A New Jesus
"The Church Without Christ don't have a Jesus but it needs one! It needs a
new jesus! It needs one that's all man, without blood to waste, and
it needs one that don't look like any other man
so you'll look at him (80).
Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952)
Points
for Reflection
The Bible: Jeremiah 17:5-10
- Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord says what about those who trust in their own minds and bodies, and those of other humans?
- What mental health benefits will apparently accrue to those who trust in God?
- Does this passage suggest that humans can trust their feelings?
- Does God appear more interested in actions or motivations?
Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood (1952), chps 8-9
- Is Enoch’s “wise blood” best described as intuition, idiocy, spiritual compulsion, or something else?
- Which of Enoch’s compulsions seem utterly ridiculous and intended to elicit the reader’s laughter? Do any seem oddly serious?
- Which elements of Haze's preaching resonate with traditional preaching, and which elements differ?
- What practical and symbolic functions does Haze’s car serve?
- What questions rise up in Haze’s mind when presented with the enigma that is Asa Hawks?
- Why does Haze want to seduce Sabbath Lily Hawks?
- Haze boasts that his Church Without Christ will offer its members what?
- A number of other characters who have rejected or distorted orthodox Christian beliefs still spout Christian doctrine. Is Onnie Jay (Hoover Shoats) Jay Holy one of these?
- How many object configurations can you identify in this painting?
- Do these various images seem thematically interrelated, or random and unconnected?
- Does a painting like this make you trust your sight more, or less?
Birth of a Divinity (1960)
oil on canvas
Salvador Dalí
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
