It’s been an exciting academic year at the University. Eugene strikes me to be like the historical town of Nazareth; you never know who might show up. The antagonistic approach toward Christianity in the March issue of The Insurgent is regrettable, but it does seem to have initiated a positive, important debate as its editors had intended.
Curiously, the controversy about The Insurgent coincided with another controversy: the movie release of “The Da Vinci Code.” It asserts that Jesus had sexual relations and a child with Mary Magdalene. Despite Mr. Correa’s illuminating commentary in the Daily Emerald (“Painter’s statement on The Insurgent centerfold,” ODE, June 2), art can take on a life of its own independent of the intentions of the artist. But much as Correa intimated, however, we should consider if it all doesn’t speak to some intrinsic need to bring Jesus down to earth and imagine him as a sexual being. The point is not so much whether or not the historical Jesus was sexual; the point is that we are sexual.
So much has been made about Jesus in the religious sense – being a prophet, the Messiah, the savior, the Christ – that we’re apt to forget a more-grounded sense that Jesus of Nazareth was also, essentially, a poet. The use of metaphor and symbolism in his parables, short stories that convey a deeper truth, testifies to this. Following his crucifixion, his own life would become a moving story and a powerful symbol that captures our imagination to this day.
Throughout the modern era we’ve been exhorted to “rise above” our human nature for the sake of reason or a moral ideal, and consequently we often set ourselves up to fail, disdaining others and ourselves.
Instead, we need to work with our nature and in so doing restore faith in our nature, loving others as we love our selves. Our society has exalted reason, but as the poet Dante dramatized in the symbolic form of the poet Virgil, reason only leads us so far.
As we commit ourselves to cultural diversity, we’d be wise to recognize that culture, including religion, is not static but evolves over time. Through the crucifixion of Jesus – though he was mocked in his own time as he can be mocked in our time – we have a powerful symbol that extends beyond the religious-cultural context of personal salvation; we have the representation and the inspiration for the best of our nature, the human capacity for love, faith and sacrifice that can lead us toward human salvation.
At the convocation ceremony to open the academic year, University President Dave Frohnmayer emphasized the value of new ideas, even those that might seem absurd.
Inspired by the military research debates, I’ve taken time off from my graduate studies to initiate The Promised Land Project as a movement of synthesis. Like the Manhattan Project that strived to tap the power of the atom for military purposes, the Promised Land Project strives to tap the power of the soul for human purposes.
Brad Hachten is a University graduate tudent in educational leadership