery to the story of Christ, which, to an effect, reinforces the bid in the Bible that states how the Almighty is beyond the knowledge or ability of any artist to depict. Second, it maintains the freedom for us to continue to reinterpret and reinvent Him.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hi Sara, great article. The Bible gives us the clearest description of what He looked like and all it says is "there was nothing special about him, not even attractive. Isaiah 53." Just an average looking Jewish man. Being Israeli, he most likely had black hair and black or brown eyes. Certainly not the blonde-haired-blue eyed picture that is popular in the west. God forbade any images, by way of statues or any other token of anything in Heaven or Earth or below the earth. I believe his reasoning is clear--we are not to reduce the Amighty to something that works for us. It is interesting also that even when Jesus walked the earth, he was still unknown by many and actually had to be pointed out. He did not walk aroound with a halo over his head like many pictures depict.Anway, love your article--sorry it took me off on a tangent :-) Blessings to you.
hi sara,i feel that man's rendition of God or Jesus, Mary, etc., is indeed, man's rendition. this is why i have stone and wooden carvings of Mary and angels, and will one day find one of God-no faces. i don't want an impression in my mind of God that someone else perceived. buying carvings and stone statues without faces is the best i could come up with to make me feel comfortable.great article missy,my best regards,sue
“portray him in which ever way enables us to feel close to him”
I taught Sunday school and at one time asked a group of children what they thought God looks like. One girl said, “like Nelson Mandela”. I asked how many others thought God looks like Nelson Mandela. And half the group put up their hands. I asked why they thought God looks like Nelson Mandela and their reasons -- he looks happy, wise, kind, strong, forgiving, old, a good person, and everyone loves him and he loves everyone.
The other spontaneous responses were Kofi Anan and Morgan Freeman. This happened with a picture of a blonde, blue-eyed Jesus hanging on the wall. What was even more interesting is these three men almost look alike. What even surprised me more is that growing up, I always thought God looked like my grandfather for the same reasons these children said they thought God looks like Nelson Mandela. I was very close to my grandfather, and he looked a lot like Nelson Mandela.
I believe that how we think God looks like is how close to Him we feel.
Sorry, this comment is too long. This is a topic that interests me a great deal.
Keep writing -- you are a really, really good writer -- one of the best.
Be richly blessed.
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