The Louvre, Art History and Musings on Christianity (NSFW?)

I am not a Christian. I was not raised in the Christian faith. However, I live in a world deeply influenced by Christianity. I’ve seen fit to do the reading, and I was trained as an anthropologist where topics of ritual and worship are big parts of the curriculum. 

I’ve observed that museums and churches are absolutely packed of items supposedly touched by Jesus Christ. There are pieces of the true cross, the crown of thorns, and of course there’s the shroud. The full crown of thorns was just ceremonially returned to Notre Dame, following its reopening.

But it feels like there is a missing piece to all this. Namely: his foreskin. Jesus, being raised a Jew, had a bris eight days after his birth. The Feast of the Circumcision is celebrated on January 1, what the rest of us call New Year’s Day. So, theoretically, there is still an actual piece – not something touched by, not something transubstantiated into – but an actual piece of Jesus out there somewhere. DNA and all! 

My burning question is: why isn’t anybody out there hunting for it? The quest for the Holy Grail, merely a cup from which Jesus drank, is part of great literature (and cinema. It’s the best of the Indiana Jones movies). Why is there no Dan Brown book about this? Or Mark Twain? Why hasn’t that ridiculous artifact-stealing and terrorist-supporting Museum of the Bible spent their untaxed dollars on searching it out?

I know my head is a weird place. Welcome in! I blame the Louvre:

 

Hanging in the Louvre, Raising the Questions

~Lucy