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All undergraduate students at Saint Mary's College of California, a small, private institution, are required to complete an engaged learning (EL) course or experience for graduation. This graduation requirement was established to provide students with the opportunity to learn in and from the community; an important value from the principles of the Liberal Arts and Catholic Lasallian traditions that inform the College's pedagogy. The social justice and community engagement center on campus called the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action (CILSA), establishes EL partnerships with nonprofit organizations, school districts, campus departments, and other higher education institutions throughout California for EL courses, internships, place‐based work, and research projects. We value the expertise of our partners and view them as co‐educators in creating transformative learning experiences for nearly 600 students annually. In this article, we will share our process in sustaining community partnerships, our scaffolding engagement efforts, and best practices for collaborating with partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I argue that iconographic pathography provides a transformational form of storytelling for ill persons and the communities around them. This work addresses the reduction of illness narration to clinical vocabularies. It targets often excluded communities—chronic and terminal narrators—as well as promotes ethical practices of creative and collaborative inclusion for ecclesial communities. I use Devan Stahl's Imaging and Imagining Illness as an example of this distinctive form of pathography, first differentiating it from other narrative forms of the genre as well as contextualizing its decentralized narrational form with criteria drawn from icons' emergence within early Christian art. I claim that such decentralized narration changes the trajectory of self-understanding for the ill person as well as the ethical response required for those who bear witness to such narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document titled "Thank you to Reviewers list July 2019–July 2023" from the Journal of Common Market Studies lists a wide range of reviewers from various universities and institutions worldwide who have contributed to the journal. The list includes scholars from diverse backgrounds and institutions, showcasing the international scope of the journal's reviewers. The document serves as a testament to the collaborative and inclusive nature of the academic community within the field of common market studies. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Reflections on the Readings of Sundays and Feasts December 2024-February 2025" from the Australasian Catholic Record discusses various biblical readings and their interpretations. It delves into the significance of Jesus' teachings, such as loving one's enemies and being compassionate, in the context of building a harmonious community. The text emphasizes the practical application of Jesus' teachings in everyday life, urging readers to reflect on their experiences of God's compassion and mercy to cultivate a similar attitude towards others. The article encourages readers to strive for a compassionate and merciful approach in their interactions, mirroring the divine qualities of God. [Extracted from the article]

This study focuses on animal symbolism, one of the sub-branches of Christian symbolism, and some beings that contain mythological elements. When the Roman Empire officially accepted Christianity by issuing the Edict of Milan (313), the symbols and images of other religious beliefs were not completely eliminated, and some of them were subjected to Interpretatio Christiana and transformed into symbols with Christian meaning by separating them into positive and negative. At this point, grotesque beings such as basilisk, centaur and griffin, which have a place in the memory of many cultures, have gained new meanings within the framework of Christian belief and thought with the symbolic meanings attributed to them due to their archaic stories and physical characteristics. The common feature of these animals, which form the backbone of the study, is that their bodies are designed to be composed of different components. In this sense, the upper part of the basilisk's body consists of a rooster and the rest of the body consists of a snake. The head and chest of the centaur is human, while its body is horse. The griffin, on the other hand, is a being whose head and wings are eagle and body is lion. