Jesus in Jeans

A church in East Sussex in the UK has unveiled a statue of Jesus clad in loose jeans.

A church in East Sussex in the UK has unveiled a statue of Jesus clad in loose jeans.

Teamed with this, the Lord sports a loose, short-sleeved shirt, mostly unbuttoned. His hair and beard are trimmed. Most interestingly, the cross is shrunk to form a golden halo around the head. No blood, no suffering, this is a friendly, neighbourhood Jesus. The seven-foot bronze statue is the work of the aptly-named sculptor Marcus Cornish and commissioned by the Our Lady Immaculate and St Philip Neri Catholic church in Uckfield. “I wanted to summon up the heroic figure who is active, vigorous, strong, alive and not remote to us,” says Cornish. The makeover has made many happy. Says Father George Plathottam of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, “It’s good, this modern interpretation. I loved Jesus Christ Superstar where they portrayed him as a pop star. Artists have creative freedom. It’s only serious distortions that we object to.”

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Sohini Chattopadhyay