Naked Christ
by Michele Coxon
From the Revd Richard Thornburgh
Sir, – The sculpture The Naked Christ that was temporarily on exhibition at Shrewsbury Abbey (News, 10 August) is certainly a powerful image, made even more so at this time of agricultural suffering by the use of sheep bones in its construction. I appreciate its initial impact and intention.
However, I suspect that the Christology behind the image was never thought through. The sculptor, Michele Coxon, is quoted as saying, “I wanted the image of a man who has suffered and whose earthly body is decaying.” This she has undoubtedly achieved. But one of the major points about the crucifixion of Jesus is that his body was not left on the cross to decay, but removed before the Passover began. And the received accounts of Easter morning speak of a physical Christ whose body bears the marks of that ordeal.
To show a suffering Jesus on the cross is being true to the Gospel accounts. To show a decaying body is not. Perhaps if a sculptor would actually show us the body of a young man in the throes of death by crucifixion and its attendant suffocation, complete with the bodily reactions and without the niceties of the casually draped loin-cloth, we might get closer to understanding something of the reality of the pain and sacrifice undergone on our behalf.
Then Sarah Burns, the woman visitor who reportedly found the statue obscene and unsuitable for her children to look at, would really have something to complain about.
RICHARD THORNBURGH
Parsonage House
Low Street
Ilketshall
St Margaret Bungay
Suffolk NR35 lQZ
From the Revd Liz Culling
Sir, – Living, as I do, in a parish whose stock has been virtually wiped out by foot-and-mouth disease, I found Michele Coxon’s sculpture of the crucifixion, made partially of sheep’s bones, both theologically sound and profoundly moving.
What do people wish to see when they look at a depiction of crucifixion – gold, jewels, smooth, polished wood? Our culture has so sanitised death and dying that we have forgotten how ugly it can be.
LIZ CULLING
Leake Vicarage
Knayton North
Yorkshire
From Mr Charles B. Brown
Sir, – The excellent picture of the sculpture of Christ in Shrewsbury Abbey would cause me to write in their visitors’ book, “A brilliant sculpture, well illustrating the decay of the Church.”
CHARLES B. BROWN
744 Chatsworth Road
Chesterfield S40 3PN