Christ Figure Research Paper

Our world is filled with many different forms of art that portray a vast variety of perspectives of our universe, religion, groups of people, animals, and much more. Is there an intersection between the Christian faith and Art and if so, is there a purpose? If the Christian faith and art overlap, then does that mean that there is such a thing as Christian Art? Answers to these questions vary from person to person, which is why they are questions that are still being asked today. In my opinion, I believe that the Christian faith and Art intersect and that they overlap for very specific purposes. These specific purposes is what also makes me believe that there is such a thing as Christian art.

A Christ figure can share attributes with Jesus and be the antagonist of the story. In Thomas C. Foster’s novel How to Read Literature like a Professor, he analyzes what a Christ figure looks like in literature. He argues that a character who shares personality traits and or physical characteristics with Christ is a representation and reflection of Jesus. Similarly, in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel The Poisonwood Bible, her character Nathan Price believes he is synonymous to Christ while in reality, he is far from perfect. She uses irony to exploit the idea of the Christ figure. The use of irony as seen in Kingsolver’s novel, up-ends Foster’s claims as to what makes a Christ figure by creating a character who assumes he is Christ yet does not reflect Christ’s attributes.

Authors can sometimes create an allusion by portraying a character as a figure of whom the reader may or may not have prior knowledge. A Christ figure is a character that resembles Jesus Christ in more than one significant way. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, John Proctor is said to be an example of a Christ figure along with Tom Walker in Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker.

The first thing that inadvertently displays Pi as a Christ figure is his name Piscine Molitor Patel. He was named after a Parisian swimming pool that Mamaji described as being “a pool that the gods would have delighted to swim in” (Martel pg 11). The name in of itself, is a place that the gods are reborn, this show the depth of religious fervor Pi is implicated in and it foreshadows the devotion he will have in the future. In an ironic twist his name becomes a playground slur by his classmates, he comments how the harassment his name causes is his “crown of thorns”. To stop the relentless pestering he shortens his name to Pi, which in mathematical terms is a number that is irrational, infinite, and non-repeating. His classmates also soon pick

Kehinde Wiley, African American painter exclusively working in portraiture, creates gigantic works of art displaying african americans fused into iconic works created by the masters of art; Andrea Mantegna, Peter Paul Ruben, Jacques Louis David and many others. His process of selecting his muse in his paintings are scouring throughout the streets of Brazil,China, Israel and New york, starting conversation with people he finds interesting, these civilians are the ones Wiley chooses for his models. After the photoshoot he has hundreds and hundreds images and narrows them down to fifty, fifty go fifteen. He matches them up with historical backgrounds, wallpapers and textiles and they will become the paintings for his show.

There are many christ figures found in literature and in movies today, a christ figure that stood out to me is Lieutenant Dunbar in Dances with Wolves. Dunbar is a soldier in the U.S Army during the civil war, he shows many of the key features that a christ figure needs to have. In the beginning of the movie his foot was injured and needed to be amputated so he resorted to trying to commit suicide by riding a horse across a battlefield. While riding across, he rides with his arms outstretched looking up into the sky, somehow he doesn't get shot and this results in the Union army storming the Confederate soldiers. Dunbar is then made a hero and is transferred to a fort in South Dakota. When he arrives at the fort it is abandoned so he decides

An example of the symbolism of a Christ figure is when Gandalf and the dwarves are escaping from the goblins in the dark night. They had escaped from the goblins, but in doing so they had angered the goblins and now were

An obvious example of a Christ figure is in The Footprints of God by Greg Iles. First, the extremely obvious pointer to a Christ like figure is the title, which implies that maybe a character follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. The character that I believe is a Christ figure is David Tennant, the main character, for several reasons. First, David suffers from paranoia and narcolepsy and suffering is one of the Christ figure clues. David also goes into a coma, in which everyone thinks he is going to die, on his trip to Jerusalem, but without any signs of life, he wakes up.

One example of a Christ figure is Hiccup from the movie How To Train Your Dragon. This kid may have been scrawny, sarcastic, and hard-headed, but he can still be seen as a Christ figure. In the movie is first seen to be an outsider in his village, even though he’s the son of the chief. This leads him to be alone most of the time, writing in his journal or making contraptions. Spending time alone is a Christ figure characteristic.

Early Christian art, Migration Period art, Byzantine art, Insular art, Pre-Romanesque, Romanesque art, and Gothic art, as well as many other periods within these central styles. In addition each region, mostly during the period in the process of becoming nations or cultures, had its own distinct artistic style, such as Anglo-Saxon art or Norse art.Medieval art was produced in many media, and the works that remain in large numbers include sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork and mosaics. Decorative arts, such as metalwork, ivory carving, enamel and embroidery using precious metals, were probably more highly valued than paintings or monumental sculpture. Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman

Transfiguration of Christ with Saint Apollinaris gives us a symbolic view of the transfiguration of Christ. This let us imagine of how it happened and let us meditate on the idea of the biblical event. Just as the transfiguration of Raphael this transfiguration has the three apostles James, John and Peter, but in this mosaic they are represented as sheep instead of human. We could also see Moses and Alisha to the sides of Christ just as the transfiguration by Raphael. In this mosaic Christ is not directly shown but there is a golden cross in the middle of the mosaic with a giant gold halo around it. This represents Christ transfiguration just like in the story of the bible. In top of the cross we see a hand which represents god when he says

During the Early Christian period, they adapted Roman motifs that gave new meanings to what was known as pagan symbols. Some, which were adopted, were peacock, fish and grapevines. This lead to Christians developing their own iconography. The religious icon provided another focus for representation at the time of Justinian. The most popular icon at the time was Christ. There was an issue where they might be considered idols led to arguments about their appropriateness and their power. Icons functioned as living images to instruct and inspire the worshiper. That is why Jesus was the most popular. In the Dura-Europos church, there are images of biblical scenes including Christ as the Good Shepherd. In figure 8.35 in the book, you see an icon

This reading has to do with a very special Icon of Christ. Icons are usually something that are man made and have Christ or his mother on them. The icon being spoken about here is called an acheiropoietos. Acheiropoietos are icons that that aren’t made by people, but by god. A woman the image in a river and it was imprinted on her headscarf. Some see this image of Christ as the second coming because no human hand made the image. It is also seen as the second coming because it preforms miracles like Christ would himself making the image a sort of extension of him.

Jesus. Jesus has been portrayed and depicted in various ways throughout time. Some depict him as white a white man with flowing light brown hair, that wore nothing but a simple white robe and sandals. Whilst others believed he was black or from Asian descent. A lot of people’s idea or image of Jesus is based on their circumstances and what they can relate too for if you were a young black woman you wouldn’t perhaps be able to relate to a tall white man. I very strongly believe that religion can be interpreted and from the Gospel of Luke I have based and come to the conclusion as to what my depiction of Jesus will continue to act like in this current time and look like in this present day.

The Transfiguration of Jesus are verses in the Bible which appear both in Matthew and Luke. In both books of the Bible, only Peter, James and John travel to a high mountain with Jesus, where they observe Jesus transform into an a shining light. There, they meets Moses and Elijah. This is exceptionally significant as Moses and Elijah were pertinent figures in the Jewish practice and their appearance to Jesus only strengthened his claim as the one true way to God. Both figures in both books represent the Old Testament and law.