Reading Christian art and architecture: scriptural, theological, liturgical, devotional and cultural background

Abstract

"The present volume is the first of eight that read Christian art and architecture in relation to Scripture and exegesis, to theology, to liturgy, and to devotional piety. Entitled Method, Meaning, Mystery, it focusses on constants in the two millennia since artists began to interpret what Christians believe and experience. Its goal is to suggest an interdisciplinary approach suited to the variety of works produced in that temporal span."-- From the back cover.

Contents

Part 1 : The visible world -- Christological focus -- Theology and language -- Architecture as image -- Habitable icons -- Biblical aesthetics -- Poetry, psychology, Biblical humanism -- Garlic and sapphires -- Part 2 : Images of ideas -- Iconoclasm in Christianity -- Symbols and symbolic figures -- The Olympics of the soul -- Virtues, vices, and other systems -- A wheel within a wheel -- The edifice of salvation -- Part 3 : Images and spaces for the liturgy Rites as images -- Space and rite -- Church plans -- Altars and images -- Image, vision, sanctity -- Liturgical time and Christian imagery -- Systems again, and poetry, and fantasy -- Part 4 : Art and devotion -- Christian pilgrimage and the attreaction of relics -- Holiness and humanity -- The shroud, the stairway, the column, holy mountains, religious theatre -- Spectacle and interiority -- Latens deitas -- Nostalgia and kitsch -- Part 5 : The influence of non-ecclesial culture -- A dialogue with non-Christian culture -- Sybils and Arabs -- Medieval revivals and Renaissance renewal -- A syncretistic image of man -- From archaeology to futurism -- Post-World War II to the present -- Part 6 : Tradition -- Orthodox icons -- East and West -- Tradition and history -- Tradition transposed -- Part 7 : 'Sacred', 'religious', 'moralising' -- Sacred vessels and vestments -- Ritual architecture and images -- Lay piety and 'religious' images -- Moralising art -- Devotio moderna and things unseen -- Part 8 : The mother of God -- Queen and bride -- Figure of spiritual desire -- Porta Coeli, Figura Ecclesiae, Foederis Arca -- Mary and the Eucharist -- Icon of future glory -- Immacolata and Madonna of the Rosary -- Part 9 : The last things -- The hour of death -- The Day of Judgement -- The art of dying -- The judgement and the Eucharist -- Admirable commerce -- The end of this world, the beginning of the next -- Part 10 : Seeing, believing, understanding -- Art and the search for God -- Art and the mission of the Church -- Art, Scripture, Ecclesia -- Creativity and the human being's relationship with God -- Art and prayer--Style and spirituality -- Showing art -- Art and the Church today.