Christian

The artistic background of the Good Shepherd motif can be traced to ancient eras of the East and the West. This motif later gained prominence in early Christian art. The ram-bearer (carrying a sacrificial or an offering animal) first appeared in Near Eastern art and later became an important motif in Greco-Roman art to represent certain roles of the god Hermes. This motif was considered by Christian converts as a symbol of Jesus Christ, as they represented him in the figure of a young shepherd caring for his flock. This theme can also be seen on some Sasanian seals, which can be considered as the Good Shepherd motif. In this article, the authors introduce the aforementioned motif depicted on these seals and examine their possible connection with the Christian communities. The motif of the Good Shepherd, as seen on the seals, demonstrates modifications in the original iconography. These changes can be observed in the longer dress of the ram-bearer or the engraving of celestial symbols. These modifications are probably a sign of the localization process of an imported motif in the Sasanian Empire.

Traditionally, Christians and Muslims have held that a human person is (or has) an immaterial soul. Since there does not seem to be a place for immaterial souls in the natural world, I offer an alternative view that I call ‘Person-Body Constitutionalism’. Person-Body Constitutionalism holds that there are no (finite) immaterial entities like souls. Instead of distinguishing between souls and bodies, Constitutionalism distinguishes between whole persons and bodies. Human persons are essentially embodied, but do not essentially have the bodies that they in fact have at any given time. So, human persons, though spatially coincident with their bodies, are not identical to their bodies. Persons are distinguished from their bodies by having first-person perspectives essentially. I shall try to show that Constitutionalism is consistent with Christian doctrines. First, I set out Constitutionalism. Then, after critically discussing Thomas Aquinas’s view of Resurrection, I discuss the compatibility between Constitutionalism and the Resurrection, and an intermediate state between death and a general resurrection (e.g., Purgatory). Finally, I have a brief discussion of Constitutionalism and the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. The conclusion is that Person-Body Constitutionalism is congenial to these central Christian doctrines, and the existence of immaterial souls is not required for traditional Christianity.