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to reveal the narratives of these beings in various cultures and to focus on what they symbolise with the meanings they acquired with the transition to Christianity. In order to serve this purpose, the comparative method was frequently used in the study in order to reveal the similarities and differences with other cultures. In addition, the texts in which the related beings were mentioned were analysed with the descriptive method. Thus, the basilisk, who has the ability to kill his enemies with his gaze, has become a part of the Christian story by being identified with the devil; the centaur, who rebels against authority and has an aggressive structure, with the dissidents who oppose the Church; and the griffin, which is a combination of two superior beings and whose protective identity comes to the fore, is generally identified with the saviour aspect of Jesus Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of Sasanian hegemony in Georgia (Kartli/Iberia) on the monuments of early Christian Georgia's material culture. It explores how Sasanian political power and influence were conveyed through visual imagery, depicting Kartli as an adaptive yet creatively distinct realm that incorporated many elements of Sasanian art and culture into early Christian iconography. The article focuses on some iconographic motifs representing the Sasanian concept of royalty and their adaptation to Georgian culture, analyzed through both Iranian and Georgian visual sources, as well as Georgian textual data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers of the British School at Rome is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Stratum Plus Journal is the property of P.P. Stratum plus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses two recent monographs, "Jewish Blues" by Gadi Sagiv and "Red Jews" by Rebekka Voß, which explore the cultural significance of the colors blue and red in Jewish history and identity. Sagiv's work delves into the historical importance of the blue color, particularly in relation to tekhelet, while Voß examines the complex meanings associated with the color red, including its adaptation and reappropriation in Jewish narratives. Both books highlight the role of color as a marker of identity in Jewish cultures, offering different methodological approaches but intersecting on the positive and negative cultural meanings of blue and red. The authors provide a nuanced exploration of how these colors have shaped Jewish cultural practices and beliefs over time, shedding light on the rich and diverse perspectives within Jewish communities. [Extracted from the article]

Sheet pendants made of silver or copper alloy were worn in Estonia from the 10th to the 17th century. This type of jewelry spread to Estonia from Scandinavia and was also used in Finland, Karelia, Latvia, Lithuania, in the areas inhabited by the Baltic tribes in northeastern Poland, and to a lesser extent in northwestern Russia. The symbols depicted on the sheet pendants are Christian. The three dominant symbols are the cross, representing the Christian faith; a boss or circle, symbolizing God the Father; and five bosses arranged in the shape of crosses, representing the Five Holy Wounds of Christ. The 10th-13th-century sheet pendants include looped squares, which are symbols of St. John the Baptist. The 13th-century circular sheet pendants have a design formed by three volutes, symbolizing the Holy Trinity, triskele, swastika, pentagram, and star. Trapezoidal sheet pendants from the 13th century may have been intended as axe shapes, possibly related to the cult of St. Olaf. The meaning of the volutes and interlace patterns on the trapezoidal sheet pendants is unknown. Recognizable Christian symbols on them include the cross of St. Peter and an anchor. In the 15th-17th centuries, new designs include the Maltese cross and the T-shaped cross of St. Anthony. Sheet pendants not only manifested the wearer's Christian faith but also expressed specific central themes and concepts of Christianity. The pendants reflect themes such as God the Father, the birth and crucifixion of Christ, the Holy Trinity, and the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Rinnalehed on hõbe- või vasesulamist valmistatud plekkripatsid, mida kanti Eestis 10.-17. sajandil. See ehtetüüp levis Eestisse Skandinaaviast. Rinnalehed olid kasutusel ka Soomes, Karjalas, Läti ja Leedu aladel, balti höimude poolt asustatud aladel Kirde-Poolas ning vähesel hulgal Loode-Venemaal. Olen jaga- nud Eesti rinnalehed teostuse ja leiukonteksti poolest kaheks: 10.-13. sajandi (223 tk) ja 14.-17. sajandi rinnalehed (898 tk). Rinnalehtedel kujutatud sümbolid on kristlikud. Neil domineerivad kolm sümbolit: kristlikku usku väljendav rist, üks Jumalat tähistav kühm või ring ning viis ristikujuliselt asetatud kühmu, mis kujutavad Kristuse viit püha haava. Möle- mast perioodist pärinevatel rinnalehtedel leidub ka riste, mille harude ots- tesse on paigutatud kolm kühmukest, mis sümboliseerivad Püha Kolmainsust. 10.-13. sajandi rinnalehtedel leidub silmusristi, mis on Ristija Johannese sümbol, ning 10.-11. sajandi rinnalehtedel ka ristikujuliste otstega riste, mis töenäoli- selt väljendasid kristlikku misjonitegevust. 13. sajandi ringikujulistel rinna- lehtedel esineb voluudist koosnevat kujundit, mis viitab Pühale Kolmainsusele, ning triskelet, haakristi, viisnurka ja tähte. 13. sajandi trapetsikujulised rinnalehed võivad olla möeldud kirvekujulistena, väljendades Püha Olavi kultust. Trapetsi- kujulistel rinnalehtedel kujutatud voluutide ja pöimornamendi tähendus ei ole teada. Äratuntavad kristlikud märgid neil on Püha Peetruse rist ja ankur. 14.-17. sajandi rinnalehed on küll varasematest suuremad ja arvukamad, kuid sümbolite valik nendel on piiratum: neil on enamasti rist ja viis kühmu või üks kühm, kus- juures enamikul juhtudel on kujutatud korraga risti ja viit kühmu. Selle ajastu rinnalehtedel on enim levinud Kristuse viie haava sümbol. Haakrist esineb kesk- ja varauusaegsetel rinnalehtedel vaid üksikjuhtudel. 15.