Gift (Dirt Christ, Oil Christ) (Old City Jerusalem Souvenir)

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The metallic little body of Christ on a wooden cross surrounded by 4 small vials filled with dirt, with oil, with water, with frankincense. Signs of salvation and material elements are packaged in a cheap decorated box that you can take from the Holy Land back home to wherever it is you come from. I bought this one outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem for 5 Israeli shekels. I brought it for a friend in Syracuse, who will like both the humor and the spirit of the thing. I wonder about the afterlife of these things, namely with the regard to the respect or neglect they are provided with the passage of time that follows upon the gifting of “the gift.”

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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