Should men look for an exemplar of masculinity in Jesus Christ? If so, upon whose portrait of Christ should we rely? Contrasting images are conjured up by those who believe sola scriptura, as evidenced by the essay and the comments box. It also underscores the difference between an overemphasis on the imitatio Christi as opposed to participatio Christi.
Are there situations when Christian men should be courageous and take up the defense of themselves and others? Indubitably. One may question the use of MMA as a form of spirituality in itself, but learning and practicing self-defense is a licit moral activity that can be done out of charity.
Leon Podles leaves this comment:
The wimpy Jesus has a history in the Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart. Jesus was seen as a gentle, non-threatening, understanding man, everything that ordinary men were not. The Jesuits were the main propagators of the devotion to the Sacred Heart, but they were not happy with its effeminate overtones. Franz Hattler. S. J. in 1894 described the image of Jesus in the Sacred Heart cult as “a matchmaker” with a “flirtatiously bowed head, longing eyes, a mouth puckered with kisses,’ and “foppishly crimped hair.” Otto Pfülf, S. J. found the devotion “too sweet,” “like a pious fantasy,” that was “more suitable for the souls of women.” Richard Burton describes the nineteenth-century French Christ as “curiously androgynous, with his wispy beard, does-like eyes, and delicate, soft-limbed body.” In 1899 in the United States an historian described the image of the Sacred Heart as “a young man in flowing gowns, with soft face, large eyes, small delicate out, slightly parted lips, small thin nose, downy beard, long curly hair parted in the middle and falling gracefully to the shoulders, slender hands,” or, as another critic called the image, “a pink painted Valentine.”
The feminine softness and sympathetic gaze of Jesus established a bond between them and those who sought his aid, that is, “ primarily women and children.”This was a major change, as David Morgan points out from the original image of the Sacred Heart; it substitutes “closeness and delicacy of feeling for the older passion, devoted personal relationship for penitential anguish.”
Can we distinguish between the devotion and its artistic representation?
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