-17. sajandil lisandusid rinnalehtede kujundusse Malta rist ja T-tähe kujuline Püha Antoniuse rist. Rinnalehed manifesteerisid oma kandja kristlikku usku ning väljendasid kindlaid ristiusu teemasid ja möisteid. Rinnalehtedel kajastuvad Jumal Isa, Kristuse sünd ja ristisurm, Püha Kolmainsus ja ristimise sakrament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread of Christianity to China initiated a process of indigenization, particularly evident in Christian art. This study explores the indigenization of early 20th-century Chinese Christian paintings through literature reviews, case studies, and comparative research. The analysis covers four forms of primary research. First, it explores the indigenization of Christian concepts, tracing their development from the introduction of Nestorian Christianity in the Tang dynasty through the establishment of Fu Jen Catholic University in the Republican era. Matteo Ricci's implementation of the "Ricci Rule" during the late Ming dynasty, subsequently expanded by Celso Costantini, played a crucial role in the indigenous adaptation of Christian painting in China. The second facet focuses on the Beijing Catholic School of Painting, led by Chen Yuandu, a group that innovated Chinese Christian art by integrating local artistic expressions with traditional depictions of saints, assimilating symbols from Chinese literati painting, and preserving time-honored Chinese painting techniques. The third facet examines the strategy behind Christian painting methods. Fourth, this study discusses how the Fu Jen School faced varied reception and evaluations from domestic and international audiences under the complex social currents of the Republic of China and how the artists reflected the national spirit and artistic responsibility in their narrative paintings. Fundamentally, the practice of Christian painting at the early 20th-century Catholic School is not only an innovative artistic endeavor but also a significant case of cultural exchange between East and West and religious localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two early nineteenth-century monuments in St Paul's register the growing significance of the empire in India: John Bacon Sr and Jr's monument to Bengal judge William Jones, and J. C. F. Rossi's monument to the Governor General, Lord Cornwallis; the artists took the opportunity to explore the possibilities of Hindu art and Indian culture within the Christian space of St Paul's. This article looks at the origins of the iconography of the two monuments, suggesting how the juxtaposition of classical, Christian and Hindu motifs in the monument to Jones suggested Bacon's promulgation of a type of visual religious teaching, homologous with Jones's comparative religious studies, while Rossi elaborated a theme of fertility using a mixture of themes from contemporary land reform and the Hindu Ramayana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a theoretical basis of Augustinian composition pedagogy by tracing the symbiotic relationship between writing and knowing found within St. Augustine's Letters, The Trinity, Soliloquies, and Confessions and connecting them to modern writing-to-learn composition pedagogies. Given today's trying times of generative AI, this article argues that Catholic schools revitalize the writing arts in a manner proposed by Augustine--that is, to enrich inward contemplation and outward love for others. In embracing such philosophy of writing and applying it across the disciplines, Catholic schools can enrich their distinctively Catholic liberal arts mission--and ward off dangers found in generative AI trends and overzealous relativism. By outlining the details and value of Augustinian writing pedagogy in relation to contemporary composition theory, this article provides educators with Augustinian language and perspectives to help design distinctively Catholic writing-intensive curriculum and learning objectives to foster in students what Pope Francis calls the "wisdom of the heart." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to offer a comprehensive study on the meaning of sacral art in the formation of Christianity in Ukraine. The scientific novelty of this research is that the artistic features of the sculpture in Ukraine analysed in the process of the formation of Christianity in the region are highlighted for the first time. Based on the elaborated material, it is the interrelation of the art of the Christian sculpture of the area with the developed local pagan traditions that is mostly shown. After all, religious sculpture played an essential role regarding the sacred culture of ancient Ukrainians. As a result of the study, it was found that the art of sculpture in wood and stone in Ukraine has ancient traditions. Christianity has drawn all the best from this tradition and adapted it according to its cult: the technique of wood and stone processing, the range of plots, mythological traditions. The mentioned approach may also be applied to other types of sacred art: painting, artistic metal processing, etc., which should be considered in subsequent scientific studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first two centuries of our era constitute a period devoid of sacred images, and this aniconic phase of Christianity was not only determined by the observance of the Old Testament prohibition. The lack of interest of Jesus and the apostles