Page 128 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Foundational Discussions in Christian Psychology

for whom, since “the body … anchors us in the the human figure. For the ancient Greek viewer
world” “not only the sphere of life but also the the marble sculpture has not been a dead slab of
sphere of social relationships is constitutive”. 2 marble, but a living being. The everyday world
was imbued with the sacred. It was normal if
Applied to Old Testament or sapientia thin- you lived in ancient Greece to think of life as
king, stereometric thinking “pegs out the sphe- a container of spiritual forces. The sculpture
re of man’s existence by enumerating his cha- actually constructed the identity of the Greek
racteristic organs, thus circumscribing man as aristocratic class: the very form and appearance
a whole” (Janowski 2013: 18). Concepts like of these sculptures came to embody aristocratic
heart, soul and spirit are often used alternate- values and self-identity. The aristocratic class
ly in Hebrew poetry to reveal certain aspects of embodied the sacred in their self-representati-
the human being. One component of our being on and mobilised it on behalf of the communi-
human, for example the ‘heart’ or ‘mind’, repre- ty (Erez 2012:3). Youthful strength and vigour,
sents the whole of life. grace splendour of appearance became qualities
sculpted into the form of deities by the Greek
Stereometric reasoning allows for the Semitic craftsmen because they were conceived of as
view of a person as an integrated unit within signs of divine favour. The shape of the human
the whole of the cosmos. The Greek dualism of body served to reinforce commitment to an eli-
body and soul is foreign to a Semitic approach. te self-identity while engendering a feeling of
Stereometric reasoning is relational and syste- awe.
mic. It does not view a person in terms of iso-
lated, different parts, but as a functional unit The portrayal of the divine in terms of a human
(whole) within a network of relationships. The figure was always a disputable issue in orthodox
subject-object split of rational scrutiny is far re- theology. Michelangelo made a kind of “break-
moved from the relational dynamics of Semitic through” in the sense that he viewed the per-
communalism. fect human figure as a representation of God
(divine embodiment) or Christ not as a “graven
The ‘shape’ of the human body: embodied image” to be worshipped (idolatry) but as a de-
soulfulness piction of the beauty of God (God’s love) as re-
It was Michelangelo, in his struggle with his flected in the essence of the human soul . At the
3
own agony and ecstasy, which turned to clas- same time, the movement and proportions of
sic beauty in order to find “spiritual peace” and the human body are always framed by torment
to strive for contentment in life. The Pope and and suffering.
the doctrinal stance of the clergy resisted his
art, because faith could not make space for the The meaning of the Last Judgment resides not in
beauty of the naked human body. The image of the naked bodies but “the shop wreck of entire
a body without clothes was perceived as distur- tormented and suffering humanity…anxiously
bing ugliness rather than uplifting beauty. In awaiting the fulfilment of the promise that in
the eyes of human beings, it stirred up notions the presence of Christ the Judge and Redeemer
of sin, guilt and shame rather than devotion, the righteous will rise from the dead at the end
admiration and visionary hope. In classical art, of time” (Vecchi in: Paris 2009:175).
the nude represents nobility and wisdom as the
highest expression of human dignity. K. Schoeman in his book on Michelangelo
Buonarroti (2009:555) refers to the fact that in
Through stone and marble, the striving of the
classical artist was to probe into the transcen- 3 From Socrates Michelangelo learned that the purpo-
dent realm of divine perfect shape by means of se of painting was to present the human soul, the life of
human souls, as an expression of the very internal being
2 Dabrock 2010. Online: http://cb.oxfordjournals.org/ of humans. According to Néret (2006:32), Michelangelo
content/early/2010/08/16/cb.cbq015.full#fn-20. Ac- was only interested in the people he painted because per-
cessed: 27/04/2014. fect bodies were the carriers and containers of the idea
of eternity.
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