tv Faith Matters Deutsche Welle April 7, 2019 8:02am-8:31am CEST
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i am. one of the forced over when you think about it. and law professor the crucifixion was incredibly sadistic. and here you see the body covered with blood and wound up on the fingers clenched the hands pierced by nails. the face still bearing the marks of the final death throes of the agony aunt frail blood everywhere alice's verse twenty. you see how the other figures six people standing under the cross held by this violence they seem to be crushed by it
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and go home on the arm quinton's are. drawn of their own for a long fingered john the baptist is pointing to this agony to the horror of this scene in all its ramifications and violence after. the death and resurrection of jesus christ are the central tenets of the christian faith. for two thousand years the symbol of the cross has pointed to this religious mystery. you see it everywhere in the christian world. it is displayed on graves it is a trademark and an ornament. it crowns the highest mountains. yet people have always viewed the cross with revulsion and as a contradiction for the crucifixion combines to seemingly consign. entities cruelty
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and our yearning for the divine. get out and i associate grace thanksgiving and or with the cross and of course you know he's going to have you for me i have i'm david and feelings as i was there's i'm not religious so it doesn't speak to me as strict charge people thought i know the meaning of the cross but i just view it as somebody boy good for me the main issue for me was how to take a closer stiction and my intention is simply to make this subject accessible just none of us really know what it's like and all what it isn't like the east or the mission is dismissed me i didn't. want begin to grow as wet as our relationship to the cross but again. where i grew
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up in the so-called christian west everybody relates to it that's how we grow up i hope it's you and who's with him out of sorts i'm all for it since. this is true because a tied my the subject of the cross forms a large part of my artistic work but i definitely don't want to make a cross simply as a piece of declaration as they go to you i want to use my art to explore who and what we are you manage. to go. with the dimension. and then become maya is a sculptor who lives in bavaria in southern germany the crucifixion and the cross are central themes in his work. for a new cemetery in munich he has created a crucifixion sculpture that departs from tradition. bigamous intention was to give
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his cross something he thinks traditional depictions have lost the mystery. the concert sculpture cross in the void. it's been of to you david coleman i had the idea of making this crossing unsubstantial as a space move the question was how. i would form a square oak trials set up in a square with an empty space between them so the cross emerges in outline. i don't know where you stand inside it but you're standing in this space this unsubstantial across lloyd's and when i look up and you see the cross into it with . the cross in the void because this
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maze isn't limited and it stretches in every direction that's very existential like our earthly existence. the significance of the cross for christianity began two thousand years ago in jerusalem. here jesus of nazareth called the christ and the son of god by his followers was executed like a common criminal. steadfast in his belief in god's kingdom on earth he was mocked and crucified as king of the jews. his disciples fled in confusion. then we are told he rose from the dead and appeared to them. reports of this extraordinary event marked the beginning at christianity. the encounter inspired his disciples to go out into the world and
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spread his message. the german theologian peter shoots has studied the symbol of the cross and its message. first is this. watson possibly the most fascinating thing about the cross is that it challenges us to see the most holy the most divine being that one can imagine the creator of heaven and earth suffering and tortured and dying on the cross. for even today it's a mystery as to how it could have happened that there were people who saw god in this shocking execution scene and i guess this is a they interpreted jesus's death as a reconciliation between god and the world this was my goodness affliction can be
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seen in the context of sacrifice an idea we're familiar with in classical antiquity an offering is made to appease god so all you really felt. this is my body which is given for you for the forgiveness of sins these words were reportedly spoken by jesus on the eve of his execution. gradually the idea grew that his death was a cosmic event and that jesus was not simply a man of great wisdom and goodness but god himself. by sharing the life of humans even to the point of dying and then rising from the dead he reversed our fate opening the door to life after death. squads for in the course living wardrop cross was always at the center of the christian message was you see this in the earliest new testament tanks but the visual symbol hardly appears for several centuries one of the earliest depictions of a crucifixion that we know of is a drawing in rome. a sort of mocking cartoon of a donkey on
