This November sees the publication of my first book, Circles of Thorns: Hieronymus Bosch and Being Human (Continuum International). I thought it might be interesting to give potential readers an idea of what the book is about, and what the curious subtitle actually means.

Using the example of Bosch’s only painting in the National Gallery, Christ Mocked (Crowning with Thorns), it explores the political, scientific, psychological and devotional world of early modern Europe, and applies those insights to our own time. It shows how sophisticated Bosch was as a painter and how he used his artistic skill to convey a similarly sophisticated understanding of humanity. The painting was, and is, a challenge to its viewers, a challenge to answer the question posed by Christ to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”. In Christ Mocked, Christ’s Passion is shown so we must reassess the cosmic significance of Christ’s death, and its profound implications for what we think it means to be human.

An outline of the book

The first, short, chapter is a detailed description of the painting, where it is hung in the National Gallery, and the questions that occur to the inquisitive viewer on first looking. Who are these people? What is going on in the painting? Why are they dressed in that way? What do their gestures mean?

The book then follows five ‘circles’ around the painting (consciously evoking the circle of thorns held behind Christ’s head). Each circle looks in turn at the subtexts of the painting, explored by Bosch.

First, we explore a circle of politics. Each of the four tormentors in the painting represents a particular social, religious and political power in the Europe of 1500. What was Bosch saying by depicting agents of the Holy Roman Empire, the Church, Jewry and the Muslim world as Christ’s tormentors? What is the interplay between religion and power represented, and what assumptions do we make about their relationship today?

Second, we explore a circle of science, which I call elements. The four tormentors represent the pre-modern scientific understanding of the four basic units of the universe; fire, earth, air and water. Each element had particular characteristics, and said something about God’s relationship with the universe and the possibility of our comprehension of creation. What is the proper relationship of science and religion in our own day? Is Richard Dawkins the last word on the matter, or does Bosch give us a way of expressing, in renewed confidence, a religious understanding of science?

The third circle builds on the elemental interpretation, by looking at the temperaments. For Bosch, human character was determined by the humoral theory; every person was governed by a particular temperament: melancholic, sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric. Where did this theory come from, and what is its relationship to modern psychological understandings of human psychology? What challenge to our personality does Bosch’s painting pose?

The fourth circle looks at the way Bosch’s painting was probably used in devotions. What was the spiritual atmosphere of Bosch’s day, and how does it relate to our own? The connection between the ‘devotio moderna’, Bosch’s life and Etty Hillesum (the Dutch writer and diarist killed at Auschwitz) is explored, with lessons for new forms of disciplined spiritual living for today.

The final circle, Quiddity, centres on the still subject of the painting, Christ himself. It does so by teasing out the differences in emphasis in the Gospel accounts of Christ’s passion, and asking what meaning we can find in the Incarnation and Passion today. A proper understanding of the mystery that Bosch has so subtly painted will transform our understandings of trust and time, two categories of thought most fruitful for proclaiming the Gospel today.

As such, the book is not a work of art history, although its art historical conclusions are sound. Writers and artists such as Keith Ward, Terry Pratchett, St Bonaventure, Etty Hillesum, Rowan Williams, Bill Viola and Brian Eno are referred to, and the relevance of their ideas for the painting and theme of the book are described and tested.