Saturday night we were watching the movie Luther, and Cassie Alex and I were wondering what the significance of the monk's hair style was. I decided to go on another internet quest to find the answer.... Here we go....
"Clergy hairstyles may seem like a minor point of contention to us looking back from a contemporary perspective, but in fact it had tremendous spiritual significance. Then, as now, hair was a major signifier of social status. The tonsure (the name of the hair style) issue was not a matter of fashion, but theology. The origin of the tonsure comes from the ancient Roman custom of shaving the head of a male slave as a way of indicating the master's power the slaves forced submission to the master's will is so complete that he even loses the ability to control the appearance of his own hair. (Forced haircuts are still used today as a visual symbol of an authority figure's total control over a man's life, and as a way to denote low hierarchical status, such as when soldiers enter boot camp.)
Greeks and Romans alike considered the shaved head to be the badge of the slave. Romans punished Christians by shaving their heads as a sign of contempt and mockery making them wear their hair like slaves was meant to humiliate them. This eventually backfired, as some monks began to voluntarily shave their heads in the same manner and, when questioned, identified themselves as "slaves of Christ."
Various religious orders practiced tonsure among themselves for hundreds of years, and toward the beginning of the sixth century many clerics in the North had revived the custom in a modified form: not shaving the whole head. *Some orders left a narrow crown of hair, meant to signify Christ's crown of thorns; some orders shaved off only a small circular patch on the crown of the head; some kept the entire head shaved above the ears, and some retained a wide band of hair around the head. The Roman Catholic Church abolished the practice of tonsure in 1972, but some orthodox religious orders practice voluntary tonsure even today."
*I'm pretty sure that this is the style used in the movie
"Clergy hairstyles may seem like a minor point of contention to us looking back from a contemporary perspective, but in fact it had tremendous spiritual significance. Then, as now, hair was a major signifier of social status. The tonsure (the name of the hair style) issue was not a matter of fashion, but theology. The origin of the tonsure comes from the ancient Roman custom of shaving the head of a male slave as a way of indicating the master's power the slaves forced submission to the master's will is so complete that he even loses the ability to control the appearance of his own hair. (Forced haircuts are still used today as a visual symbol of an authority figure's total control over a man's life, and as a way to denote low hierarchical status, such as when soldiers enter boot camp.)
Greeks and Romans alike considered the shaved head to be the badge of the slave. Romans punished Christians by shaving their heads as a sign of contempt and mockery making them wear their hair like slaves was meant to humiliate them. This eventually backfired, as some monks began to voluntarily shave their heads in the same manner and, when questioned, identified themselves as "slaves of Christ."
Various religious orders practiced tonsure among themselves for hundreds of years, and toward the beginning of the sixth century many clerics in the North had revived the custom in a modified form: not shaving the whole head. *Some orders left a narrow crown of hair, meant to signify Christ's crown of thorns; some orders shaved off only a small circular patch on the crown of the head; some kept the entire head shaved above the ears, and some retained a wide band of hair around the head. The Roman Catholic Church abolished the practice of tonsure in 1972, but some orthodox religious orders practice voluntary tonsure even today."
*I'm pretty sure that this is the style used in the movie
posted by bethany | 3:31 PM
3 Comments:
Very interesting Beth......Luther is such a great movie. But did you know that he was actually an anti-Jew?? He pretty much hated them. Which is amzing with all his work in the church and his trying to get the freedom to preach in that certain way. (We learned that in school this year when we were studying WW2 and how Jews had been persecuted for centurys).
Mattea
Facenating! Altough it sounds like more of an issue of tradition that theology to me. Found the part about soldiers haveing to shave especialy interesting. So, have you shared this with your Dad yet?
Wow!!! we just all posted at the same time because when I left a comment I was the first one. Now 2 minuets later there are more comments!
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