>
>>Creationism is to evolution as Love is to hate as the Resurrection
>>is to the Easter Bunny?



Well, while this statement brought a kind smile to my face, in this
sense there is a relationship between the Bunny that lays eggs in the
spring and the Resurection.  Is it not about rebirth and
regeneration, of life beyond the darkness and the seeming death of
winter, of life beyond death?

There are always two, if not more, ways of looking at an issue.  We
can either damn our differences or we can celebrate our similarities
in the richness of our diversity.  Knowledge does not preclude
spirituality, Christian or otherwise, but  rather enhances it.

What of the evolution of Christianity?  the history of the religion itself?

I am no expert, I am no Art Historian, but I have studied the history
of art and my thinking here is based upon what I have read and
studied, upon what I remember from that study. Experts feel free to
elaborate or clarify.

There was religion before Christianity afterall, leading up to its
formation.  The history of art is replete with images created by
pre-Christian societies who struggled to understand the unknown.
People who had little control over their environment, who had no
quarantee that the sun would rise again tomorrow, that rain would
fall from the sky. It seems that religion began as an institution in
society as a way of coming to terms with the unknown in a world
without the body of knowledge we today have, of having some control
over fate.

History shows us that the foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam were rose within 1,000 years of each other, in the same
geographical area, essentially among the same people. Again I am no
expert here (experts feel free to jump in), yet I sense that the
moral tenets of all three are essentially the same, that each has a
different way of reaching that morality so to speak, different
prophets, different books, (although Judaism and Christianity share
the Old Testament, is that not true?) so it seems a matter of choice,
not right or wrong, in the way you arrive at the very same place.

In its beginnings, Christian art emphasized redemption and
forgiveness.  The art produced in Christian Roman Empire demonstrates
this.  While carefully small in scale and relegated to decorating
surfaces so as not to appear as 'graven images',  Christ was
portrayed as a scholar and teacher or a shepherd.  A scholar.  Think
of that.  It is not until the 6thC. AD that images of the crucifixion
appear, and then schematically as if to emphasize the spirituality of
suffering, the out of body experience.  These appear in the
beginnings of the Dark Ages, when I daresay personal suffering was
quite rampant.

Later in the Middle Ages, when Christians  turned to a distrust of
knowledge and the texts of the ancient Greeks (for whom the pursuit
of knowledge and truth were key, and who gave us the precious gift of
Democracy) as well as the texts of others, were hidden if not
destroyed, the Muslims who then occupied part of the European
continent, protected bodies of text and literally saved them for the
"Founding Fathers" of our nation, and for our present generation.  In
its inception, I have read somewhere, Islam was a very tolerant
religion, and those who practiced had no problem with those who
believed otherwise, and, obviously, with this example, Islam embraced
knowledge.

In the 15th and 16th C., as the Christian Western Civilization
emerged from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance, the 'rebirth',
Christian men in Italy including men "of the Church", struggled with
their interest in knowledge and academic pursuit in respect to their
Christianity.  Thus they came to think that "all knowledge is
revealed through God"; all knowledge regardless of its source, pagan
or christian or otherwise.  And that "man can become one with God
through the contemplation" of this knowledge.  This way of thinking
became known as Neoplatonism and did involve the revival of the
writings of Plato, as well as the arts and sciences, all in concert
with Christian belief.

Then think of the blood that has been spilled needlessly in the name
of our Christian God.  of the witch hunts and the burnings at the
stake of those seen as being different and therefore accussed of
evil;  that difference was seen as a tremendous threat. Think of this
fear of difference in the abscence of knowledge, and its consequences
as such.

Difference is not evil, nor is knowledge. For me, Chrisitanity is
about being kind and giving, about understanding and accepting, about
sound growth and living a moral life, all of which are enhanced
through learning, all learning.  And this is essentially what a
University is about.

Ruth

Ruth Grover
Curator Galleries and Collections
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Department of Art #1301
615 McCallie Ave
Chattanooga, TN  37403

423-425-4600
fax 423-425-2101
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