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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2007
‘I am not here.’
Thomas MiddletonHow shall we represent God?
This question has preoccupied humanity far more often, and with far more consequence, than the question 'Does God exist?' Because 'How shall we represent God?' entails the question 'Who shall be God's representative?', and that question is as much political as theological; how you answered it in early modern Europe determined not only whether you were Catholic or Protestant, but also what kind of Protestant you were (presbyterian or episcopal) - and which governments you would obey. 'How shall we represent God?' also entails 'Where shall we represent God?' and 'By what means shall we represent God?' The Reformation reformed divine representation: the personnel, texts, actions and artifacts, by which medieval Christianity had represented the divine. Protestant iconoclasts physically attacked the rood, the paintings, carvings, statues, stained-glass windows which had filled (or cluttered) medieval churches; they ended the ritual re-enactments of medieval biblical drama, and banned God, in both body and name, from the public stage. God is truth, the theatre is falsehood, falsehood cannot represent truth, the theatre cannot represent God.
They banned God, but they did not ban gods. It is no violation of decorum for a false god to be represented by lies and disguises. Indeed, 'The Devil', Stephen Gosson declared, reiterating centuries of Christian diatribes, 'is the efficient cause of plays.'
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