Resurrecting Easter
Subtitle: how the West lost and the East kept the original Easter vision
By: John Dominic Crossan and Sarah Sexton Crossan
Contributors: Crossan, Sarah Sexton, author
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 213
ISBN-13: 9780062434180
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Eastern churches; Western influences; Resurrection; Christian art and symbolism; Art; Illustrated books; Christianity
Description: In this four-color illustrated journey that is part travelogue and part theological investigation, bestselling author and acclaimed Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan and his wife Sarah painstakingly travel throughout the ancient Eastern church, documenting through text and image a completely different model for understanding Easter's resurrection story, one that provides promise and hope for us today. Traveling the world, the Crossans noticed a surprising difference in how the Eastern Church considers Jesus' resurrection -- an event not described in the Bible. At Saint Barbara's Church in Cairo, they found a painting in which the risen Jesus grasps the hands of other figures around him. Unlike the Western image of a solitary Jesus rising from an empty tomb that he viewed across Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, the Crossans saw images of the resurrection depicting a Jesus grasping the hands of figures around him, or lifting Adam and Eve to heaven from Hades or hell, or carrying the old and sick to the afterlife. They discovered that the standard image for the Resurrection in Eastern Christianity is communal and collective, something unique from the solitary depiction of the resurrection in Western Christianity. Fifteen years in the making, Resurrecting Easter reflects on this divide in how the Western and Eastern churches depict the resurrection and its implications. The Crossans argue that the West has gutted the heart of Christianity's understanding of the resurrection by rejecting that once-common communal iconography in favor of an individualistic vision. As they examine the ubiquitous Eastern imagery of Jesus freeing Eve from Hades while ascending to heaven, the Crossans suggest that this iconography raises profound questions about Christian morality and forgiveness. A fundamentally different way of understand the story of Jesus' rebirth illustrated with 130 images, Resurrecting Easter introduces an inclusive, traditional community-based ideal that offers renewed hope and possibilities for our fractured modern society.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: A tale of two visions; title: Travels in the realms of gold; title: "The guards told everything that had happened"; title: "The cave of the Anastasis"; title: "He did not rise alone"; title: "So that posterity might be amazed by the lavishness"; title: "The Anastasis, the joy of the world"; title: "Rise up, o Lord; do not forget the oppressed"; title: "From the holy mountain"; title: "Let now the angelic choir of heaven exult"; title: "The victory of so great a king"; title: "O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!"; title: "Declared Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead ones"; title: "So hope for a great sea-change."