Portraits of the Divine
From Dr Sheridan Gilley Sir: I wonder if A.N. Wilson has missed the point of the National Gallery exhibition, Seeing Salvation, in remarking that `by mak- ing falsifiable, and false, historical claims, it [Christianity] gradually made itself unbe- lievable' (Arts, 26 February).
Many of the items in the exhibition illus- trate the Gospel writers' convictions that Jesus was born of a virgin, worked miracles, performed exorcisms and rose from the dead. An unbeliever will always find these unbelievable a priori. A believer is open to their possibility because God can do all things. The difference lies not in the histor- ical evidence but in different interpreta- tions of it.
Again, a lot of the paintings reflect the Evangelists' belief that Christ was the Son of David and Messiah (Matthew, Mark and Luke), and the pre-existing Eternal Word and great 'I am' of God Himself (St John). The truth of these assertions is not certainly provable or falsifiable on purely historical evidence, though it can be harmonised with that evidence. St John's claims can proba- bly be dismissed a priori if you assume that Jesus, who was a first-century Jew, was no more than a first-century Jew.
Our finest artists have worked on the opposite principle and make Christianity believable in giving us glimpses of the glory and mystery of a man who was also some- thing more.
Sheridan Gilley
Department of Theology, University of Durham, Durham
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