The Orant

"from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator... for the author of beauty created them." Wisdom 13: 3,5I used to live in Chicago. It's a city I love. It's one of the finest gems in the treasury of reasons why I think the Great Lakes region is the greatest place on earth. I love its food, its drinks, its people, its culture.I love Chicago.Although much of the city is not pretty, I believe it's a beautiful city. the city's beauty … [Read more...]

Although I tend to be more attracted to traditional icons and iconography I have a particular love for Caravaggio’s 1601 Supper at Emmaus. It’s bright and vibrant and full of action, and it draws me into the painting in a similar way that many of my favorite byzantine icons do.The painting takes place in the moment when Christ blesses the meal after his long trip to Emmaus in which he had opened the scriptures in a form of the liturgy of the word. Now the liturgical event continues at the tab … [Read more...]

In this weeks Leactionary text from Matthew 25 we are presented with the last of Jesus eschatological teachings, known as the “parable of the sheep and the goats” or at times the “judgment of the Son of Man.” It seems to be a combination of a parable and an apocalypse. Jesus parables are stories that give a fictitious saying which conveys truth, offering hearers a handle through which to understand the kingdom of God.[1] Apocalypses are, at least within the Jewish tradition, accounts of an immine … [Read more...]

Most people who grow up in the Church have heard the word holy more than enough. It’s so ubiquitous in churches it becomes almost invisible. Nearly everything in a church is called holy from the books that are read, to the water by the door, to the pictures and the windows. Churches are filled with “holy” things. So many things are designated as holy, that the word itself is often undetected, unexamined, and misunderstood. Holiness is a word that becomes like the air that is breathed. It is often … [Read more...]

Salvidore Dali's Sacrament of the Last Supper is in many ways, is a culmination of the artistic projects that Dali had been endeavoring to pursue in 1955. It brought together forms of disintegration/mystical realism as well as highlighting the naturalism of the Renascence paintings that Dali had become interested in.  Given that Dali had become intent on becoming the next Leonardo da Vinci at the time, the subject of the Last Supper was a natural choice for the work. He hoped that his creation wo … [Read more...]

The internet is abuzz today about some racy photos of Kim Kardashian that recently came out. With any such monumental news the intellectual elite are sure to weigh in with their comments about what this means for us culturally and what it means for the future of human existence.  Along with this commentary, is an article highlighting the artistic heritage of the images of Kim posted over at “The Grio” which highlights how the depictions of Kim are directly related to old racial stereotypes and ex … [Read more...]

Early this year Henry McCollum, North Carolina’s longest serving death row inmate, walked out of prison a free man. He has spent the majority of his life—30 years—behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Thanks to DNA evidence, we now know that the confession extracted by police in the early 1980s was in all likelihood the result of a scared kid who was looking for a way to go home, rather than a piece of real evidence. This is a sobering story. The assumptions of a few law enforcement office … [Read more...]

I ran into this quiz today and thought it was fun. It attempts to track your political affiliation using five different categories. After writing my article on the flaws of a binary political system earlier this week I thought this was particularly interesting. I have included the quiz below for you to take. If anyone is interested in my results. The quiz is flawed in a lot of ways, but there is a part of me that loves convoluted labeling schemes. Call it a guilty pleasure. Apparently I'm a "So … [Read more...]