Friday, July 13, 2007

Icons of Pluralism






Glen O'Brien has begun publishing a series of Protestant icons on his blog. One of my former students, Mike McMullen, suggested a similar project (actually, COG icons!). These two creative suggestions caused me to think about iconography and worship while on my trip to NY. NY is a city of pluralism and the ideal of capitalism. It's interesting how the "Captains of Industry" are blended with religious ideals in NY. I'll continue to post photos (these are not mine) as I discover examples, but here are a few: Prometheus and Atlas at Rockefeller Center, Einstein at Riverside Church. By the way, Atlas, apparently resembled Mussolini, which caused controversy at the sculpture's unveiling.The most unusual to this point are the sculptures of a man and woman talking on the phone (is that Rock Hudson and Doris Day in "Pillow Talk"?) in Riverside Church, the bastion of Protestant Liberal Theology.