Jesus and postmodern political life

What does Jesus have to do with politics, whether at the local or the global level? How do Christians live and witness in a pluralistic and fractured multi-cultural society?

This month at the theology reading group we are discussing
Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in An Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies by Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird

The relationship between Christianity and politics is a complex issue with theological, historical, cultural, and social dimensions. I appreciate that Wright and Bird do not gloss over the complexity of the issue and yet write in an accessible, balanced, and winsome manner. I found the book easy to read and enjoyable. Overall, I found it encouraging and challenging.

On the other hand, I should point out that after I wrote most of this post I read a critical but appreciative review of the book by John Nugent at Englewood Review. He considers that Wright and Bird are too uncritical about Christendom, and that they view things too much through the lens of the creation mandate (Genesis 1:26).

The section, Building for the Kingdom (p.83ff) is inspiring. God builds God's Kingdom. But he invites us to participate in this work.  "we do well to distinguish between the final manifestation of the kingdom and the present anticipations of it." In other words, it is now but not yet.  Christians are to build for the Kingdom. This includes engagement at all levels of society, motivating small and large acts. Wright draws on 1 Corinthians 15:58

So, my dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakeable, always full to overflowing with the Lord's work. In the Lord, as you know, the work your doing will not be worthless."

He explains the significance of this in the following inspiring passage:

what we do matters because it carries over into the final new creation....

We are - strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself - accomplishing something which will become, in due course, part of God's new world.

If that is true, then, every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely disabled child to read or to walk... all spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the Gospel... - all of this will finds its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make.

 The work we do in the present to build for the kingdom gains its full significance from the eventual consummation of the kingdom in the time appointed by God. Applied to the mission of the Church, this means that we must erect in the present the signs of that kingdom, providing a preview of what everything will look like when God is ‘all in all’, when his kingdom has come and his will is done ‘on earth as in heaven’. When the people of the new creation behold its wonder and beauty, it should strike them with an acute sense of déjà vu, as if to remind them of a prayer they once heard prayed, an act of mercy they saw performed, a song that they had once sung that now echoes all around them, a sermon about Jesus that they now see spring to life, a cry for justice that is now answered, and a love that was even better than what they were told. We build for the kingdom, because what we do for the King carries forward into his royal realm.

Consistent, with the above passage, Wright and Bird have a broad view of what Christian witness is. It is not just words but also actions.

What about worldly governments, good and bad? The consider Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-17. Rulers have been delegated by God to administer justice and so they are accountable to God. Just because a ruler's authority has been given to them by God does not give them carte blanche to do as they please or an obligation to their Christian subjects to blindly affirm and obey them. As rulers are accountable to God it is appropriate and responsible for Christians to remind them of this, particularly when they are agents of injustice. Furthermore, there is room for civil disobedience and in exceptional cases perhaps even violent resistance. (page 42-3)

The sacred versus secular divide is a false dichotomy, including in politics, where it plays out in church-state relations. This dichotomy may express itself in two extremes: theocracy (where the state enforces the orthodoxy of one religious community, as in Oliver Cromwell or in Iran) and autocrative secularism where the state is used to eliminate any public expression of religion (e.g., in the former Soviet Union and China).

Christianity is not primarily about "going to heaven" but "heaven coming to earth" (with now but not yet caveats).

(pages 61, 65, 66)

Another false dichotomy to avoid is the Kingdom of God versus the Cross of Christ. In extreme this puts social justice in opposition to evangelism, and the Gospels in tension with the Pauline Epistles. Wright discusses how when he was Bishop of Durham he oversaw churches that had a sole emphasis on one or the other.

(page 78ff)

“What is clearly not in mind is that preaching the cross to the ‘lost’ would happen in one church while acts of mercy for the poor would happen in another church. Advancing the kingdom means promoting the gospel from Jesus and about Jesus. Kingdom-work is continuing to do the very same things that Jesus himself did among individuals in need, challenging self-assured religious types, offering mercy to the downtrodden and forgotten, warning of judgement, exhorting faith in God’s generous forgiveness, and speaking words of truth in the halls of political power.”

