A quote for Alex

Reading God & Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now by John Dominic Crossan and I came across this description of an image of Jesus in Istanbul’s Church of St. Savior (now a museum):

As you pass from outer to inner narthex, the doorway is crowned with a magnificent mosaic of Christ Pantokrator … As in all such Eastern Icons, frescoes or mosaics of Christ, his right hand is raised in an authoritative teaching gesture, with his fingers separated into a twosome and a threesome to command Christian faith in the two natures of Christ and the three persons of the Trinity. As usual, he holds a book in his left hand. But he is not reading the book – it is not even open, but securely closed and tightly clasped.

Christ does not read the Bible, the New Testament or the Gospel. He is the norm of the Bible, the criterion of the New Testament, the incarnation of the Gospel. That is how we Christians decide between a violent and nonviolent God in the Bible, New Testament, or Gospel. The person, not the book, and the life, not the text, are decisive and constitutive for us.

Alex, I’m pretty sure I already know what your response to this will be …