Feeling Seen, Being Saved
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Icons have been a big part of the spiritual life of this Asian, and to this day, my favourite icon has been Andrei Rublev’s 1410 icon, The Saviour of Zvenigorod or sometimes, Christ as Saviour.
The icon itself has a fascinating story, having been painted hidden in a flight of stairs in 1919. Though in remarkably good condition, it nonetheless has suffered significant degradation, particularly in the top and bottom. In a strange way, however, that degradation further accentuates the central drama of the icon, that of Christ turning towards the gazer of the icon as he passes by.
For a long time, I had wondered why such an icon was given the title of “Saviour”, and whether the degradation removed any depiction of an action that would have explained that title, as it would be in other icons. It was not until recently that I realised that the saving action depicted in the icon, is the action of turning to the gazer, but again, how that was associated with the act of saving remained unclear to me.
Clarification gradually came from a couple of quarters. The first was reading Chanon Ross’ Gifts Glittering & Poisoned, in which Ross looked at the metaphysical freight that came with the act of seeing. More specifically, Ross highlighted how spectacle could draw us who look upon the spectacle, into the orbit of the transcendent, into fellowship with angels as well as demons (I elaborated on this point in my essay on the subject of images and idolatry for ABC Religion and Ethics).
Another point of clarification came after my friend Kamila Soh alerted me to a passage from Byung-Chul Han’s The Expulsion of the Other. In it, Han spoke specifically on the saving significance of being truly seen by another. Speaking of Scheler and Augustine, Han wrote:
In his text, “Love and Knowledge”, Max Scheler points out that Augustine ascribes to plants ‘in mysterious ways’ a longing to be looked at by humans, ‘as though what happens to plants through love-derived insight is a kand of analogue of…redemption’.
and in another place:
The loving gaze, a ‘love-derived insight’ , redeems it from the state of lack. It is thus an ‘analogue of redemption’. Insight is redemption.
In other words, to be truly seen by another is a salvific act, and gives far more heft to that often read but also glossed over line in Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, in which Jesus is said to have “looked at him and loved him” (Mk 10:21).
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