Man holding his own skin
Three Hierarchies take on the London Zoo exhibit of humans: Three Hierarchies: The Image of God As only he can, Chris ties in Chinese philosophers’ thoughts on the image of God. He writes:
Knowing God, and seeing Him in all creation, is the purpose of humanity. The ultimate prophet (zhi sheng) is the man Christ Jesus, who as Man received grace and glory to fulfill the destiny of our human nature.
Part of my response to the London Zoo exhibit of humans was fueled by my recent visit to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry where I witnessed a sometimes interesting, but mostly very sad mutilation of bodies once created in God’s image: Body Worlds Please be warned that you might not like the images you see.
Like seeing God’s creation displayed as if we are nothing more special than animals, the Body Worlds display takes God’s creation and turns it into out-of-order, winged creatures, Picasso-like images with no education purpose. Many of the “pieces” were educational, but I had an overwhelming response that the creator of the exhibit had no sense of man as God’s creation. These were bodies…people…God’s created beings…turned to plastic and arranged as it pleased the scultptor, Gunther von Hagens. As I looked at each body, I was continually thinking, “What about the resurrection?” Well, plastic can’t stop God.” I’m glad my kids are both old enough, I tell myself. Old enough to view bodies distorted for “education”?
The Free Republic also has an interesting 2001 post on the exhibit to consider:
Gunther von Hagens has given new meaning to the term “culture of death.” Von Hagens, a German anatomist, has created an “art” exhibit consisting of works that include a man seated at a chess board, his brain exposed; a woman whose pregnant belly is peeled back to reveal an 8-month fetus curled inside; a skinned man astride a horse, holding his brain in his right hand, the horse’s in his left.
Nothing shocking about this, you say, it’s just what passes for modern art these days? Ah, but there’s an important difference. Von Hagens’ “Bodyworks” exhibit is not representational art — the usual paintings or sculptures or even photographs — but actual human bodies or body parts from 200 dead men, women and children preserved, dissected, mutilated and put on display to entertain.
So far, the exhibit has toured cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan, where it has been seen by almost 2.5 million people in Germany alone and raised more than $1.4 million for its promoters. But in Berlin, where the exhibit opened last month, the Catholic Church has protested vigorously. Failing to get authorities to halt the show, the day the exhibit opened, the Church held a Requiem Mass for the dead on display.
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