Against Christian Nationalism (p.129ff)

“Christian nationalism is impoverished as it seeks a kingdom without a cross. It pursues a victory without mercy. It acclaims God’s love of power rather than the power of God’s love. We must remember that Jesus refused those who wanted to ‘make him king’ by force just as much as he refused to become king by calling upon ‘twelve legions of angels’. Jesus needs no army, arms or armoured cavalry to bring about the kingdom of God. As such, we should resist Christian nationalism as giving a Christian facade to nakedly political, ethnocentric and impious ventures.”

Against Civic Totalism (p.136 ff)

Under the guise of being "progressive" a state seeks "to regulate the individual's beliefs, convictions, conscience and religion". This has a strong "culture war" dimension and I feel that sometimes this threat is overblown by some politically "conservative" Christians.

A strong case is made for liberal democracy as the best form of governance, albeit the best among bad options.

“we wish to prosecute the thesis that in a world with a human propensity for evil, greed and injustice, liberal democracy stands as the least worst option for human governance. Liberal democracy is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for a just society, but it can be an enabling condition for a just society.”

Eight benefits of liberal democracy are given. One is "Economic opportunity and equality."  There is substantial evidence for this, as argued in the best book that I read in 2019.

Following John Inazu, the authors advocate for "confident pluralism".

“Confident pluralism has a very simple premise, namely, that people have the right to be different, to think differently, to live differently, to worship differently, without fear of reprisal. Confident pluralism operates with the idea that politics has instrumental rather than ultimate value. In other words, politics is a means, not an end. No state, no political party, no leader is God-like, or can demand blind devotion. Any attempt by political actors to create social homogeneity by compelling conformity, by bullying minorities or by punishing dissent, whether in religion or in policy, is anti-liberal and undemocratic. "

What is missing from the book?

Any discussion of the problem of smartphones and social media. Today, they completely shape popular political debate, making it superficial, divisive, and polarising. There are several important dimensions to this. Christians are addicted to their phones and this undermines discipleship, contemplative practices, and incarnational ministry. Tech companies are now "powers" for evil that need to be grappled with.

There is a good emphasis on the multi-cultural nature of the church. In this context, it should be acknowledged that the global church is now centred outside the West. In the West the largest and fastest growing church are not white but immigrants. I would like to hear their voice on these topics. My limited experience is that many of these voices are less sympathetic to liberal democracy.

One book from an African perspective is The Church and Politics by Bernard Boyo.

John Nugent points out the book also lacks any engagement with alternative visions of political theology, such as due to Karl Barth, Stanley Hauerwas, or John Yoder, who are more wary of the church engaging with worldly powers. Admittedly, they might have made a longer book. In fairness, page 34 does mention Hauerwas's critique of Christendom.

The Undeceptions podcast has a good episode where John Dickson interviews Tom Wright about the book.

The Doge Leonardo Donà Worshiping the Virgin and Child. by Marco Vecellio (1545–1611) The Doge's Palace in Venice

For me this captures the ambiguity of Christendom. Who is worshiping who? 

When does humanity make my heart sing?

What is so wonderful about being human? Sometimes humanity does inspire awe and wonder in me.

Babies burp, puke, poo in their pants, and sometimes cry inconsolably. Yet, they are so cute and adorable. I love their little fingers and toes, with miniature nails. They explore their environment with great curiosity. Babies occasionally flash winsome smiles to the joy of those watching them. And there is the miracle of the way they grow spontaneously and mature into small children. Those cute little fingers grow to full size.

Small children have their own sense of awe, wonder, curiosity, and joy. They can be a source of inspiration and envy to staid adults like myself. Simple things delight: throwing flower petals in the air, blowing bubbles, digging in the garden, holding a hand, or cuddling a pet.

To often I struggle to see adults as cute and adorable or a source of delight, awe, and wonder. They have an incredible ability to heartlessly inflect pain on others. But sometimes adults do make my heart sing and I clamour for more. I am moved deeply by acts of service, tenderness, compassion, courage, reconciliation, forgiveness, generosity, and self-sacrifice. A poor person shares what little food they have with their neighbour. A child stands up to a bully in the playground.  A mother comforts a sick child. A highly-paid CEO leaves his position and suburban house so he can work and live in a marginalised poor community.

