Originally published in 1983, Leo Steinberg's classic work has changed
the viewing habits of a generation. After centuries of repression and
censorship, the sexual component in thousands of revered icons of Christ
is restored to visibility. Steinberg's evidence resides in the imagery
of the overtly sexed Christ, in Infancy and again after death. Steinberg
argues that the artists regarded the deliberate exposure of Christ's
genitalia as an affirmation of kinship with the human condition.
Christ's lifelong virginity, understood as potency under check, and the
first offer of blood in the circumcision, both required acknowledgment
of the genital organ. More than exercises in realism, these unabashed
images underscore the crucial theological import of the Incarnation.
This revised and greatly expanded edition not only adduces new visual
evidence, but deepens the theological argument and engages the
controversy aroused by the book's first publication.