Indecent Theology by Marcella Althaus-Reid

Author:Marcella Althaus-Reid [Althaus-Reid, Marcella]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2002-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

Obscenity as the way to avoid unnecessary transcendence

We are going to use Sartre's concept of obscenity, although in reverse. Sartre has worked out in a theological fashion an oppositional pair consisting of ‘Obscenity’ and ‘Grace’ (Sartre 1956: 401). This is done in the context of Sartre's comments on sadism. The example which Sartre brings before us is that of a dancer who dances without clothes, but with such ‘grace’ that in a way, the dancer covers her own body and inhibits lust from the viewers. Grace here is described in terms of a cover-up, an emotional make-up and a form of metaphysical underwear, a spiritual cold shower which controls lust, and controls the body. Returning to the narrative of the Gospel family, it is tempting to identify God with Sartrean grace, for God controls the body and the lust of Mary at the same time. From an indecent perspective, then, Mary becomes the symbol of grace for women, who are called ontologically and materially to cover themselves up and metaphysically speaking to take a cold shower to inhibit lust. Meanwhile, obscenity is the opposite concept. The obscene is, in Sartre's own words, that which renders visible the flesh as flesh, or in the case of the nude dancer, the kinds of movements which do not cover the dancer's nudity but expose it and add the element of the uncontrollable body to the scene (Sartre 1957: 141). Following this argument, then, we may say that grace is destroyed by obscenity. Obscenity appears now to us as the dis-covering of grace, and the way to transcendence. Obscenity does not renounce the viscosity of materiality but sets it free by exposing it. Obscenity leads us towards a theology of exhibitionism, which is a very encouraging sign for the task of affirming reality and the suppressed aesthetics of Christianity. Theology as a classic systematic sexual act is in need of exposure and grace dis-covering obscenity.

The quest for the obscene Jesus is neither new nor restricted to a liberationist feminist enterprise. Historically, obscene Christs have appeared when people wanted to uncover the graceful pretences of current Christologies. The Black Christ of Black Theology was obscene because it uncovered racism under the guise of a white Jesus. I was told by a student that in Jamaica when, several years ago, some people threw black paint over the white statues of Christ in a gesture of defiance, to show that a Jamaican Christ could also be represented as black, even black people were horrified and saw it as blasphemous and obscene. What was obscene was the uncovering, the racial kind of nudity produced, that striptease performed before the reality of a Christ that even amongst black people needed to be represented as white and Caucasian. The Christa is another example of obscenity. It undresses the masculinity of God and produces feelings and questionings which were suppressed by centuries of identificatory masculine processes with God. Why, for instance, is the tortured male body of Christ less offensive and

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