Discover how our understanding of Easter has changed over the past 2000 years.
Are you curious about the Easter story?
How can an act so violent, strange and joyful be at the heart of two thousand years of human culture?
What did the crucifixion of Jesus mean then? What could it mean now?
Alongside 15 important modern art works that we’re presenting in mid-Wales this Easter (more info here) which paint the Easter story in a contemporary London setting, we’re also introducing to Welsh Christian traditions a short, brilliant book by the remarkable scholar John Rogerson called Perspectives on the Passion. The book tells how Easter was viewed for the first thousand years of Christian history – and how that view changed for the second thousand years. It asks the question what should we think of Easter today?
You can buy it here.
Perspectives on the Passion For the first thousand years of the church’s history the Passion of Jesus – his arrest, trial, beating, torture, humiliation and crucifixion – was seen as something that engaged with and defeated the power and structures of evil. It was seen as God’s way of freeing human beings from the bondage of evil.
A thousand years later in medieval western Europe, with feudal allegiance and feudal honour structuring and dominating society, it was assumed that humans, ultimately, owed a similar sort of feudal allegiance to God. People were then taught that the death of Jesus paid a debt to God, to satisfy God’s honour. The death of Jesus became a price paid to satisfy God. This view is still widely regarded today as expressing what the Bible teaches.
But in the 20th century the earlier perspective and understanding which had dominated the first thousand years made something of a comeback! Christ liberating, victorious over the subtle power of evil that grips people and underpins the terrible forces of destruction unleashed in human culture.
Perspectives on the Passion is a book written in 2008 for a new millennium. It is a book seeking to encourage people to be bold in exploring the Easter story. It brings new perspectives. It is rooted in the past. It is for today.
You can buy a copy here.
You’ll find John Rogerson an amazing scholar. And very accessible. A Christian priest and world-leading authority on how the Old Testament speaks to our difficulties today, his scholarship helps people to navigate through moral and ethical problems of modern life. He was Professor of Biblical Studies at Sheffield University and his writings have been published all over the world. His voice speaks today in a time of confusion and uncertainty. In Perspectives on the Passion he sets out to give church communities and those with no formal contact with churches thoughtful and affirming ways of exploring the mystery, divine love and offer of Easter.
Books that belonged to John Rogerson form the Kingdom of Heaven Collection of the New Library in Llantwit. His books have received international acclaim and admiration.
BUY THE BOOK
You can buy Perspectives on the Passion online here : Buy John Rogerson – Perspectives on the Passion ££9.99 +p&p
SEE THE PAINTINGS
You can see Mark Cazalet’s West London Stations of the Cross in mid-Wales this Easter. More information here.
Thanks for reading.
