Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision

John and Sarah Crossan—biblical scholar and photographer, respectively—collaborate on this profound, radical work labeled by them as “a debate about ideas presented in and by images.” The husband and wife team collect illustrations of Christ’s resurrection from France, Italy, Romania, Syria, and Turkey, among other places, that demonstrate the divide between the Eastern and Western churches’ interpretation of the resurrection of Christ. Sharply photographed by Sarah and keenly described by John, many of the oldest frescoes, illuminated scrolls of music, and embossed coins show Jesus reaching out to all of humanity—a view still honored by the Eastern church. However, the Western church later favored iconography of an individual resurrection, wherein Jesus rises to heaven alone. The Crossans theorize that, by breaking from the concept of universal resurrection, the evolving artwork from Western masters (such as Piero della Francesca, Raphael, and Rubens) reflects an emphasis on the individual that becomes central to Western thought after the Renaissance. Without attempting to provide answers, they openly wonder what such a transition means to Western Christianity’s approach to understanding good and evil. This important book provocatively considers the ways Christian iconography surrounding the Resurrection has evolved over centuries and continents in response to cultural changes. (Mar.)