Jesus as Artist

I had never paid much attention to the work of Oscar Wilde, dismissing it as superficial entertainment from a writer known to the world (and self-identified) as a "fop" and a "dandy," old-fashioned terms that describe a person who is overly concerned with dress and manners.

The terms certainly applied to the Irish-born Oxford graduate who came to lecture in America in 1882 dramatically adorned in a cloak; velveteen knickers; a green, ankle-length, otter-lined, seal-trimmed overcoat with wide cuffs; and assorted jewelry.

Wilde proposed an order for unbelievers because, he argued, "agnosticism should have its ritual no less than faith."

He had come to preach his doctrine of aesthetics, which that combined beauty and narcissism. It was a creed he would expound in his life and art--in his popular and critically praised poetry, plays such as "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "An Ideal Husband," and his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Wilde was the last writer in the world I'd ever have imagined writing with passion and fresh insight about spirituality, until I recently read one of his essays that makes an eloquent case for understanding Jesus, not as a God, but as a supreme artist.

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