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As part of the launch of her latest book, Shameless: A Sexual Reformation, Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber asked would-be readers to mail her their purity rings. Then she took the submissions and had them melted down and turned into a vagina statue. While the action earned attention for its shock value, Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren recently pointed out for CT that this was far from the first example of vaginal (or yonic) art in the Christian tradition. \u201cNo reasonable person could say that these Christian yonic symbols indicate that the early church was a bastion of feminist liberation,\u201d Harrison Warren wrote. \u201cIn the ancient church, as now, misogyny abounds. Still, at the very least, they show that the female body was not (and is not) deemed dirty, unholy, or otherwise bad.\u201d Christian art has always depicted women, says Robin Jensen, a professor at Notre Dame who specializes in the history of Christianity and liturgical studies. \u201cSurprisingly, though, what you\u2019d expect to find in Christian art is sometimes not there in the initial stages,\u201d said Jensen, the author of Understanding Early Christian Art. \u201cIf you were to think about the two most common themes in Christian art from all the centuries of Christian art through and time, you might say the crucifix and the Madonna and child. Neither of those are going to be appearing until much later.\u201d Instead, art based on Bible stories with male and female characters from both the Old and New Testament is what is initially most prevalent, says Jensen. Jensen joined associate digital media producer Morgan Lee and theology editor Caleb Lindgren to discuss the extent to which fertility is a theme in Christian art, how nudity is generally handled in Christian art, and what\u2019s going on with angels.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices