Having some photoshopping fun here after being egged on by a friend. Read “Jesus: The Green Man of the Bible” for some background. (PS. heresy hunters should take note that the friend in question was not Phil of The Gathering)
Matt, I’ll come out of hiding and will “fess up” to being the friend who provided the impetus for such artistic creation and contextualization. The image you created connects with both the essay on Jesus as Green Man of the Bible for Neo-Pagans as well as the art theme for this year’s Burning Man event. I’d like to take some contextualized art along for our camp at this year’s festival that connects the Green Man with the Spirit in creation and Jesus as the incarnation of the Green Man who renews the creation, community, and humanity. I’d encourage all who’d like to take a stab at this to experiment and pass things along to me for our use this year.
Matt I think this is great- the image opens so many doors for dialogue as well as showing how creation is included in the redemptive process- we are too keen to emphasize saved from rahter than being made whole with…
To my perecption there is nothing “geeen” about the image that you have used. I would say it is profoundly anti-green. To me it is an image of radical separation, of a tortured body on a cross. It is certainly not a communication of The Beautiful!
We always and only relate to the “world-out-there” in exactly the same way that we relate to own own bodies. The “world-out-there” IS our body. Why torture it and hang it on a cross.
The three root presumptions of Christianity and western man altogether are that we are inherently separate from 1. Real God; 2. the World Process; 3. all other sentient beings including of course other human beings.
Items 2 & 3 in particular are inevitably anti-green in their cultural manifestations.
If you presume both individually and collectively that you are inherently separate from “creation” you will always, despite your best intentions, be at war with everything that is “other” or the “world-out-there”.
John- just picking up on what you say about being seperate from creation- I don’t as a Christian believe that I am seperate from creation- I am a part of it juust as the trees and fields that surround my home are a part of it, just as the animals and birds that live there are, I have to live responsibly towards that creation….
I think many many Christians are thinking this way- and whilst we would have to admit and apologise for past dualistic messages I hope we are beginjning to understand how the God the living Spirit permeates and fills this beautiful world and was grieved enough to become a part of it in order to set things right…..
Matt sorry for jumping in- kind of hit a passion button!
All. To be honest I spent less than 30 minutes on this (most of which was given over to photoshop editing) so there was not a lot of thought behind it. Even though I am very much with Sally on this one I take your comments on board John as if it doesn’t communicate the value is deminished. Personally I am thinking a more interesting approach would be to explore a ‘Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the Green Man’ motif – drawing on the resurrection story in the Gospel of John for inspiration. This is the one where he meets Mary Magdalene in the garden as is mistaken for a gardener – with all the veiled references to NeoGenesis that that entails. That will take a little longer though.
Curious Christian 
Matt, I’ll come out of hiding and will “fess up” to being the friend who provided the impetus for such artistic creation and contextualization. The image you created connects with both the essay on Jesus as Green Man of the Bible for Neo-Pagans as well as the art theme for this year’s Burning Man event. I’d like to take some contextualized art along for our camp at this year’s festival that connects the Green Man with the Spirit in creation and Jesus as the incarnation of the Green Man who renews the creation, community, and humanity. I’d encourage all who’d like to take a stab at this to experiment and pass things along to me for our use this year.
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Matt I think this is great- the image opens so many doors for dialogue as well as showing how creation is included in the redemptive process- we are too keen to emphasize saved from rahter than being made whole with…
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To my perecption there is nothing “geeen” about the image that you have used. I would say it is profoundly anti-green. To me it is an image of radical separation, of a tortured body on a cross. It is certainly not a communication of The Beautiful!
We always and only relate to the “world-out-there” in exactly the same way that we relate to own own bodies. The “world-out-there” IS our body. Why torture it and hang it on a cross.
The three root presumptions of Christianity and western man altogether are that we are inherently separate from 1. Real God; 2. the World Process; 3. all other sentient beings including of course other human beings.
Items 2 & 3 in particular are inevitably anti-green in their cultural manifestations.
If you presume both individually and collectively that you are inherently separate from “creation” you will always, despite your best intentions, be at war with everything that is “other” or the “world-out-there”.
LikeLike
John- just picking up on what you say about being seperate from creation- I don’t as a Christian believe that I am seperate from creation- I am a part of it juust as the trees and fields that surround my home are a part of it, just as the animals and birds that live there are, I have to live responsibly towards that creation….
I think many many Christians are thinking this way- and whilst we would have to admit and apologise for past dualistic messages I hope we are beginjning to understand how the God the living Spirit permeates and fills this beautiful world and was grieved enough to become a part of it in order to set things right…..
Matt sorry for jumping in- kind of hit a passion button!
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All. To be honest I spent less than 30 minutes on this (most of which was given over to photoshop editing) so there was not a lot of thought behind it. Even though I am very much with Sally on this one I take your comments on board John as if it doesn’t communicate the value is deminished. Personally I am thinking a more interesting approach would be to explore a ‘Mary Magdalene mistakes Jesus for the Green Man’ motif – drawing on the resurrection story in the Gospel of John for inspiration. This is the one where he meets Mary Magdalene in the garden as is mistaken for a gardener – with all the veiled references to NeoGenesis that that entails. That will take a little longer though.
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can’t wait to see that one Matt- keep provoking thought and conversation….reaction is better than apathy!
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