Antigravity Mania

 

THIS JUST IN!

Antigravity Mania Sweeps
Judeo-Christian Tradition!

Feast for the Eyes
With Guaranteed Full-Color
Semi-Exclusive Illustrations!

Wide Variety of Pious
Antigravitational Poses!

See Floating Figures
(No Strings Attached) in
Cosmic Drama Stretching From
Creation of World to End of Time!

Key Points in Salvation History
of Planet Earth Represented
in Chronological Order!

No Commercial Interruptions
or Requests for Donations!

(For Best Viewing, Kindly Click on These
Smaller Images to Reveal Larger Images.)


Michelangelo's "Third Day of Creation"
(detail, Sistine Chapel)
Genesis 1: 11-13


Giordano's "Dream of Solomon"
I Kings 3: 5-13


Angeli's "Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire"
II Kings 2: 11


Giordano's "Fall of the Rebel Angels"
Isaiah 14: 12-15, Revelation 12: 7-8


Lorenzo Lotto's "Anunciation" (detail)
Luke 1: 35 (& elsewhere)


Raphael's "Transfiguration"
Matthew 17: 1-3 (& elsewhere)


Chagall's "White Crucifixion"
(detail, with extra-canonical
figures floating above cross)
Matthew 27 (& elsewhere)


Gruenewald's "Resurrection"
Matthew 28 (& elsewhere)


"Ascension" from Saint Honore
de Thuison Monastery, Abbeville, France
Acts of the Apostles 1:9 (& elsewhere)


Michelangelo's "Conversion of St. Paul" (detail)
Acts of the Apostles 9: 3-8


Charonton's "Coronation of the Virgin"
(unattested in Scripture)


Memling's "St. John the Evangelist
on the Isle of Patmos"
Revelation 1: 9-11 (& throughout)


Bosch's "Last Judgment"
Book of Revelation 20: 11-13
(with a lot of extra nuts & bolts
thrown in for good measure)

That's all for today, folks!

 

With Wings or Without?

From the beginnings of civilization and back into prehistory, divine beings were often depicted with wings to show that, like the birds, they were creatures of the sky who observed humans from on high and could hide and frolic among the clouds. Their wings also allowed them to move rapidly from place to place, which explains why one devotee could experience their divine presence at one location and another devotee, far away, could apprehend the same divinity only a short time later.

However, in the Western tradition God's powers are seen to be so overwhelmingly great that he defies gravity at will, as dramatized on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Michelangelo fresco known as "The Creation of the Sun and Moon." Our Father, according to this vision, is definitely in heaven, but he needs no bird-like appendages to keep him there; wings are for lesser beings like angels, not the Lord of the Universe. Obviously, this article of faith has evolved far beyond the one that likened the gods to glorified eagles.

The absolute difference between human beings who are earthbound and a transcendent God who floats about in ultra-reality at will is a reminder that we should cultivate humility. Michelangelo's magnificently famous "Creation of Adam," also on the ceiling of the Sistine, may reveal the Creator and his human creation as approximately the same size, but there's no question about which one claims immortality, keeps celestial companions, and possesses the life-giving touch--and which is an utterly dependent creature without clothing, shelter, full consciousness, or, as yet, a single companion.
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