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

Publisher Description

While traveling throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East, bestselling author and acclaimed Bible scholar John Dominic Crossan and his wife, Sarah, made a surprising discovery. Over and over again, they found paintings showing something they had never seen in Western art: the risen Jesus grasping the hands of Adam and Eve as he rose to Heaven. This led the Crossans on a fifteen-year investigation across Egypt, Italy, Turkey, Syria, Israel, and Russia. Along the way, they tracked the evolution of artwork throughout the centuries and the divide between the solitary resurrection of the West and the universal resurrection of the East. What they found led them to the unexpected realization that the East, not the West, has a more holistic understanding of Easter. Their journey was guided by four questions: Why are all major events in the life of Christ directly described in the Gospels except for his resurrection Why does Western Christianity depict an individual resurrection but Eastern Christianity a universal resurrection Which of the two traditions is in fuller continuity with the New Testament itself What is the meaning and challenge of universal resurrectionIn Resurrecting Easter, the Crossans argue that the West gutted the heart of Christianity's understanding of the Resurrection by rejecting that once-common universal iconography in favor of an individualistic vision. As they examine the stunning and surprising Eastern iconography of Jesus's Resurrection, they argue that these images raise profound questions about Christian morality and forgiveness. Illustrated with one hundred and thirty color images, Resurrecting Easter introduces an inclusive, traditional community-based ideal that offers renewed hope and possibilities for our fractured modern society.