Relationships can be beautiful and lead to awe and wonder. Even introverts such as myself hunger for relationships and community. There is nothing quite like the connections associated with vulnerability, camaraderie, and laughter. Even those of us blessed with a stable and rich family life, desire more.

                                    Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 

I am in awe of human creativity expressed in art, music, literature, business, science, engineering, and academic disciplines. Wow! Why can humans create such amazing things?

Humans have much of the same biology as animals: DNA, proteins, cells, organs, brains, ... Yet humans are unique in the animal kingdom. Their level of consciousness, reflection, communication, creativity, and culture is simply on a different scale from anything seen in primates. On the one hand, apes can do some fascinating things with similarities to human behaviour. However, apes do not write science textbooks, build telescopes, or create great literature.

Humans all have the same biology. But no human has exactly the same DNA as another. Consequently, each human has a unique personality, unique physical characteristics and abilities. Humans also share many common abilities and aspirations. There is unity in diversity. I delight in the diversity, even though sometimes I do wish everyone was just like me! In particular, it would be nice if everyone had the same values and perspectives as me. On the other hand, I can begrudgingly admit the world would be an even bigger mess if it was full of introverted Western theoretical physicists.

To understand the wonder and tragedy what a human is and how they behave, I find different perspectives helpful. Humans can be considered at different scales, from genetic to social. Thus, one can bring to bear perspectives from biology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. I also have awe and wonder at humans and what we can understand about humans, again reflecting something wonderful about human capabilities.

My sense of wonder provides hints of transcendence: there is something beyond all that we observe, touch, measure, and rationalise.

There is much to celebrate and enjoy about humanity. But, sober observation acknowledges the reality of human depravity. We hurt ourselves, others, and nature. Sometimes brutally and in ways that we consider worthy of condemnation. This leads me to an ambivalence about humanity. Awe and wonder at the beauty of humanity must be held in tension with revulsion and contempt for human vulgarity. This is a paradox.

The dialectic of the human condition is captured in the narrative of the Genesis narrative, and the associated theological concepts of creation and fall. On the one hand, each person is made in the image of God, of intrinsic value, and mandated to enjoy, care for, and steward the creation. On the other hand, this image is marred. Humans are fallen, prone to violence, and alien to themselves, others, and nature.

Beauty, art, and mission

 Last night my wife and I watched Many Beautiful Things, a documentary about the extraordinary life of Lillias Trotter. It captures the beauty of her life and art and how she followed Jesus. The striking cinemaphotography gave a glimpse of the amazing ways that Trotter could see beauty in nature and then capture it in watercolours. Daily she wrote diary entries about her life and spiritual journey including ornate pictures of scenes and people she engaged with. She was independently wealthy and of frail health. She had artistic talent that could have led to her being the greatest English painter of her time, according to the judgement of John Ruskin (the leading English art critic of the 19th century). Yet, her desire to follow Jesus led her to care for destitute women in London and eventually women and children in Algeria. This choice was a great disappointment to Ruskin.

You can watch it for free on Youtube (with endless ads) or on RedeemTV without ads. I thank Tanglaw Roman for bringing it to my attention.

The fascinating world of John Milton

Recently at Theology on Tap, Ben Myers gave a fascinating talk, Poetry and Truth: What John Milton means to me, focusing on Milton's classic poem, Paradise Lost. One measure of the success of a talk such as this is that it inspires the audience to go and read the original work. Ben certainly did this.

     The illustration is The Temptation and Fall of Eve by William Blake.

I did not know that Milton worked closely with Oliver Cromwell, who I find to be a scary figure. Milton wrote Paradise Lost towards the end of his life when he was blind, under house arrest, and after a tragic personal life where his first two wives died in childbirth. The dreams he had for an English government that was not shackled to the crown, and the church was not shackled to the state were dashed.
He knew that something was wrong with the world.
He took the story of Genesis 1-3 and creatively filled in the gaps to create an epic poem, now considered to be one of the greatest pieces of English literature ever.
Each of the 12 books begins with a summary. The summary for book 9 illustrates the creativity of Milton.

The only contemporary of Milton that is mentioned in the poem, is Galileo, who Milton did meet in person. The meeting is depicted in the painting above.

Satan's shield is compared to the moon seen through the telescope of the ``Tuscan artist.''

