Medieval illuminations transgender7/8/2023 We imagine that sad grey people just sat and did nothing, before dying at the ripe old age of 25. One is that the medieval period– a period that is actually incredibly creative, vibrant and radical– is often depicted as a sad, grey period. This idea is not a modern one created to pander to the ‘woke agenda’Īs to why these comments have been so misconstrued, I believe there are two explanations. It appears that Heath may have been speaking in this tradition when he made his comments in Trinity’s service, which do actually argue that the body of Christ is subject to the bodily experiences of the worshipper. Ergo, if the worshipper was female, then Christ would often be feminised to inspire a bit of empathy between the worshipper and the subject. This draws upon the medieval idea of affective piety - or rather, the idea that acts of devotion should be in line with the bodily reality of the devotee. It is important to note that through looking at all these examples of devotional art and literature, the prevailing voices are primarily female. Still sceptical? How about considering the writings of several female devotional writers of the medieval period? Brigette of Sweden wrote about Christ’s pain on the crucifixion using the same language as that of a woman going through the throes of childbirth Margery Kempe evoked Christ’s pain on the cross as she herself gave birth and most obviously, the writings of Julian of Norwich where she states that Christ is our “mother”? If any scepticism remains about whether or not these images are indeed meant to evoke the vulva, then they should be viewed alongside paintings of Christ from the medieval period in which the messiah is depicted with curvy hips and pronounced breasts. These books, often containing similar images, were an extremely popular form of devotional writing often commissioned by wealthy women and there are genuinely thousands of manuscripts available. The book in which the illustration Heath references is included, Bonne of Luxembourg’s Prayer Book, is one of many pieces of devotional literature that fall into the Book of Hours category. In fact, contrary to several outraged reactions, this idea is not a modern one created to pander to the woke agenda. Seldom does the word Bridgemas conjure up the term ‘culture-war’ Nowhere in Heath’s statement does he claim that– just because Jesus’ side wound looks a bit like a certain female body part– the Son of God must be transgender. Yet, through all of this, it appears there has been a massive misinterpretation. Altogether, it appears that Heath’s statement has been misconstrued as yet another act of ridiculous rewriting done by the woke brigade to completely erase history. The Daily Mail called it a “heresy row”, and the Telegraph went one further by stating that Heath’s sermon was a case of “rewriting history to appear relevant”. Heath later went on to state that “in Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works, if the body of Christ is as these works suggest, the body of all bodies, then his body is also the trans body.” The idea that Heath was somehow arguing that Jesus was transgender was quickly adopted by the press. That is, of course, unless you were attending Trinity College’s chapel service the other week, in which chapel-goers left in tears as a result of a supposedly heretical speech given by junior research fellow Joshua Heath and Trinity’s Dean, Dr Michael Banner, who stated that the side wound of Christ was similar to that of a vagina. Seldom, however, does the word Bridgemas conjure up the term culture war. When you think of Bridgemas, you often think of peaceful film nights with friends as work winds down, festive formals, and joyful choir services with mulled wine.
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