Midterm

• text

• story

• fabula

• how is it that we are reading this story

• vehicle through which we’re receiving the story

• form

  • book

  • ritual

  • performance

  • images

• contains inter-text

• how the events are presented to us

  • could start with the ending

• layering the story

• arrange in chronological order

• timeline

• latin word for story

• ad about pom juice

• uses eve as a focus

  • based on the creation story

• what does this reveal about us

  • beauty standards

  • health and wellness (unlike the message of the creation story)

  • anti-aging

• supposed to be a cautionary tale

  • we’re treating it more like a good thing

• iconographical markers

  • Eve: tree, snake, fruit

  • Mary: jar, cross, hair

• composite characters

  • Eve: composite of story

  • Mary: composite of women

• aspirational women

• sexuality

• becomes a composite of the creation story

  • snake

  • tree

  • apple

• lower in hierarchy of creation

  • ground

  • earth

  • no wonder she’s easily tempted

• high in the hierarchy of creation

  • sky

  • good

• 2 versions

• open to interpretation

• not throwing away the divide but we have enough perspective now to understand it’s not a neat relationship

  • slippage across the divide of sacred and secular

• religious symbol

• cultural marker

• one of the oldest symbols of Christianity (before the cross)

• can be found in catacombs in rome

• one of the oldest symbols of Christianity (before the cross)

• can be found in catacombs in rome

• beginning of the religion of the empire as Christianity

• became the darwin fish

  • people were arguing the idea of evolution over religious ideas

• culture wars on the back of cars

historically accurate

• facts

• data

• history

more based on belief

• tradition

• devotion

• male

• female

• family

• truth

• clarity

• stability

• individual

• traditional

• foundational

• simple

• ambiguity

• fluidity

• process

• relational

• gender ambiguity

• ugly

• distinct gender

• beautiful

• supposed to be historical but it’s more devotional

• Antisemitism

  • contra Judeans (make jews look bad)

  • Jewish figures are ugly while Christian figures are beautiful

  • The jews want Jesus to be crucified

• Made selections from each of the 4 gospels in order to make jews look bad

• women who captures the image of Jesus

  • bearer of the true image

• divine purpose

• traditional addition in the film not in the original story

• Jesus face imprinted on her sweat cloth (sudariun)

• prostitute

• morally dubious

• relationship with Jesus?

• dressed nicely

• red hair

• overtly emotional

• long hair

• adultery

• composite character

• key disciple of Jesus (first to witness the ressurection)

  • this is lost because we emphasize her bad morals

• prostitute

• repented her sins and she became a recluse in the desert

• chose the spirit, she could float around

• hair grew to cover her body

• thought and practice of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries

• distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis.

• gender ambiguity

• scary

• ugly

• good example of femininity

• opposite of Mary Magdalene

divide the religious from the everyday life

• happy holidays instead of merry christmas

• is technology magic?

  • wands = phones

• return of the repressed?

  • coming out of a period of Christian dominance

  • return of the things that Christians said were bad (witches…)

• Christianity in disguise?

  • harry potter is a type of Jesus

  • tomb has bible quote

• disenchantment/re-enchantment?

  • we’ve lost something that harry potter brings back

  • in our rational world we’ve lost our sense of magic and wonder

some people read through the Harry Potter books like a sacred text

• treated it like the bible and read it like so

• breaking the wall of separation between church and state is essential in a free society

• trends

• social media

• brief

• attention grabbing

• commodification

• chaotic

• fast moving

• short-lived

• broad appeal

• easily accessible

study of culture using culture to understand culture

• economic exchange

• industrial revolution

• throwaway everyday things

• low quality

• enjoyed by the masses

• low class

• used to be considered unimportant

• upper class

• inaccessible

  • examples

    • opera

    • sculptures

    • paintings

• imaginary relation that individuals have to their material conditions of existence

