Doubting Thomas (review)

The first central mystery of Christian faith is the Resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion. A second mystery is how people can believe in the first mystery. The account of the doubts of the apostle Thomas in the Gospel of John (chapter 20) highlights the intersection of these two mysteries. Thomas insists his belief is contingent upon his touching the actual wounds of the risen Jesus. Like many significant texts, this passage took on a life of its own, as subsequent commentators and painters recreated this moment of doubt and faith, and there has been no more comprehensive analysis of this text than that of Professor Most.

The gospel account implies that Thomas did not actually touch Jesus's risen body; faith came to him through his awe at the savior's presence. Professor Most shows how this recoiling from touch came to make Thomas the hero of many Gnostic texts that reject the flesh—even Jesus's. Thus, the author follows the fortunes of Thomas through the apocryphal accounts that purportedly led the apostle as far as India, bringing his secret knowledge of the importance of the spiritual over the material to the faithful.

Professor Most then shows the backlash generated by the Gnostic challenge. As church fathers mounted an attack against the anti-materialistic heretics, they reinterpreted what happened at that moment of doubt described in the Gospel of John. The medieval exegetical tradition is certain that Thomas did touch the body, thus proving the Resurrection of the solid, material body of the Lord. Most shows that in these discussions the issue was no longer faith—or how we come to believe—but, what we believe. From this point on, Christians were to believe that our very flesh, that embodies our identity, will arise on judgment day.

This interpretation of Thomas's actions was reconsidered by the sixteenth-century Reformers. People like Luther and Calvin who looked closely at the gospel account were no longer certain that the apostle dared to touch his Lord. For them, once again the issue became one of faith and doubt rather than flesh or spirit. The Catholic response, however, reaffirmed the patristic opinion that Thomas did indeed dare to touch, and Professor Most examines the paintings that show this Catholic reassertion. His analysis of Caravaggio's famous portrayal of Doubting Thomas is as fine a study of the intersection of aesthetics and meaning as I've seen. Everything from light to eyebrows serves to reinforce Caravaggio's assertion that Thomas thrust his finger into Jesus's material body.

This brief summary of Professor Most's book does not do justice to the sophisticated hermeneutics that accompanies his tour through the historical fortunes of Thomas's faith and doubt. Some readers might wish to know more about the questions Most introduces, but doesn't resolve: How do we come to believe? What is the nature of risen bodies? But, of course, these are questions outside the texts—both the text of Thomas and of the author. Readers will have to come to their own conclusions, but Most's analysis will surely inform even the most sophisticated speculations.