He scarce had ceas’t when the superior FiendWas moving toward the shore; his ponderous shieldBehind him cast; the broad circumferenceHung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose OrbThrough Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist viewsAt Ev’ning from the top of Fesole,Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands,Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.

An interesting blog post, Milton and Galileo: Affinities between art and science, by Brigitte Nerlich states:

Many articles have been written about Milton and the telescope but I only want to quote from one by Marjorie Nicolson (1935): which claims that Milton never forgot the experience of looking through a telescope and seeing new worlds on the moon. This, she says, “is reflected again and again in his mature work; it stimulated him to reading and to thought; and it made Paradise Lost the first modern cosmic poem, in which a drama is played against a background of inter-stellar space”. 

The encounter with Galileo and the telescope left in fact many traces in Paradise Lost: “each of Galileo’s most famous discoveries is reflected in one or more passages in the epic. Among them are the countless newly sighted stars (7. 382-84), the nature of the Milky Way (7. 577-81), the phases of the planet Venus (7.366), the four newly discovered moons around Jupiter (8.148-51), the new conception of the moon (7. 375-78), the nature of moon spots (1. 287-9; 5. 419-20; 8. 145-48), and the nature of sun spots (3. 588-90)”. (Hunter, A Milton Encyclopedia, vol. 3, p. 120-121).

Yearning for restitution

The Weekend Financial Review has a fascinating and disturbing article Shameful legacy of Nazi treasure hoards [Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. I read the hard copy.]
It concerns the shameful manner in which the German government after WWII dealt with the embarrassing issue of what to do with all the art and wealth that the Nazis had looted from Jews.

A renewed focus on this old and painful issue has been further stimulated by the new Hollywood movie The Monuments Men.



The seriousness of the above trailer (version 2) is an interesting contrast to the frivolous marketing of the main one. 

The quest for beauty in science

S. Chandrasekhar was a very famous astrophysicist who featured in two earlier posts.
In 1979 he published an article in Physics Today, Beauty and the quest for beauty in science. It was reprinted in an memorial issue solely about Chandrasekhar.
It makes fascinating (but intellectually demanding) reading. The abstract is

Science, like the arts, admits aesthetic criteria; we seek theories that display a proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole while still showing some strangeness in their proportion.

He quotes Keats:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Later he states:

So far, my remarks have been confined to what we may all concede as great ideas conceived by great minds. It does not, however, follow that beauty is experienced only in the context of great ideas and by great minds. This is no more true than that the joys of creativity are restricted to a fortunate few. They are, indeed, accessible to each one of us provided we are attuned to the perception of strangeness in the proportion and the conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole.

I am considering using these quotes as a part of an introduction to a talk I have been asked to give by a Bible study group of scientists in Bangalore.

We can see beauty and truth in science. We should seek it elsewhere as well. Is there truth and beauty and mystery to be found in the Bible? in the life and teachings of Jesus? Do we perceive "strangeness in the proportion" (mystery) there?
Is there "conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole" (a coherent framework for understanding ourselves, God, and our place in the universe)?

Science is (or should be) beautiful

I have never heard someone say "I don't know much about science but I know what I like."
Is science art? Can scientific knowledge be beautiful? Are some theories more beautiful than others?

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was one of the most influential astrophysicists of the twentieth century. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983. Recently Physics Today devoted a whole issue to him, marking the centenary of his birth. They reprinted a 1979 article he wrote, Beauty and the quest for beauty in science. The abstract is:

Science, like the arts, admits aesthetic criteria; we seek theories that display "a proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole" while still showing "some strangeness in their proportion.".

[This article is also included in a book of essays entitled, Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science].

An interesting exploration of these ideas is Physics and Christian Theology: Beauty, a Common Dialect? by Tracee Hackel.

Dancing ideology

Last night I watched Mao's Last Dancer based on the autobiography of ballet dancer Li Cunxin. I highly recommend it. I appreciated the portrayal of the

• striking cultural contrasts between Communist China and Houston, Texas in the 1980's! 
• nature and totalitarian goals of Marxist-Leninist ideology
• social, artistic, and personal dimensions to the Cultural Revolution
• enduring importance of family, even to adult children

Another inspiring ballet-based movie I recommend (regardless of whether or not you like ballet) is Billy Elliot. It portrays an aspiring young male dancer in a completely different culture in the 1980's: a coal mining town in the north of England racked by strikes and the battle between miners unions and the Thatcher government!

