Early Christian Attitudes Toward Images

Early Christian Attitudes Toward Images PDF Author: Steven Bigham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780974561868
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
For all iconophiles, that is, those who accept the dogma of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, but especially the Orthodox who claim that the icon has a sacramental and mystical character, it is naturally disquieting to hear the claim that the early Christians were aniconic and iconophobic. If this claim is true, the theology and the veneration of the icon are seriously undermined. It is, therefore, natural for iconophiles to attempt to disprove the thesis according to which the early Christians had no images whatsoever (aniconic) because they believed them to be idols (iconophobic). It is equally natural for iconophiles to want to substantiate, as much as this is possible, their deep intuition that the roots of Christian iconography go back to the apostolic age. This study weakens the notion and credibility of the alleged hostility of the early Christians to non-idolatrous images, providing a more balanced evaluation of this question.

Early Christian Attitudes Toward Images

Early Christian Attitudes Toward Images PDF Author: Steven Bigham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780974561868
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
For all iconophiles, that is, those who accept the dogma of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, but especially the Orthodox who claim that the icon has a sacramental and mystical character, it is naturally disquieting to hear the claim that the early Christians were aniconic and iconophobic. If this claim is true, the theology and the veneration of the icon are seriously undermined. It is, therefore, natural for iconophiles to attempt to disprove the thesis according to which the early Christians had no images whatsoever (aniconic) because they believed them to be idols (iconophobic). It is equally natural for iconophiles to want to substantiate, as much as this is possible, their deep intuition that the roots of Christian iconography go back to the apostolic age. This study weakens the notion and credibility of the alleged hostility of the early Christians to non-idolatrous images, providing a more balanced evaluation of this question.

From Idols to Icons

From Idols to Icons PDF Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520345428
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 269

Get Book Here

Book Description
"From Idols to Icons tells the fascinating history of the dramatic shift in Christian attitudes toward sacred images from the third through the early seventh century. From attacks on the cult images of polytheism to the emergence of Christian narrative iconography to the appearance of portrait type representations of holy figures, this book examines the primary theological critiques as well as defenses of holy images in light of the surviving material evidence for early Christian visual art. Against the assumption that fourth- and fifth-century Christians simply forgot or ignored their predecessors' censure and reverted to more alluring pagan practices, Robin M. Jensen contends that each stage of this profound change was uniquely Christian. Through a careful consideration of the cult of saints' remains, devotional portraits, and pilgrimage to sacred sites, Jensen shows how the Christian devotion to holy images came to be rooted in their evolving conviction that the divinity was accessible in and through visible objects. Even the briefest glance at a museum's holdings or an introductory textbook demonstrates how profoundly influential this belief would be on the course of Western art for the next fifteen hundred years"--

Understanding Early Christian Art

Understanding Early Christian Art PDF Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135951772
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
Understanding Early Christian Art is designed for students of both religion and of art history. It makes the critical tools of art historians accessible to students of religion, to help them understand better the visual representations of Christianity. It will also aid art historians in comprehending the complex theology, history and context of Christian art. This interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking approach will enable students in several fields to further their understanding and knowledge of the art of the early Christian era. Understanding Early Christian Art contains over fifty images with parallel text.

A Companion to Byzantine Iconoclasm

A Companion to Byzantine Iconoclasm PDF Author: Mike Humphreys
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004462007
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 648

Get Book Here

Book Description
Twelve scholars contextualize and critically examine the key debates about the controversy over icons and their veneration that would fundamentally shape Byzantium and Orthodox Christianity.

Feeling Persecuted

Feeling Persecuted PDF Author: Anthony Bale
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 178023001X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
In Feeling Persecuted, Anthony Bale explores the medieval Christian attitude toward Jews, which included a pervasive fear of persecution and an imagined fear of violence enacted against Christians. As a result, Christians retaliated with expulsions, riots, and murders that systematically denied Jews the right to religious freedom and peace. Through close readings of a wide range of sources, Bale exposes the perceived violence enacted by the Jews and how the images of this Christian suffering and persecution were central to medieval ideas of love, community, and home. The images and texts explored by Bale expose a surprising practice of recreational persecution and show that the violence perpetrated against medieval Jews was far from simple anti-Semitism and was in fact a complex part of medieval life and culture. Bale’s comprehensive look at medieval poetry, drama, visual culture, theology, and philosophy makes Feeling Persecuted an important read for anyone interested in the history of Christian-Jewish relations and the impact of this history on modern culture.

The Image of Christ in Russian Literature

The Image of Christ in Russian Literature PDF Author: John Givens
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1609092384
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
Vladimir Nabokov complained about the number of Dostoevsky's characters "sinning their way to Jesus." In truth, Christ is an elusive figure not only in Dostoevsky's novels, but in Russian literature as a whole. The rise of the historical critical method of biblical criticism in the nineteenth century and the growth of secularism it stimulated made an earnest affirmation of Jesus in literature highly problematic. If they affirmed Jesus too directly, writers paradoxically risked diminishing him, either by deploying faith explanations that no longer persuade in an age of skepticism or by reducing Christ to a mere argument in an ideological dispute. The writers at the heart of this study understood that to reimage Christ for their age, they had to make him known through indirect, even negative ways, lest what they say about him be mistaken for cliché, doctrine, or naïve apologetics. The Christology of Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Bulgakov, and Boris Pasternak is thus apophatic because they deploy negative formulations (saying what God is not) in their writings about Jesus. Professions of atheism in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy's non-divine Jesus are but separate negative paths toward truer discernment of Christ. This first study in English of the image of Christ in Russian literature highlights the importance of apophaticism as a theological practice and a literary method in understanding the Russian Christ. It also emphasizes the importance of skepticism in Russian literary attitudes toward Jesus on the part of writers whose private crucibles of doubt produced some of the most provocative and enduring images of Christ in world literature. This important study will appeal to scholars and students of Orthodox Christianity and Russian literature, as well as educated general readers interested in religion and nineteenth-century Russian novels.

Image as Insight

Image as Insight PDF Author: Margaret R. Miles
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1597529028
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book Here

Book Description
Miles's pathbreaking work shows how art and architecture have shaped religious understanding throughout the history of Christianity.

The Temple in Early Christianity

The Temple in Early Christianity PDF Author: Eyal Regev
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300245599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 497

Get Book Here

Book Description
A comprehensive treatment of the early Christian approaches to the Temple and its role in shaping Jewish and Christian identity The first scholarly work to trace the Temple throughout the entire New Testament, this study examines Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the Temple in the first century and provides both Jews and Christians with a better understanding of their respective faiths and how they grow out of this ancient institution. The centrality of the Temple in New Testament writing reveals the authors’ negotiations with the institutional and symbolic center of Judaism as they worked to form their own religion.

Christian Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Middle Ages

Christian Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Michael Frassetto
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0415978270
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
Publisher description

Understanding Early Christian Art

Understanding Early Christian Art PDF Author: Robin M. Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135951705
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
Understanding Early Christian Art is designed for students of both religion and of art history. It makes the critical tools of art historians accessible to students of religion, to help them understand better the visual representations of Christianity. It will also aid art historians in comprehending the complex theology, history and context of Christian art. This interdisciplinary and boundary-breaking approach will enable students in several fields to further their understanding and knowledge of the art of the early Christian era. Understanding Early Christian Art contains over fifty images with parallel text.