towards the idea of preaching through images, the absence of information about the appearance of Christ, but also the precarious economic situation of the Christian community before the legalization of Christianity, are important factors that must be taken into account when discussing this absence of cultic representations characteristic of the first two Christian centuries. However, despite the initial aniconism, the development of the new cult in the Greco-Roman world, where images of divinities were omnipresent, led to the emergence of a Christian art. The first spaces dedicated to visual representations of the sacred are the catacombs. On the walls of the underground cemeteries, the adherents of the new religion depicted various symbols taken from the funerary repertoire of pagan imagery, which they adapted to acquire Christian significance, the cross, the fish, the vine and the lamb, included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the decoration of a Flemish art cabinet gifted by Charles II to his supporter Sir Thomas Myddelton after the Restoration of the monarchy. I analyze how the so-called Chirk Cabinet uses the images of the seven works of mercy and other biblical stories to express Charles's gratitude to the royalists and to legitimize the restored monarchy. By discussing connections between the cabinet's imagery and Charles's life, I show that the cabinet constructs a providential narrative that presents Charles as a monarch with the right to rule that is God-given and manifested itself in his trials and tribulations, and his eventual triumph. Finally, by examining the visual and haptic engagement that the Chirk Cabinet demanded from its viewers, I demonstrate that the cabinet's sections' dynamic metamorphoses and kinetic transitions reenacted the transformation of the exiled heir to the throne into the divinely anointed king. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses Roger Scruton's understanding of what he called "moments of revelation". In two short essays, both entitled "Effing the ineffable", Scruton framed his discussion of moments of revelation with reference to the medieval Christian mystical discourse. Introducing the medieval discussion of this topic, this study provides an analysis of Scruton's approach to the theme. In tune with the traditional discourse on revelation, his general aim was to demonstrate that there are ways of revealing important truths about the supernatural, of the world "beyond the window", that do not require words to be pronounced. He calls our experiences of such phenomena moments of revelation and identifies four different transitory sources of revelation. This study deals with them one by one, after considering whether it is right to label such a revelation transcendental. The four sources of Scruton's moments of revelation are natural beauty, the beauty of painting, the beauty of music, and personal encounters. The first three examples are connected to his thoughts on art and beauty as a substitute of divine revelation. Perhaps the most surprising of these is the last ones, moments of intersubjective human relationships, "our knowledge of each other". Relying on both Buber and Levinas, Scruton makes the strong claim that it is in the other that we can experience that world "beyond the window". His phenomenological exploration of human encounters sheds light on concepts like grace, shekhinah, or real presence and gift. He explains the Christian understanding of the human–divine relationship as well along the lines of the nature of interpersonal human relationship, both of them being in a certain sense, he claims, transcendental. From grace, his account moves forward to self-sacrifice and finally arrives at his idiosyncratic understanding of gratefulness for life. His moments of revelation in art and interpersonal exchange turn out to be, indeed, late and secular versions of the Christian understanding of revelation. In its summary, this study claims that revelation, understood by Scruton as a form of general human experience, allows to catch a glimpse of that which is beyond the window, by the direct, sensually based experience of either the existence of another person or of the beauty of nature and art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period between 1080 and 1160 saw an explosion in monastic construction throughout Western Europe. The textual sources from this period document this building boom and explicitly tie construction and refurbishment to monastic reform and the creation of spaces for spiritual renewal. Newly built or remodeled monasteries and churches were richly decorated with wall paintings and monumental sculpture and inscriptions. A new form of sculpture emerged during this period of increased construction—the historiated capital. Despite their small size, capitals in the eleventh and twelfth centuries were frequently decorated with figures of humans or animals, and these images usually referred to a narrative, with lapidary inscriptions serving as commentary to the images. This article will compare two capitals depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac to consider how location and movement around the capitals direct the interpretation and understanding of the narrative scenes and accompanying epigraphy. One capital is in the narthex of Saint-Seurin at Bordeaux, while the other is in the choir of Sainte-Foy at Conques. My analysis involves making connections between the location of the capital within the architectural space and its relationship to other sculpted imagery, monastic interpretations of their spaces, and the liturgical events that took place within those spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lectio praecursoria: Maarit Magga's dissertation "Gákti lupauksena: Duodjin moniaistinen visuaalisuus ja estetiikka kirkollisissa tiloissa" was examined at the University of Lapland (Faculty of Art and Design) on the 16th February 2024. The opponent was Professor Maarit Mäkelä (Aalto University) and the custos was Professor Emerita Tuija Hautala-Hirvioja (University of Lapland). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