The Cross of Jesus is a scandal

An innocent man suffered the horrendous death of a criminal.

A powerful King is humiliated by a brutal foreign ruler rather than delivering his people from their unjust suffering.

Guilty people who believe the innocent man died in their place escape punishment for their wrongdoing. They don't get what they deserved.

The Raising of the Cross by Rembrandt (1633).
n.b. He painted himself into the scene!

Expect the unexpected

We all have pre-conceived ideas about how God should and should not act. A case in point is Naaman, as recorded in 2 Kings 5. He had definite ideas about the way that the LORD, the God of Israel, should heal him from his leprosy: it should be very dramatic.

¹⁰And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean." ¹¹But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.¹²Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. 

The Prophet Elisha and Naaman, Lambert Jacobsz (ca. 1598-1636). I found this image at Biblical Art on the WWW, which is particularly useful because you can search under specific Biblical passages.

This is the Gospel of the King who Saves

This morning at church we started a new sermon series on the Gospel of Mark, looking at chapter 1, verses 1-15. The extracts below highlight what it is all about: forgiveness of sins and God establishing a new kingdom, as he promised.

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God....


⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins...


"After me comes he who is mightier than I, ..."

¹⁴ Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,¹⁵and saying,  "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

John the Baptist was the "Elijah" [one dressed in camel hair] who had been predicted to come. He points towards Jesus [he saves] Christ [King].

The painting below is from the Isenheim Alterpiece by Gruenwald. A copy hung in Karl Barth's office for much his career.

Football is art

We are big football fans in our house. Last night we were ecstatic that Brisbane Roar played some beautiful football and outclassed their nearest competitors Adelaide to cement their place at the top of the A-League. But enough ....

This post is actually about recommending a fantastic video The Art of Football from A to Z featuring John Cleese. He goes through the alphabet (A is for attack, B is for ball, ... G is for Goal, ... M is for money, ... Q is for Quantum Physics!!) and interviews various famous soccer players (Pele, Henry, Beckenbauer, ...) and managers (Wenger) as well as artists, musicians, and politicians (Desmond Tutu, Henry Kissinger, Dennis Hopper, ...
 The  DVD has a brilliant interspersion of humour, brilliant football, philosophy, ...
It makes a convincing case that football is art.

Barth as a cultural intellectual

In the article I mentioned in my previous post Rudy Koshar states:

Barth’s cultural provenance also reflects his status as a European intellectual conversant with the important thinkers of the time. The luminaries of high bourgeois culture appear scattered across Barth’s writings, especially in the Church Dogmatics, where perhaps many readers expect not to find them because of this publication’s “churchly” character. Such eclecticism is fitting for one whose work “orders all the paths of human wisdom, philosophical and religious, around the central core of a purely theological point of view.” In the Church Dogmatics we find commentaries of varied length on Mozart (Barth’s favorite composer), Shakespeare, Spinoza, Rousseau, Goethe, Hegel, Kant, Schopenhauer, Marx, Darwin, Richard Wagner, John Stuart Mill, Max Weber, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Jung, Jaspers, and many others interwoven with often labyrinthine theological and biblical references and historical analysis of Church doctrine. Barth’s stance of engagement within distance remains evident throughout this massive referential system, which (seeing that Barth often listened to Mozart as he worked) had the character of a symphonic score rather than a theological treatise.

The meeting of art, politics, and religion in the public square

This is a statue of Svetozar Miletic in the main square of Novi Sad in Serbia. He was a Mayor of the town twice during the 19th century and a Serbian nationalist. The statue is by Ivan Mestrovic, whose life story, as described on Wikipedia makes fascinating reading.

There is an interesting question as to whether he is shaking his fist at the neighbouring Catholic cathedral and whether the statue was installed by the communists to replace a cross in the square.

