Cover Up

Professor Francesca Stavrakopolou reads God: An Anatomy, her surprising and often controversial examination of God, in all his bodily, uncensored, scandalous forms.

In this fourth episode, she explores how Christian tradition has covered up the genitals, literally fixing bronze loincloths to Michelangelo’s nude statues of Christ.

“No matter that Michelangelo, like many of his predecessors and peers, used the nude theologically to celebrate the humanity and masculinity of the divine Christ. For too many, the genitals were both spiritually and morally dangerous, and had to be hidden from view. Essentially, genitals were to be considered an aspect of the human condition, not the divine. And yet the body of the God of the Bible suggests otherwise…”

Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou studied theology at Oxford and is currently Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. The author of a number of academic works, she also presented the BBC2 documentary series The Bible’s Buried Secrets. She regularly appears on BBC1’s The Big Questions and Sunday Morning Live, and writes for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday and the Times Literary Supplement.

Abridged and produced by Elizabeth Burke.
A Loftus Media Ltd production for BBC Radio 4