But according to Dr. Michael Banner the Dean who stepped in to defend the claim made in the sermon that Christ had a ‘trans body ’ the view of a transgender Jesus is ‘legitimate.’
The Dean of Trinity College Dr Michael Banner was there to support junior research fellow Joshua Heath who displayed Renaissance and Medieval paintings of the crucifixion depicting a side wound that he likened to a vagina in front of the congregation.
“The side wound ‘takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance’ said Heath whose Ph.D. was supervised by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.”
According to The Daily Telegraph[3] Heath illustrated his point with the 1400th-century painting Pietà with the Holy Trinity by Jean Malouel which is on display at the Louvre.
The researcher claimed: “In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works if the body of Christ as these works suggest the body of all bodies then his body is also the trans body.”
“In a letter to the Dean one worshipper said: ‘I left the service in tears. You offered to speak with me afterwards but I was too distressed. I am contemptuous of the idea that by cutting a hole in a man through which he can be penetrated he can become a woman.
‘I am especially contemptuous of such imagery when it is applied to our Lord from the pulpit at Evensong. I am contemptuous of the notion that we should be invited to contemplate the martyrdom of a ‘trans Christ’ a new heresy for our age.’”
Others stated that they felt unwelcome in the church and that the children present were visibly uneasy.
But Banner wrote a letter defending the sermon saying: ‘For myself I think that speculation was legitimate whether or not you or I or anyone else disagrees with the interpretation says something else about that artistic tradition or resists its application to contemporary questions around transsexualism.’
[1]Reviewing the controversy that the National Church of Iceland created after featuring a bearded and breasted dancing Jesus wearing makeup (simonmercieca.com)
[2]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11473423/Its-heresy-Worshippers-left-tears-Cambridge-dean-claims-Jesus-TRANSGENDER.html
[3]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/26/jesus-could-have-transgender-claims-cambridge-dean/
Another claim that Jesus is transgender was said during a sermon by the Dean of Trinity College Cambridge
But according to Dr. Michael Banner the Dean who stepped in to defend the claim made in the sermon that Christ had a ‘trans body ’ the view of a transgender Jesus is ‘legitimate.’
The Dean of Trinity College Dr Michael Banner was there to support junior research fellow Joshua Heath who displayed Renaissance and Medieval paintings of the crucifixion depicting a side wound that he likened to a vagina in front of the congregation.
“The side wound ‘takes on a decidedly vaginal appearance’ said Heath whose Ph.D. was supervised by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.”
According to The Daily Telegraph[3] Heath illustrated his point with the 1400th-century painting Pietà with the Holy Trinity by Jean Malouel which is on display at the Louvre.
The researcher claimed: “In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works if the body of Christ as these works suggest the body of all bodies then his body is also the trans body.”
“In a letter to the Dean one worshipper said: ‘I left the service in tears. You offered to speak with me afterwards but I was too distressed. I am contemptuous of the idea that by cutting a hole in a man through which he can be penetrated he can become a woman.
‘I am especially contemptuous of such imagery when it is applied to our Lord from the pulpit at Evensong. I am contemptuous of the notion that we should be invited to contemplate the martyrdom of a ‘trans Christ’ a new heresy for our age.’”
Others stated that they felt unwelcome in the church and that the children present were visibly uneasy.
But Banner wrote a letter defending the sermon saying: ‘For myself I think that speculation was legitimate whether or not you or I or anyone else disagrees with the interpretation says something else about that artistic tradition or resists its application to contemporary questions around transsexualism.’
[1]Reviewing the controversy that the National Church of Iceland created after featuring a bearded and breasted dancing Jesus wearing makeup (simonmercieca.com)
[2]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11473423/Its-heresy-Worshippers-left-tears-Cambridge-dean-claims-Jesus-TRANSGENDER.html
[3]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/11/26/jesus-could-have-transgender-claims-cambridge-dean/