Craftsmen and artists called by the LORD

Should Christians be involved in the creative arts, sciences, and humanities?
If so, what is their ultimate purpose and goal?
It is interesting reading in Exodus about the construction of the tabernacle

³⁰ Then Moses said to the people of Israel, "See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; ³¹and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, ³²to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, ³³in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. ³⁴And he has inspired him to teach, .....

¹"Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the LORD has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded." ²And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the LORD had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.

Exodus 35:30-36:2

I take such a narrative as descriptive and not presciptive for today. But, what are some principles?
The gifts of creativity and skill are from God, who should be ackowledged as their source, and they should be used to glorify God. The tabernacle was the "meeting place" where God's people encountered him as the God of grace and promise. The arts and sciences should be the same for Christians.

The sketch is described here.

Does the stream forever glide?

Still glides the stream and shall forever glide (1888) by Arthur Streeton, one of Australia's most famous artists. This painting of the Yarra River in Melbourne, helped launch his career.

What does it have to do with theology? In his But Now talk Keith Birchley used it to illustrate the notion of religion going on and on. But now, that has changed with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The gospel in art

From my parents I inherited a copy of a beautiful "coffee table" book, The Living Gospels of Jesus Christ, which contains J.B. Phillips translation of the four gospels, interspersed with many colour plates of art (from all eras and styles). For example, in Luke 5, Simon Peter sinks to his knees and beseeches Jesus, "Keep away form me, Lord, for I'm only a sinful man!" This is illustrated with Raphael's `The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.'

The book is out of print. But you can buy second hand copies here. This might be a great Christmas gift for someone who enjoys fine art.

What then shall we do?

This morning I read through Luke 3:1-22. This is an incredibly rich passage. John the Baptist is warning of both the coming Judgement and announcing the arrival of Messiah. Both are intertwined and announced as "good news". Is John also pointing to how Judgement and Salvation come together at the cross?

The painting below is from the Isenheim Alterpiece by Gruenwald. A copy hung in Karl Barth's office for much his career.

The crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers each asked John, "What then shall we do?"

It is interesting and challenging that John's answers to all involve the just aquisition, use, and distribution of money and property!

Ignorance gives way to genius?

Today I visited the Pantheon in Paris. It illustrates a national and public struggle between church and state, faith and reason, science and religion.
The title of the post is that of a cartoon I found in a really nice book I bought about the Pantheon. Unfortunately, I could not find an image online..

Here are a few quotes from the English version of the official brochure:

The Pantheon: From Christian baslica to temple of the nation

On two occasions the enormous sanctuary reverted to being a place of Christian worship before finally becoming a civic temple in 1885, with the funeral of Victor Hugo [author of the novel, Les Miserables].

Foucalt's pendulum demonstrating the rotation of the earth, was first installed in the monument in 1851. It was removed prior to the future Napoleon III returning the monument to religous use, and then replaced by Camille Flammarion during the government's anti-clerical drive on the eve of the law separating Church and state, passed in 1905.

A video about the pendulum ends with a stirring speech from the Minister for Education at the time the pendulum was restored.

A distinctly Christian hope for the future

Here is another quote from chapter 20 of Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline, which gives an detailed analysis of each phrase of the Apostle's Creed.

`... To judge the quick and the dead.' If we wish to understand aright here, we must from the start repress certain pictures of the world-judgement, as far as we can, and make an effort not to think of what they are describing. All those visions, as the great painters represent them, about the judging of the world (Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel), Christ advancing with clenched fist and dividing those on the right from those on the left, while one's glance remains fixed on those on the left! The painters have imagined to some extent with delight how these damned folk sink in the pool of hell. But that is certainly not the point.

Question 52 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks: ` What comfort hast thou by the coming again of Christ to judge the quick and the dead?' Answer: `That in all my miseries and persecutions I look with my head erect for the very same, who before yielded Himself unto the judgement of God for heaven...' A different note is struck here. Jesus Christ's return to judged the quick and the dead is tidings of joy. `With head erect,' the Christian, the Church may and ought to confront this future. For He that comes is the same who previously offered Himself to the Judgement of God. It is His return we are looking for. Would it had been vouchsafed to Michelangelo and the other artists to hear and see this!

I find this helpful and challenging. It shows our innate tendency to self-righteousness and puts the focus on Christ and what he accomplished on the cross. The hope it highlights connects past, present, and future.