FUCK YEAH! THEOLOGY

Elisabeth Ohlson, Palm Sunday

Layton’s translation. The Coptic text is below. I only took it for a semester so I can only read a little bit of it, lol.

There are more translations and some commentary here. Obviously the internet is not the best place to study religion, I just can’t link you to a book always, lol. I do suggest Karen King’s book on the Gospel of Mary Magdala. I’ve taken a course with her on ancient gender and sexuality; she’s quite brilliant.

Forgive that this photo is terrible quality :D

I just wrote this paper on the eroticism on the passion narrative, amidst other things. And this picture is what inspired it. There was something I said like, ‘Jesus is bound, stripped, mocked, flogged, and humiliated by other men in front a crowd for their viewing pleasure. This line wouldn’t feel out of place in an erotic novel…’

Trufax. Sounds like something I would read.

Images like these make me just go… what? Seriously? Am I the only one seeing it? Jesus’ hands are bound behind his back, his robe is falling off and he’s standing before a man sitting in a throne. I’m seriously waiting for Pilate to throw his own robe aside and tell him to get on his knees. This is easier to imagine when you don’t think of it as Jesus, but for some reason sex is like off limits for Jesus. Our Jesus has no genitals, which is silly really because he obviously did. And so do we, even though many Christians would like to forget about them.

I mean, look at Jesus! Seriously… if you’re a horrible person like me, you’re thinking this looks like it should lead to pronz. Okay, I’ve been assured I am not a horrible person for this. What it is is that we just can’t handle seeing Jesus in a place where we’d see something erotic. That picture is so erotic, so sexy, so hot to me and then “OHWAIT that’s Jesus. Well, shit. Guess it can’t be sexy anymore,” sets in.

Just sayin’.

Photographs from the series “Ecce Homo” by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin, a Swedish photographer

Her website here.

I’m a graduate student attending divinity school. I study the New Testament and Early Christianity, but have an avid interest in women, gender and sexuality studies. I consider myself a liberal, protestant Christian and am religious/spiritual, though I’m sure that many conservative or even mainstream Christians would tell me I’m going to hell. Oh well. If you want your mind blown daily, this is probably the right place for you. If you’re not up for that or are a super-conservative or even slightly-conservative Christian, you probably won’t like what you see here. There won’t be an abundance of deep, thought provoking essays here, but I plan to post a quote or image or idea that strikes me at least once a day. I hope they give you the mind orgasm they give me. Enjoy!