What's special about the Jesus in this photo? Can you see? The picture was taken at the Unitarian Chapel in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where they say, proudly, that Josiah Wedgwood himself was a regular attender three centuries or so ago. I was being shown round the tiny building, and was asked the same question - but I failed to come up with the answer. Answer: Jesus has no halo (a sign of a divine nature) in this glass. Unitarians are Christians, but believe Jesus was fully human, not divine, so he gets no halo.
What a heavenly stained glass window! We Lutherans different on that viewpoint of Jesus!
ReplyDeleteKind regards from EAGAN daily photo
Actually that is not an entirely accurate description of Unitarianism - for two reasons.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, Unitarians rejected the belief in the Trinity (the traditional Christian statement of faith that God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit). So they hold that Jesus is only human (though remarkable and exemplary), while Trinitarian belief is that he is fully human and fully divine. Mainstream Christian bodies see belief in the Trinity as a defining characteristic of Christianity, so those who reject it would not be seen by them as holding 'Christian' belief, even though they are clearly inspired by Christianity, and give a special place to the Christian scriptures. Such a position would also be true of other groups, such as the Quakers and (at another extreme) the Jehovah's Witnesses. These groups are not part of Christian ecumenical bodies, such as the World Council of Churches or the Churches Together groups in England and Wales.
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Unitarians, like the Society of Friends (Quakers) are very 'free thinking', in the sense that they reject dogma and (in modern times) adopt a very 'liberal' religious position in areas of both belief and morality. Not all Unitarians would be comfortable with the description 'Christian', though some certainly would.