References to the divine have been frequent in the history of Christian art. As examples, this article surveys the symbolism of light and gold, the rhetoric of gesture, and the theatricality of the pictorial space. Sacred art is closely linked to biblical, liturgical and theological texts which are full of metaphorical expressions of transcendent realities. Since artists, patrons and viewers considered these texts authoritative, they must be consulted to interpret artworks correctly. This study argues that Catholic theology and the magisterium have constantly called for references to the divine. As a theoretical framework, this image theology helps to interpret the art-historical data with new questions that tourists and communicators today usually do not ask. This is because Christian art mediates the meaning of divine revelation, which is not self-explanatory. It needs to be decoded with a method interested in both images and texts. Erwin Panofsky has presented such a method. His 'iconology' consists of three steps for describing, analyzing and interpreting images. This article claims that the interpretation of Christian art is a prime example of the ongoing applicability of Panofsky's method as a tool for decoding iconography in pastoral, academic and social media communications, and examines a selection of best practices in such communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring the work of artist Cecily Brown. The exhibition, titled "Death and the Maid," showcased a collection of paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and monotypes. Brown's work explores themes of death, mirrors, vanitas, and maidens, and draws inspiration from early modern European art. The article highlights specific paintings from the exhibition, such as "Triumph of the Vanities" and "Lobsters, Oysters, Cherries, and Pearls," which depict the fragility and transience of life. Brown's work incorporates visual puns, doubling, and mirroring, inviting viewers to contemplate the inevitability of death. [Extracted from the article]

The creative work of Fricis Bārda suggests an intense spiritual search that eventually alienated him from Christianity. It is therefore sometimes contended that there is neither Christ nor Christian symbolism in his poetry. However, Christian motifs play a rather important role in Bārda’s poetry. They have been integrated in a wider context of synthesis of religious ideas. Bārda’s first collection of poems “Zemes dēls” (“The Son of the Land”, 1911) contains few Christian motifs, and they appear as poetic expressions of other ideas. In the poem “Līgavainis” (“The Bridegroom”), the lyrical character’s cup of blood invokes parallels with the sacrifice of Christ’s blood, symbolising a man’s sacrifice for his Dream. The Dream embodies a spiritual reality, and its fulfilment can only be attained in death. In the poem “Tveice” (“Heat”), the Communion host is a poetic symbol of the physical and spiritual thirst of the ploughman. The poem “Lielā vienība” (“The Great Unity”) links Christian and Buddhist notions in an experience of spiritual enlightenment. In the second collection of poems, “Dziesmas un lūgšanas Dzīvības kokam” (“Songs and Prayers to the Tree of Life”, 1923), there are more Christianity-related motifs. In the poem “Cīņa ar eņģeli” (“Wrestling with the Angel”), motifs of protest against the God’s established world order and the suffering inflicted on man are not directed against God himself, but in a euphemistic way against the guardian angel as a representative of the heavenly forces. The poem describes a collapse of the naïve faith of a child. The motif of the lost childhood faith is characteristic of Latvian classical poetry. The opening of the poem has several direct parallels with Aspazija’s poem “Aina” (“Scene”). In the following verses, the poet begins a resolute struggle for his lost childhood dreams. The poem contains many reminiscences of the Bible. The poem “Svešā dievnamā” (“In an Unfamiliar Church”) was written under the influence of the events of the First World War. It is the only poem directly portraying Christ. The description of a common man’s faith contains the Biblical notion that Christ turns his attention to “the smallest”. Bārda comes from a region that had an active movement of Moravian Brethren Congregations. The world-view inherent to Moravian Church, its yearning for purity of heart and a personal relationship with God have had an indirect influence on Bārda’s poetry. Motifs characteristic of the Moravian Church in the poem “Kad debesis atveras” (“When the Heaven Opens”) are