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January 15, 2009

Dear Colleague:  

   Barack Obama is a good-looking guy, and can easily be cast as the romantic lead in a blockbuster movie. His height is to his advantage, which became obvious when he bounced on stage to shake hands with his opponent John McCain. He moves gracefully, at ease with his body and himself. That too helps. In short, he looks the role he is about to play, quite apart from his more relevant qualities. Suppose Obama has all the qualities, minus only the presidential looks, would he have been electable? I doubt it. Roland Burris replaces Barack Obama as the US senator from Illinois. Is it conceivable that he will one day replace Obama in the White House? Does Hollywood see him in that role? If not, neither will the American public.

   Western civilization has two roots—Greek and Hebrew. Which is stronger? Which has had and still has greater influence on American culture? It's hard to say. American universities used to offer the ancient languages, Latin and Greek, in their standard curriculum, but not—I believe—Hebrew. For that, you have to go to the university's divinity school, or to an independent seminary. American religion, on the other hand, was and still is Judeo-Christian. Yet, even here, there is ambivalence in that the figure of Christ looks more Greek than Hebrew; or, to put it more accurately, it reflects the taste of Greek sculpture and philosophy far more than it does the taste of the Torah. Greek sculpture presents an ideal of manhood that remains with us Westerners to this day. That is clear. Less well understood is that the Greeks identified physical excellence with moral/spiritual superiority. It seemed obvious to them that beauty and goodness were fundamentally one. That's why Socrates, a man who combined ugliness with exemplary virtue, was such a puzzle to them.

   Christians constantly refer to the Old Testament for figures and stories that, to them, foretold the life and mission of Jesus. During the holidays, I listened to Handel's Messiah and was struck by the vehemence with which the alto spat out, again and again, "He was despised and rejected!" the "he" being Jesus as he was prefigured in Isaiah 53: "He had no beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him." No beauty—nothing attractive—in the Son of God? That the Christians find impossible to accept. The earliest sculptural presentations of Jesus showed him, under the influence of classical sculpture, as an attractive, clean-shaven young man. Classical influence waned during the Middle Ages, as did the association of beauty with moral excellence. Jesus no longer looked physically alluring. Quite the contrary. During the Renaissance and, again, during the neo-classical revival of the nineteenth century, he was once more depicted as a handsome pagan god. When Hollywood chose blonde, blue-eyed Tab Hunter to play Jesus, the young actor had all the physical qualities the director and producer could desire, except for the one little extra they didn't want—chest hair. It had to be shaven off.

   The American president, ideally, has the beauty of Apollo, the compassion of Buddha, the command of Moses, and the wisdom of Solomon. I hope Obama fits the bill.

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu