"I was afraid, because I was naked"
Genesis 3;10.
It's a common problem. Since we first 'found' ourselves (or were discovered) to be stripped of our original estate of innocence tasted briefly in Eden, you can probably count on a few fingers the instances where physical nakedness today would be identified as good, and only one (a new-born child, both at birth and being cared for at home) where it would be deemed acceptable in a 'normal' situation. It speaks volumes about our society.
"Naked" Model: Katy.
A few years ago, a British TV channel showed a series of art programmes 'before the watershed' (9pm at night) which focused upon life drawing. The channel faced various and numerous complaints, but it's aim appears to have been to accompany a growing interest in life art, both using traditional mediums and digital techniques that has certainly grown in the last few years.
What should we make of this?
Are the critics right or wrong? Should an interest in the artistic aspect of the nude body be encouraged or deemed unfit for popular encounter - does theology have anything to say on the subject?
It's tempting for the Christian to dive into a concordance, dig up all the verses that talk about 'nudity' and 'nakedness', and come to some form of conclusion based on what is found there - there's certainly a breadth of passages that touch on this, and they certainly provide much to consider, but however much we'd like to examine and reflect on such materials, we still have to begin by looking at that moment spoken about in Genesis where Adam and Eve are found hiding and covering their bodies with what they could find - what is really going on here?
I think the first thing to note is that this tragedy (the loss of something which truly made us 'innocent') has nothing whatsoever to do with physical nudity per sae. In the chapter before this, bodily nudity itself was clearly part of the 'natural' condition of living in the garden of Eden, and there clearly wasn't any shame in it, so the attempt to 'cover up' after this is telling us something far more important than that they suddenly wanted to wear clothes.The 'nakedness' ('arowm') of people in the culture of Eden was good, but the 'nakedness' ('eyrom') that makes us hide ourselves from each other and God is an alien thing - an evil which destroys the openness and beauty we had been created to know.
The Fall. Model: Pamela.
We can see in the very words and action of hiding, fearful humanity an 'evolution' that was foreign to the true goodness of and the right community in what was meant to be part of what we inherently are as persons made in God's image and how we inter-act we each other as a result of that. It is this 'new' manner of 'nakedness' (being creatures stripped of our original estate and worth) - that which defines us as broken, ashamed and alienated from what was made good - which has marked us all. It is the hallmark of death, not just in a physical sense, but in the loss of our true identity which resides at the heart of such a state.
The theological approach, then, to such nakedness is clear. When we speak of any action, event or process which demeans or negates human being into being far less than what we were designed to be, then it is to be rejected as blindness of the most terrible kind. If the nude is depicted in a manner which supports and encourages an ideology of evil, then it is itself destructive, but if works of art and cultural events occur which cause us to see our true plight, glimpse our true purpose, these are good, indeed necessary. Such forums, from the straightforward apprehension of beauty, to works which cause us, far more deeply, to ponder our days, therefore can indeed have a true worth, and that is why I would say it is good, indeed right, for Christians to engage with and be involved in art which employs the nude.
The aim, as defined by Christ Himself, is to show the world once again life beyond the bonds of our present pain, sorrow, misery and tragedy, evidenced in God with us, in body and bone, showing that even here and now, there is so very much more. If something of what we do and say points or even hints at that truth, then there is indeed a beauty amidst the ashes.
Wonderfully made. Model:Magenta.