combined with a generalised experience of enlightenment where one gains insight into spiritual truths that are not comprehensible to the mind. The motifs of the holiness of the Holy Communion and the earth as a harvest-giver are reinvented in the poem “Velēna” (“Turf”). The author affirms that he perceives a profound wisdom in the ancient words of the consecration of the Holy Communion. This suggests a greater openness to the Christian worldview at the end of the poet’s short life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article stems from the author's dialogue with New Testament scholar Andries van Aarde about the divinity of Jesus, during which the topic of Jesus' ascension also arose. The author aims to focus on Van Aarde's thinking about the ascension of Jesus. The article does not intend to provide a reflection on the exegetical and hermeneutical analysis of the biblical texts alluding to the ascension of Jesus Christ. Instead, it argues that these texts existentially emphasise a believer's new life, theologically expressed as 'personal ascension', implying participation with God. In the New Testament, language expressing Jesus' ascension was borrowed particularly from royal psalms in the Old Testament. The concept of 'ascent to heaven' to access the divine presence is central not only to Jewish Christian apocalyptic symbolism but it also became part of the church's liturgy. Van Aarde contends that the modern church should preserve the reference to Jesus' ascension in ecclesial confessional language, despite no longer affirming a three-tiered universe or adhering to the mythical language of 'descended into hell' and 'ascended to heaven'. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article makes the case that Jesus Christ's ascension serves as a liturgical celebration of victory over trauma. It demonstrates the need for a metaphorical interpretation of the ancient references to ascension. These mythological descriptions become anachronistic in our time if they are interpreted in a realistic, historical and literal sense. However, rich and meaningful victory poetry can still be communicated if the 'ascension' is interpreted metaphorically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the conception of Art and Christianity in the essay The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality [Esteticheskiye otnosheniya iskusstva k deystvitel’nosti (1855)] and in the novel What is to Be Done [Chto delat’?(1862)], by Chernyshevsky. I argue that Chernishevsky’s reception of German philosophical materialism, especially Feuerbach and David Strauss, provided the foundations for his realism and for his materialistic reformulation of Christianity. As a typical seminarist confronting modern ideas, Chernishevsky found in Feuerbach’s and David Strauss’s thought a horizon of perpetuation of his religious instinct and became a propagator of scientific materialism that moved the controversies about religion, art, and revolution in the second half of the nineteenth century. I further argue that the weltanschauung that structured his essay on Art is at the root of the aesthetic and religious procedure we find in his novel. Interpreted as the expression of a materialist subversion of Christianity, What is to Be Done was conceived and elaborated to be read as a new gospel and was received, in the Russian revolutionary imaginary, as a religious pamphlet that determined the discussions about art, religion and revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has played a pivotal role in advancing our understanding of cloisonné enamel production in China during the 19th and 20th centuries. However, Christian workshops, whether operating under missionary subcontracting or owned by the Catholic Church, have yet to be accurately identified and contextualized. This article delves into three significant contexts. Firstly, it identifies and contextualizes the Christian connections and interactions of the Decheng private cloisonné workshop, involving the French Lazarist Bishop Alphonse Favier, in Beijing. Secondly, it identifies the cloisonné workshop stablished by the Lazarists in the Beitang complex in Beijing and elucidates the role it played. Finally, this paper presents new evidence concerning cloisonné Christian objects crafted by the Tushanwan Jesuit workshop in Shanghai. Some of the primary works of these three workshops are identified for the first time. Additionally, this paper shows that certain cloisonné crosses, some of them thought to be originally Japanese, including those referred to as Namban, were, in fact, crafted in Beijing during the 1920s. These preliminary results will contribute to placing Chinese Christian cloisonné within the history of Chinese Art and its interactions at a global level in the context of evangelization in China, the production of the so-called export art, and the processes of indigenization carried out by the Lazarists and the Jesuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blindness refers to various conditions ranging from physical to metaphorical blindness. This often also expresses a special connection to the gods. The focus of this article is the healing of blind people by Jesus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the images of paired scrolling patterns recurring in the design of Jewish ritual spaces and objects. It explores