In Ecce Homo, Mark Wallinger's simple, life-size Eveyman Christ subtly undercut the pomposity of many of the statues around it in Trafalgar Square.

The statue in Shrewsbury Abbey, Naked Christ by Michele Coxon, is made from sheep bones, rusting metal, tissue paper and resin. This is how she described the genesis and meaning of her work:

'The materials I have used are all found on my walks along the River Vyrnwy and around the fields of Meifod, Wales, where I live. The wood is worn, softened and shaped by the water. Metal is left abandoned by farmers to turn the colour of autumn rust. The bones of dead sheep are picked clean by crows and wild foxes and scavenged by the wind. To pass a carcass day after day, watching it slowly decay, and return to the soil, has influenced my art. When I started the naked Christ I did intend to have a cross, but over the weeks I could not find the right piece of wood. By then I realized that I did not need a physical cross. I wanted the image of a man who has suffered and whose earthly body is decaying, like the animals on my walks. The soul has flown, but only just.'

The Daily Mail (3rd August 2001), under the heading, 'The Image of Christ That's Deemed Too Disturbing', quoted a 34 year-old woman as saying:

'I'm glad I didn't bring my children along. The statue is obscene. It is very gory. It made me wince when I first laid eyes on it. I find it disturbing that a church would choose to display this so-called work of art.'

A 19 year-old boy found the sculpture 'extremely morbid and gruesome.'

What do pupils think? Late Medieval Christians wouldn't have batted an eyelid - see the Grunewald Crucifixion in the 'Healing' section. Are modern audiences really unable to face a grim crucifixion? If so, why? Is it very different from the violence in modern war films? Are they unaware of the theology of Christianity, with death and resurrection at its heart? Or are such images, as some have argued, expressions of sadism and cruelty worship?