Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
The “orant” figures (often women, hands lifted, head covered) are linked to prayer practices “you read about in Timothy,” and even used as portraits of deceased women. How does this art challenge modern instincts about women, modesty, and embodied prayer—and what would have to change in a typical evangelical church for this posture to feel normal rather than “weird”?
Another way to ask: Orant art shows (often) women praying with raised hands and covered heads, and sometimes even shows dead women that way. How does this clash with how many churches today view women, modesty, and using the body in prayer, and what would need to change for it to feel normal?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on the speaker’s comments, the orant images challenge modern discomfort with visible, embodied prayer (standing, hands raised) and show head coverings and modest dress as normal for Christian women—without requiring drabness or invisibility.
- Orant is “a praying figure, usually a woman,” thought to represent “the soul of somebody who’s died,” often placed by burial sites.
- The teacher adds that some orants are “actually portraits of the deceased… especially if they’re women.”
- A participant notes: the orants reveal “head covering” and “posture of praying, lifting up the hands that you read about in Timothy.”
- The same participant observes modesty with color: “They were not against… drab dress… It’s very modest… but… bright colors.”
- Later discussion: “The early Christians prayed open-handed, standing often,” and today that can feel “weird.”