medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I've been puzzled by this image too. It also appears in _The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity_, ed. John McManners (1990), p. 88, where this description (courtesy of J. M. Wallace-Hadrill) accompanies it: "CHRIST AS THE DIVINITY OF A GERMANIC WARRIOR ARISTOCRACY. In this funerary plaque from Gresin, Puy-de-Dome (possibly seventh century), he is shown ‘armed as a soldier, scaramax [Frankish battle-axe] in belt and lance in hand, with other curious accoutrements. He has a long phallus, there are beasts round him and a snake under his feet; and he wears a head-dress not unworthy of a pagan god. It has points of resemblance to the figure on a brooch from Finglesham in Kent, which is now thought to be Woden.' J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, _The Frankish Church_, p. 28."
But what authority or provenance determines that the figure is Christ?
Best,
John
-------------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Office: (574) 284-4494
Fax: (574) 284-4716
----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, July 20, 2006 3:33 pm
Subject: Re: [M-R] Christ as Warrior
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> On 20 Jul 2006 at 11:39, Gary Macy wrote:
>
> >
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion
> and culture
> > I have what for specialists must seem like a foolish question,
> but I am having difficulties locating
> > further information about a terracotta funerary plaque from
> central Gaul dating from the fifth or
> > sixth century. It shows Christ as a warrior and is used on the
> cover of James Russell's The
> > Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity. Any help here
> would be much appreciated.
> > A picture of the plaque appears below:
>
> Dear Gary,
> I've never seen this curious image before. On what authority is
> the warrior figure
> identified as Christ?
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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