  • disconnect between what stuff is and how we perceive it

• hides itself as the natural or the obvious

• association of meanings

• ideas and values influence and inform us in ways we don’t even notice

religion acts as an ideology

• opium of the people

• make things

• not creating things for the consumers needs manipulating them to buy what producers already have

• buy things

• cultivates desire but never satisfies

  • makes sure people always want new things

• coexistence of different religions

• what we do with the differences

• how people act in the face of diversity

  • embrace it or make it disappear

• fact of difference

refers to the values, beliefs, systems of language, communication, and practices that people share in common and that can be used to define them as a collective

personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

• loved and respected today but in his time was one of the most polarizing politicians

• Raised Anglican

• Decided that he did not need to choose between religion and reason, truth and common sense

• More radical than Unitarian friend (Priestly)

• thought the New Testament was corrupt because Jesus didn’t write it himself

• not interested in the magic of religion, just the message

• Said he was the perfect man for the job of digging back to the true teachings of Jesus

• Still don’t know if he was a Christian

• Saw atheism as irrational

• Monotheism is the only natural faith

• Saw Jesus as a man after his own heart rather than a God

• He read through the bible and cut out the pages he found authentic with a razor blade and pasted them into this new book

• Took him 2-3 evenings, left out anything supernatural → basically only left quotes, only about 10 gospel verses survived

• his second scripture

• Similar to the first, included actions, included different languages, arranged chronologically instead of topically

1. That there is one God, and he is perfect

2. That there is a future state of rewards and punishments

3. That to lobe God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself, is the sum of religion

• rejected miracles

• Responsible for setting the ground rules for religious practice in the US

• Friends with Jefferson

• Prided himself on approaching religious questions in the light of reason and common sense

• Built his theological system on a myth

• teaching a counter-religion, made up of the deleria of crazy imaginations

• Calvin was an athiest

• sent a letter to Jefferson calling Jesus “the most perfect model of the republicanism in the universe”

• unitarian

• hymns told stories of individual encounters with Jesus

• cast Jesus as a sweet and gentle Shepard rather than a sacrificial lamb

• Humans were no longer hateful sinners bound for hell but innocent sheep searching for home

• tends to emphasize the human over the Devine

• Expresses a desire for a personal relationship and connection

• Our Christian Traditions provides a valuable perspective

• Often more about us than it is about Jesus

Ruler of the world

Resurrection

Blood

Cosmos

Royal, expensive

Fully human and fully divine

• hypostatic union

• Showing his 2 natures

Hypostatic union

• used to emphasize the divine

  • pictured bathed in light

  • looking very powerful

• more recently we’ve started to emphasize his humanity

  • people want a close relationship with Jesus

    • can’t do that when he is divine

  • causes us to be confronted with questions of sexuality, appetite and Jesus’ other human attributes

where can we find Jesus → in the scriptures alone

• sola = alone

• Scriptora = scriptures

By the time we get to the 20th century Jesus will be separated from Christianity

• Jesus becoming a cultural icon instead of a religious symbol

• tends to emphasize the human over the divine

• Expresses a desire for a personal relationship and connection

• Christina tradition provides a valuable perspective

• More about us than Jesus

• subset of allegory

  • medival, Christian method of interpretation

• Finding parallels

• Looking at biblical text that mirror the story of Jesus

  • types of Jesus

• Actor and their personal experiences become the character

• Jonah was stuck in the belly of the whale for 3 days

• Jesus was stuck in the tomb for 3 days

Jonah is a type of Jesus

• Superman’s father sent him down to save people

• Jesus’ father sent him down to save people

• Superman and his franchise died and got resurrected

• Jesus got resurrected

• Superman is a type of Jesus

• Samson becomes a hero for the Jewish religion

• Superman is a hero for mankind

• Samson is a type of Superman

• became paraplegic

• People cheered him on → said he was truly Superman

• “Whenever I am weak, then I am strong”. Corinthians 12:10