“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19, NIV)
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve…As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, KJV)
In the weeks before Lent, I want to step back from art about Bible stories to look at illustrations of fundamental biblical principles, beginning with a truth rooted in the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve defy God and eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tale bears witness to the moral axiom that human beings are defined by the choices they make and that choices have consequences. A corollary in modern times, where we are numbed by a fast-changing world into avoiding decisions is that this, too, counts as a choice. Swiss Printmaker Max Hunziker emphasizes the central role of human agency in determining the future in this surreal image of a huge hand, watched by a pint-sized demon and an angel. It is one of 169 direct relief etchings he created for a 1945 edition of The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus, a 17th century German novel by Johann Jacob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, about a naïve peasant who takes to the road and learns cruel lessons about life during the Thirty Years' War. (John Kohan)