Are Catholic Crucifixes "Gruesome" and "Creepy"?

A few months ago I corresponded with some Mormons who complained that Catholic-style crucifixes are "gruesome" and "creepy." (For those who don't know, a crucifix is a depiction of Christ hanging on the cross.) I suspect that this complaint stems from a lack of understanding of what it means to be a Catholic. Catholics experience the crucifix as powerful and liberating, not gruesome and creepy.

To appreciate the Catholic crucifix, one has to understand Catholic theology. Catholics believe that Christ's death-- the breaking of his body and the spilling of his blood-- was the moment of our salvation. The Mass is their primary religious ritual, and in their view the bread and wine are literally changed into Christ's actual, physical body and blood. Christ physically enters the believer in a moment of sublime mystical union. Thus although the crucifix is violent, it represents the central moment in salvation history, and the central moment in Catholic religious experience. It is not a moment we can afford to shrink away from.

In addition to its salvific significance, the crucifixion is also the supreme revelation of God's gracious love for us. To quote the Apostle Paul, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Catholics view the crucifixion as the greatest sacrifice in history: the moment that an omnipotent creator subjected himself to tremendous suffering and humiliation on behalf of creatures infinitely unworthy and inferior to himself. Visual depictions of the event help us to appreciate the great cost he willingly bore, and the great love it reveals. From this point of view, one might even say the grislier the crucifix the better! It's no accident that Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ was so graphic in its portrayal of the crucifixion. He was essentially trying to portray the ultimate sacrifice-- ultimate pain, ultimate suffering, and ultimate cost, willingly borne for our sake because of God's ultimate love.

It is also important to recognize that Catholicism was founded long before the advent of mass literacy, and continues to flourish today among the poor and illiterate peoples of the world. Whereas Mormons and Protestants can read about the crucifixion in their Bibles, Catholics have typically had to communicate through visual media such as paintings and statues. Furthermore, images in the Catholic Church are much more than just teaching tools. Catholics believe that Christ is graciously and miraculously present in such images. To look upon a statue of Christ is to look upon Christ himself. The crucifix thus makes Christ's sacrifice literally present for every believer. We may all stand with his mother at the foot of the cross and grieve.

"Don't You Think We Can Do Better Than Apologetics, Though?"

My Mormon Studies colleagues are sometimes puzzled when they hear me say nice things about LDS apologists and apologetic scholarship. Almost inevitably, I get asked something like, "Don't you think we can do better than apologetics, though?" My short answer is that I think there's a place for both apologetics and for LDS scholarship that "brackets" the truth-claims debates.

In the modern world, true believers need a way to reconcile their faith with rationality. This obviously needs to be done with integrity. I have little respect for apologists who simply make things up, or who conceal evidence that does not accord with their position. But to the extent that faith and rationality can be honestly reconciled, I think apologists provide a valuable service to religious communities. In fact, it's a service that will keep the "bracketers" in business for the foreseeable future.

What I most respect about apologists is that they practice scholarship in a way that is true to their deepest religious commitments. Whereas the rest of us attempt to stand aloof from communities we study, apologists willingly participate in and contribute to those communities. In a way, it's sort of refreshing.

Paper on Genocide

It's been a long and difficult semester, and I haven't had much time for blogging. I'm on break for the next month or so though, so hopefully I'll get some writing done. In the meantime, here's my final paper from my Extremism course. It's titled, "Explaining Genocide: How Ordinary People Become Mass-Murderers." It's mostly a rehash of what other people have said on the subject, though I make a few original contributions and modifications as I go. The prediction that there will be fewer genocides in the next century is all me. I'm crossing my fingers that history will bear me out on that.

I also understand that the Winter issue of Dialogue has just mailed, with a paper by Andrew Cook and myself ("The Original Length of the Scroll of Hôr") as the lead article. A full-color version of this paper is also available from the Dialogue website.