Hunter Brooks’s Reviews > Knowing God > Status Update

Also real talk it is nigh impossible to teach 3 year olds about Jesus without pictures so idk about that either. Personally I struggle with that one. In essence you are telling people what Jesus looked like, and that can be dangerous as their theology is built upon your personal opinions. But at the same time do we hold off helping undeveloped brains understand Jesus? I would say no.

This has always seemed to nitpicky to me- how r u gonna expect me to read about Jesus interacting with the disciples and NOT picture him as a human??? Like I can imagine any of the disciples but I gotta have a big white blog where Jesus should be?? What???
Also white Jesus is so interesting to me, bc there are statues of East Asian Jesus and Mary from the Christianized part of China, and I find *that* kinda beautiful. Like Jesus obviously was a middle eastern man and we shouldn't forget that, but he does understand you extremely deeply, as if he was raised right alongside you. He understands the nuances of your society and what you experience. That's what incorrect race Jesus reminds me of at least. (But I totally understand the amount of white Jesuses at this point is harmful!)

I think it is less about when you are telling the stories of Jesus and more about when you are praying to and meditating on Christ. When you are visualizing a being when you are praying to Christ, you are creating your own idealized or idolized version of him or God. The image in your brain isn’t Christ or God, but it is being used as a channel for your prayers to go, which is wrong. I think it would be nigh impossible to tell people they can’t visualize the stories in their heads, but taking that version of Christ from your visualizing to pray to is where the issue really arises. This is where the iconography debate has a fine line. If people are praying to your icon of Christ, it becomes an object of sin. The icons and illustrations are not sinful, but how they are used can be.

Allison that actually helps put it in perspective a lot! I don’t have the temptation to “visualize” God when praying so that’s not really something I thought about inwardly. Also I have been in circles where things like Sunday school visual aides come up for debate so that’s closer to home I guess. But yes along with iconography, I can see it as the inward version of that or having a crucifix necklace to pray with, things like that. Moral of the story pray to God not Jonathan Roumie