Unknown Woman or Unknown God?

Identity, Art and Worldview in Times Square.

Photo by Elmer Cañas on Unsplash

You've probably seen it on the news or online. A new statue of a confident, proud, barrier-breaking black woman in Times Square in New York. That's how many media outlets have described her.

This 12-foot statue, Grounded In The Stars, is the work of British artist and sculptor Thomas J. Price. It'll be in Times Square until June. Price wanted to make thought-provoking statues of average, everyday people and place them among the glorious Greco-Roman statues in public places. He's got a couple in places like Italy, the UK, and Germany.

One of these statues is a woman looking at her phone displayed in a park in Europe.

The goal is to raise questions about race, identity, and public commemoration. Who gets to have a statue made of them and put downtown or in front of public buildings or shared spaces?

I've seen plenty of statues of ordinary people that give context to a space. There's a couple in my city like this. At Florida State University, there was a statue of some students playing in a fountain in front of one of the libraries on the central greenspace on campus. In a plaza downtown, there's a statue of a man sitting on a bench and reading a newspaper with his dog.

There are countless statues like that around the country and the world.

From what I've heard, people are supposed to look at this statue of a slightly overweight black woman with a look of slight irritation with her hands on her hips and make her "whoever you want her to be". She could be another face in the crowd in Times Square on any given day.

There are so many interpretations and conclusions that you could glean from this statue.

The statue does seem to embody a particular vision of strength through representation—an ordinary Black woman elevated as a symbol of power precisely because she reflects a group often unseen in spaces of honor.

That seems to be what Price was getting at here. It's a provocative art piece for sure and a nod to be a nod to secular humanism.

It's an idol or, to some, maybe even an altar to "The Unknown Woman". It's ambiguous on purpose. You see what you want in her—a symbol of empowerment, defiance, diversity, or simple ordinariness.

It's not just a statue, it's a statement. One that points to a humanist philosophy: We can find meaning and honor in ourselves, by ourselves.

Rulership without God? Humanity was made in the image of God. Specifically designed to rule God's creation under His authority. I wrote an article about this.

Reminds me a lot of the "Altar to the Unknown God" in Acts in the bible. Ancient Greece had its main deities like Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Hermes, and Poseidon, but there were also many lesser deities. And they all had statues or altars.

The story behind this altar is this: There was a terrible plague in Athens. Unable to determine which god was offended, they sent for a man named Epimenides. Epimenides was a poet, sage, and priest of Zeus. He called for a specific practice involving sheep. The people of Athens sacrificed to this unknown god accordingly, and the pestilence ended.

This world of idols is what Paul walked into in Acts 17, when he came to preach the gospel message. Full of poets, philosophers, and "spiritual but not religious" people.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash

Many quickly say things like "Only God can judge me" or "we are all children of God". Without knowing what god they're referring to. They expect that there's a benevolent universe or spiritual power, and that makes them feel good. We can also make statues of ourselves to reflect this universal humanist view and how we relate to God.

Paul addresses this in Acts 17:29-31:

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead." - Acts 17:29-31 ESV

Don't get me wrong; I'm not against the idea of statues of people or even what Thomas Price is doing here. But there is a subtlety at a political and social agenda behind these statues. What does it say about ourselves, and what does mainstream culture say we should worship?

It sounds more like "You can see whatever you want, but make sure you come to a certain conclusion eventually."

That doesn't sound like freedom of interpretation. And it sounds like the situation of the unknown altar on Mars Hill. Ascribe an interpretation and then declare an action that we should take. What is this for the Grounded In The Stars Statue?

What are we supposed to be grounded in when we look at it? Grounded in ourselves and identities?

Or is it another reflection of the human condition? One that can be answered by what Paul pointed to in Acts 17?

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