Jesus, the Bachelor…
July 6, 2010 10:41 amJesus was a bachelor and never lived with a woman. Surely living with a woman is one of the most difficult things a man has to do, and he never did it.
~Frank Budgen, friend of James Joyce
This little bit of character analysis is revealed in the forward to James Joyce’s modern epic Ulysses. Apparently Jesus was grounds for inspiration on the gentleness front, but came up short on the overall search for an archetype hero. I have barely scratched the surface of Ulysses, but I have already received the fair warning of it being a lengthy drudge through filth. In fact, it was a literary work initially rejected all together and earned the nefarious recognition of being a “banned book”.
Ulysses is a spider’s web of allegories and mythological reminiscences… it is a dung-heap swarming with worms, photographed by a movie-camera through a microscope.
~Karl Radek, 1934 US book ban
Regardless, this book is now honored by many literary scholars as being the greatest work of the last century. I don’t know if I will ever finish reading it, but I will certainly nod to those who praise its intricate plot structure intertwining mythic lore with common experience. I still have not seen Pulp Fiction, but enough people have told me how amazingly clever it is… that I guess I believe them now. So Joyce and Tarantino are super geniuses, I concede. But they still may miss the obvious while shaping masterpieces out of refuse.
I have to admit that I found the aforementioned quote about Jesus’ lack of human experience via bachelorhood interesting all over again. A good portion of Christian Theology is focused on the assertion and defense of Jesus’ humanity. He was fully human and he experienced every temptation and trial that is common to man. This is the quick apologetic that comes with handy scriptural support.
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
So there it is Joyce, look the B.I.B.L.E says so! And if that is not good enough for you, then you can turn to Dan Brown and the gnostic gospels and read all about Jesus and his wonderful marriage to Mary Magdalene! Well, maybe hold off on the later.
So yes, I do get the accusation and observed discrepancy with the orthodox view of Jesus, His life, and His humanity. An orthodox Christian response to this grievance with Jesus and his unsympathetic bachelorhood life probably falls along the lines of Jesus being presented in scripture as the bride groom of the Church.
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
And this is where the “spiritual” allegorizing of Christianity can get dicey. What does it actually mean for Jesus (as a man) to be married to the church while he was here walking around on earth?
Well, I do believe that if that question is explored at any depth (the gospels would be a decent place to start) one does begin to see the embodied acts of love and commitment that would constitute a healthy marriage with all of the joy, friendship, love, pain, and suffering that comes with such a relationship.
Categories: Bachelorhood, Marriage, Literature, Church, Books, Bible Study, Criticisms
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