a facet of non-narrative visual expression within Jewish visual culture. The chronologically and geographically disconnected depictions of similar paired scrolled patterns on Jewish artifacts exemplify the process of creating and recreating symbolic meanings based on the mimetic qualities of an image. In their various renditions and contexts, volutes in their resemblance to growing plant branches enacted visual references to the vital powers of nature as a promise for resurrection and a metaphor for the vitality of Judaism and the Mosaic law. The Jewish manifestations of symbolic scrolls emerged in surroundings that maintained classical architectural vocabulary containing volutes and shared the Christian topos of the flourishing cross visualized in its arboreal or vegetative renditions. This very act of construing of a non-narrative visual sign of a couple of spirals aims at reaffirming visual evidence as a meaningful source in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Poznan Theological Studies / Poznanskie Studia Teologiczne is the property of Adam Mickiewicz University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Mosaic Research is the property of Uludag University, Mosaic Research Center and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The second half of the 19th c. marked the beginning of the institutionalization of two great disciplines in the Humanities – art history and classical archaeology. This process took place in many European centres, including Vienna, and influenced other university cities in the Habsburg Monarchy. There are obvious connections between the beginnings of art history and the interest in ancient Greek and Roman art. It is visible in the works of both art historians, who often referred to the ancient roots of artistic phenomena, and archaeologists, who often referred to parallels and concepts developed by art historians. On the basis of the connections between the Viennese and Cracow centres, this is visible, for example, in the works of Alois Riegl and Franz Wickhoff and their influence on the work and research undertaken by Piotr Bieńkowski, the founder and organizer of the Department of Classical Archaeology in Cracow (1897). These connections are visible, for example, in Bieńkowski’s work Impressionism in Roman and Early Christian Art, which was published in 1896 and referred to Viennese theoreticians of art history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian symbolism is permanently present in Rasho Rashev's research. He examined signs, drawings, symbols and their place in early medieval Bulgarian culture. The researcher considered the specific archaeological environment from which the monuments originate. He has reached important conclusions about their dating, origin and semantic meaning. Based on his erudition, field and theoretical knowledge, Rasho Rashev successfully refuted a priori imposed theories regarding the so-called signs of "Proto-Bulgarian culture". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Early Modern period, European explorers, merchants, and missionaries crossed the oceans across Asia, from the Malabar Coast in India to the Far East. It was a period of unprecedented artistic and cultural transfers between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas, resulting in a dynamic and intense transmission of knowledge, beliefs, and the circulation of material culture. During the age of discoveries, the consciousness of multipolar political powers, and the development of scientific knowledge, art became instrumental to the formation of mutual perceptions and the representation of the 'other', both to the East and West. This paper aims to examine the processes of instrumentalization of art and artistic representation in the expression of political and spiritual utopias and the use of art to display the establishment of a new political and religious order and certainly to eloquently convince others to adopt new beliefs, accept new authorities, and conform to new cultural values. It also discusses how art and religious material culture became a mechanism to project political power, the triumph of the Church and personal devotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers archaeological evidence for various aspects of early Christian church building and comes to the conclusion that diversity was an essential quality of late antique Christianity. The diversity in question is ill-attested in written sources, but becomes apparent when the material record and everyday life are taken into consideration (cultural/material/pictorial/iconic turn). Church buildings looked and functioned differently in various regions and provinces of the late Roman empire. The diversity does not appear to have been accidental, but was cultivated throughout late antiquity. It was sometimes related to, but did not depend on, differences in liturgical practice, nor was it a matter of knowledge, ability, and workshop tradition alone. Provincial diversity was maintained even when and where the metropolitan alternative was manifestly known and available and although secular art and architecture continued to uniformly emulate the capital cities. A combination of written and material evidence suggests that the diverse formal repertoire of early Christian art and architecture was chosen and decided individually, but tended to