But the congregation also wanted to affirm the Christian teaching that “the body is something beautiful and, in Christ, God has taken on human form,” said Wheatley, now pastor at Salt Lake City’s New Song Presbyterian (PCA)Church. “(That act) gives our lives a dignity and beauty that is blessed by God.”

The Rev. France Davis doesn’t want any nude Adam-and-Eve figures at his Calvary Baptist Church— even if they were painted by the famed Michelangelo himself.

16th Century painter Jan Gossaert’s full-frontal, no-fig-leaves nude Adam and Eve, on display at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin, would not be accepted in some churches.

Davis is unequivocal in his view that there is nothing inspiring or redeeming about naked figures in religious art.

“Since we sinned, as it said in the book of Genesis, the human body has certain parts that are private,” the outspoken pastor said. “We should keep them for more intimate settings like people’s bedrooms.”

Davis is hardly alone in that view.

From the prudish impulses of the Counter-Reformation, to the Vatican’s use of the fig leaf as a genital cover-up a century later, to modern Christians objecting to a nude Christ sculpted out of chocolate, there have always been those who wanted to see everything clothed.

Scores of believers oppose any nakedness in art as blasphemous — even a glimpse of the Virgin Mary‘s breast as she nurses her baby son — or akin to pornography.

For other Christians, though, the line between celebrating and eschewing artistic nudity is neither easy nor clear-cut.

It depends, they say, on whether the artist intends to enlighten a biblical narrative or trigger a sexual response, whether the nudity is theologically important or just there to shock.
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When the Rev. Sam Wheatley was leading a congregation in Atlanta, the group decided to engage area artists by creating a gallery in the church foyer. The works coincided with Wheatley’s sermons, and then a jury of their peers decided which ones to exhibit.

The question immediately arose: What about pieces with nudity?

Because it was a church space, the congregation didn’t want any works that would cause problems for parents or people with more conservative sensitivities, Wheatley said. Plus, the Bible commands believers not to make a “graven image” and cautions against using the body in ungodly ways.

But the congregation also wanted to affirm the Christian teaching that “the body is something beautiful and, in Christ, God has taken on human form,” said Wheatley, now pastor at Salt Lake City’s New Song Presbyterian Church. “(That act) gives our lives a dignity and beauty that is blessed by God.”

In the end, the Atlanta artists produced some nude figures, but none was overly graphic or stirred trouble.

Great art, like great worship, points to something beyond this world that touches us, Wheatley said. “When that something is invoked, I am drawn into awe and I want to explore its source.”

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