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a cross court start of the oldest surviving to picture of jesus as crucifixion is on the door of the church of st sabina on the oven time hill in rome kids from the fifth century and. so there seems to have been some reticence about depicting the cross in the early church records as christians in the first centuries seem to have had a problem accepting the symbol of defeat execution and suffering to represent their faith and their god. you're young and forgot. the conversion of the roman emperor constantine marked a turning point legend has it that constantine had a vision on the eve of battle in the year three hundred twelve he saw the cross and the words in this sign conquer. he had crosses painted on his soldiers shields and he won that decisive battle the emperor converted and declared christianity the
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state religion. another point on the cross lost its associations with the shameful death it spread across the roman empire first in the form of a monogram combining in the first two letters of the greek word christophe's keith and row. over the centuries it was increasingly figured as across. in these early depictions the chris of five jesus is shown as christians of that era wish to see him already victorious over life and death living and triumphant. here's an optimist mix of this stone looks very simple at first sight or the cross has arms of equal length and a bar on it's from the seventh century the during the mer of engine dinnerstein the graves of priests and high ranking officials. well marked with stones like this
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least. as in best oracle significance is that they indicate christian grace or it is because i remember they were still heathens in the seventh century who got a high haps the deceased or their relatives and hope that all wish to mark the graves so that none would be forgotten on the day of judgment of our of it's kind of a guess and. originally the symbol of an agonizing and shameful death the cross became a sign of hope and redemption what christians call the mystery of faith. from this point on christians have looked for ways of expressing this faith. they have looked to artists to give visual forms to this provocative mystery and to communicate a belief that elites reason. these
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are worth it to make matters worse decided this work doesn't look at all like a cross affixed as it was of but i would say use of the voice was focusing here in one nine hundred seventy one on aspects of death and resurrection which the cross represents your hands because it's. a simple wooden crate. an ammunition crate from the second world war its contents represented dan. above the crate the dead trunk of a spoon use. the trunk of a christmas tree as a symbol of christ's birth. nailed to the create a twisted crucifix a depiction of the crucified christ. and finally on the tree
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a small sculpture. a miner's lamp as boys call the sculpture of a light source. make up the stairs and cost more than i believe it is a universe of ideas around the question of the cross if there's an hauf is it a sign of hope or is it a symbol of death it is a minute here in this to and fro we as few as a challenge to form our own opinion to adopt our own position and. i think it cannot win and i think that in this way it connects us with a long tradition of the cross as a christian symbol. we're confronted with a question what do we want quite simply life or death. leaving the top gun five. i.
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am one beagle maia began his artistic career as a wood carver training at the famous open a muggle school in southern germany where he's now a teacher. the over i'm a gal crucifixes bearing the traditional medieval corpus a world famous. as it was over you know i attended the school myself more than forty years ago it was a formative experiences and still is this is the students here are all individualists and on this it is mostly technical skill at tortilla the handicraft was here for me to display learn how to copy a historical sculpture in this case a figure of christ in exact detail just this except it's appropriate and. i. a town full of crucifixes over i'm
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a cow in the bavarian alps. the tradition of wood carving here goes back five hundred hears. but religious wood carving is a dying profession. a crucifix in the home common in germany until quite recently is a rarity now. nowadays people who seek spirituality tend to search somewhere else. for many that means nature. mountaintops have always figured as places of spirituality in ancient myths and even biblical stories. places where you can encounter god and through god yourself. christians are no exception and have planted their cross on the peaks.
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people who climb mountains often describe experiences they can't find elsewhere. perhaps because the wide vistas make them aware of their own weakness and imperfections. just go before and that's the nature does have a special spirituality it has its own spirit. guys that all feel it but this aura of holiness is closely related to what religions associate with the divine and the holy writ in goodness and in hiding for being. in eight hundred ten the german romantic artist caspar david flint hayes painted mourning in the lease and get bianca at the time people argued about whether the
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cross was appropriately displayed. but the artist stood at the vanguard of a new movement. more down of courts of stuff the law modern depictions of the cross usually play with the idea of disappearance with distance with the transitory and the historical cross on gaza appears to be sinking further and further into the fog of history it's infinitely far away. the only way left open to us to keep it in the present is not the historical reconstruction of events that occurred two thousand years ago but to grasp it inwardly that you know if you're a fossil. what form could the symbolism of the cross adopt now.
