Every year when Christmas rolls around, familiar images of the season make their appearance. In the midst of our holiday fervor, when we remember the importance of the “real meaning” of Christmas, our minds may seize upon images of the Nativity, imagining the baby Jesus lying in his manger and lovingly venerated. Most people see Christmas as the celebration of an individual birth at a certain moment in history, accompanied by portrayals of the Holy Child in churches and on Christmas cards. These images have their place in the religious education of children. Yet for adults, visualizing the meaning of Christmas in this way often only helps reinforce a limited understanding of what the occasion can mean for us.
Mature Christianity recognizes Jesus’s birth as symbolic of Christ Consciousness awakening in the world. This birth is ongoing, continually recurring and available to everyone.
In this essay, which appears in Radix Magazine, I take a look at the difference between premodern and modern representations of the Virgin and Child and the way that each type implies a particular way of thinking about the birth of Christ. An earlier version of this essay had originally been published in Contemplative Light, which had invited contributing writers to reflect on the occasion of Christmas.
Barnaba da Modena
Virgin and Child
1360s
Opmerkingen