I recently read a vicious and quite uninformed criticism of this image. It's difficult to see, but it is a Renaissance painting depicting the coronation of the Virgin Mary in heaven as described in Revelation 12.I found this criticism on an anti-Catholic website that was so ugly, uncharitable and filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations of Roman Catholic and Orthodox beliefs and practices, that I have chosen not even to provide a link. It's simply not worth directing people there.
The website uses words like "blasphemous" and "abominable," to describe images of Mary. It is sad, really, that people see an image of someone we love and admire, and whose example we strive to emulate, and they immediately charge blasphemy and idolatry.
So, with that in mind, I would like to remember the the 278th anniversary of the birth of our first president by posting some pictures not entirely unlike the one above. In fact, if one were to superimpose the Virgin Mary's face over that of Mr Washington, one might elicit charges of idolatry.
I invite my readers to consider whether the image above is really any more objectionable than those that follow:
This last image appears in the eye of the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. It is called "The Apotheosis of Washington." Apotheosis literally means "deification."
2 comments:
That should make people sit up and take notice ... great comparison! I wonder how many people will be offended by the pictures of our presidents?
It's terrible how some people cannot leave other's beliefs alone. I myself was born Catholic, but I didn't really take to it because my family never really went to church so I've claimed myself an agnostic. But I'm not about to go around telling people that I'm right and there wrong. It's a belief because there's no proof backing it.
The comparison was an interesting one though, if not humorous.
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