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pam and beagle meyers killed it wouldn't sculpture evolved from the idea of folding a blank sheet of paper. and folding the paper he created a cross. god to send people who are making crosses for more than two thousand years so it's very difficult to come up with a new version of a new perspective a new way of depicting the cross. boston as well as a to find it. has little interest in art as an an with flecked of active piety he's more interested in the conflict between art and faith. the mission of the sword and both of us i always like to try something new the reason i like this piece of wood is that it gives me a structure. a subject of a cross isn't limited to the material it scatters visually it radiates insists on
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the op to get this done saw that's the idea is that it's always a lot however i only know if it works after i've done it i first have to try it. recently as the earth minutes before top was abolished libyan. cologne cathedral. in one of the side chapels a sculpture produced in the year nine hundred seventy. this is the garo cross the oldest extant crucifix that no longer shows christ in a triumphant heroic posture but in his wounded humanity tortured and already dead. it was a watershed in the art of depicting the crucifixion. around the turn of the first millennium a new school of theology involved emphasizing
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a more human redeemer one who had truly suffered. artists began portraying christ's death on the cross in corrie detail the welts of his lashing his dislocated limbs. the suffering of jesus was interpreted as a declaration of god's love for the world a love that never abandons but shares in the experiences of people even experiences of suffering and death. i'm overwhelmed this is an ivory cross from around eleven sixty five pounds of a period in which artists could show christ either alive or dead it's hard to read
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because this is the living christ is the more original the older version inherited from the early middle ages and helpful he's a ruler who stands on the cross of another development to place around the turn of the millennium portraying the suffering christ as the sideboard and the emphasis was no longer on the roulette but on the suffering human dimension luke doesn't mishal this crucifix is a mixture of the two the body isn't really hanging on the cross it's still standing there was less life in it and when. but the eyes are closed in death. one comes if you see that the feet are rather smooth as opposed to food as one that suggests that they were often touched because and. possibly kissed. it's clearly an object that was venerated over a long period when the people prayed in front of it. how can the historical golgotha event ever be depicted adequately how can we capture it in the
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present. even the attempt to do so has had its religious critics. a catechism written by a dutch jesuit in sixteen zero six describes important aspects of the christian life in one hundred chapters. it ends with an engraving bearing the caption views of the origin of faith. the first mists like the energizing craving is a very odd version of the scene on. it shows christ carrying his cross and visibly suffering surrounded by a throng of painters sitting in front of the easels and obviously trying to capture the scene on canvas you know however if you look closely you'll see that none of them is really able to do this. there's a completely different scene on each canvas and some of them are absurd and it was
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a. painters are only portraying their own view of the event the engraving suggests that every fish will representation of christ says more about the artist than their subject when curtis slice or interview could perhaps interpret it as saying what the real meaning of a scene cannot be visualized by the painters are obviously painting something else just as every attempt to explain the process and its meaning to articulated or to be painted on a mental canvas is doomed to fail so article young let's try it on most. does the cross symbolize hope doesn't provide assurance or give rise to doubt. for the faithful the. cross also represents the mystery of what happened after jesus's death. without the resurrection it would not have become such a powerful symbol of christianity.
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one of how many beagle meyer sculptures portrays both death and resurrection. during the christian holy week and it easter it's on display at a village church in bavaria big on my concert resurrection cross. the cup i wanted to portray the cross of the resurrection cross floating in the air not touching the ground it's unsubstantial and the body is no longer hanging on it it would of mistrust mystique is hot and covered with this. easter the feast of the resurrection is inextricably linked with good friday the day jesus died. the story of jesus doesn't end with his death on the cross it
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begins a new life with resurrection is clover the plea for good ark of all fifty of the profound meaning of the resurrection of jesus or is one of redemption and of death and dying have no more power over us see here in the end toward fall in the message of the purpose of jesus his life and preaching is that god is close to us especially when we feel that he's absent scott of course dimension. says it was on the film for. cinda angst of course innocent of fears do not have the final word that is the mystery behind across chords. people have been trying to understand this mystery for two thousand years cam and beagle my last contribution is a cross made of cloth like those in which jesus is crucified body was wrapped william start of does this team of the clothes flow to me yet we the folds and the
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directions in which they're pointing are like rays of light clothes don't normally fall like this is all true but you can sense the body between them as if the body was still there but it isn't there as you did that can the same way as the cross also isn't there anymore only the clothes are there to signify the person humanity the cross resurrection god's oversteer.
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