form local/provincial/regional clusters. The decision makers seem to have been guided by religious conventions as well as by personal or political allegiances, many of which appear to have been determined locally, each province or region onto itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study attempts to identify the theme of light in the imagery of ancient Greco-Roman and Christian art through a comparative analysis of the context and evolution of artistic language before and after the Christianization of the Roman Empire. An essential criterion in understanding the new aesthetic paradigm and highlighting the means of artistic expression characteristic to the two periods temporally delimited by the event of the Incarnation, is the way in which artistic consciousness relates to divinity. The acceptance or not of the Revelation, the reflection in religious art of the fact that God became Man and He has a Face, as opposed to other philosophical quests and religious systems that dress up the idea of divinity and its attributes in the face of the gods, personifying it or imagining it symbolically, - makes the difference. God communicates Himself to man through light, light being the common denominator of any epistemology, without placing in competition or in opposition the knowledge that comes to us through Revelation with that acquired by man through scientific experiments. Paradox is a mark of light. Science has proven it with the wave-particle dualism of quantum mechanics and theology fully confirms it. Light is a Person who says of Himself that He is: 'The Light of the World'. (John 8, 12). The theme of light has multiple meanings in biblical exegesis; from the metaphorical image that runs through the Book of Revelation to that of the incorporated Light (Lux incorporata), an interpretation that refers to the Mystery of the Incarnation, to the world transfigured by grace, to the uncreated light communicated to people by the heavenly hierarchies through the Church in the form of the Holy Mysteries. In the world of late Roman antiquity, and later in the Byzantine world, there was a belief that the veining or luminous veins of colored marble, gemstones or translucent stones were embedded rays of light, an intervention of divine light in the rock. The uniqueness of these 'graphic accidents' was interpreted as signs of God in the creation that suggests the unseen, the unusual, the ineffable, in short, the paradox of the Christian world summed up in this confession: that God is both One and Three, that Christ is both Man and God, and that Mary is both the Mother of God and the Virgin. The art of mosaics and stained glass, as well as the entire decorative complex of precious stones, gems and polychrome marbles adorning objects of worship and liturgical furnishings, is built on a long tradition that aesthetically and theologically values the motif of light. Dogmatic notions such as hypostatic union and perichoresis are symbolically translated into visually striking plastic expressions - provided by the natural textures of the cut and polished rocks - with the sole purpose of suggesting the dogmatic 'contradictions' of the Kingdom of Light which, as they say, 'already exists, but not yet'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been acknowledged that the success of the Jesuit mission in Goa, India, was due in part to its strategic use of art and architecture to promote the ideals of the order and to garner local support. This article instead focuses on art produced in the modern-day state of Kerala, where the advent of a material culture of Christianity was complicated by a preexisting community of Christians who trace their lineage to the arrival of Saint Thomas the Apostle in the first century. This essay argues that it was through the incorporation of Hindu motifs and ideology in these objects that Thomas Christians forged and preserved their own religious identities despite the encroachment of the Jesuits. In so doing, the practice of “global” Renaissance art history is expanded to account for the pluralistic and performative function of art in the contact zone between cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Notes on Contributors" section of the Religion & the Arts journal provides brief biographical information about scholars contributing to the publication. Contributors include researchers from institutions such as King's College London, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and North Carolina State University. The section also highlights the cover illustration of the journal, featuring Basilio de Salazar's painting "Franciscan Exaltation of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, 1637." Additionally, the journal's website offers resources such as conference announcements, article listings, and links to relevant web pages in the field of religion and the arts. [Extracted from the article]

Between 1936 and 1969, around 1600 kneelers were produced for the new Anglican cathedral at Guildford in Surrey, southern England. This was a major collective devotional artwork, involving hundreds of embroiderers, mostly local women. The project was a distinctive form of community and collective artwork, that complicates established understandings of embroidery, craftwork, femininity and politics. It worked within guidelines for design and materials set by the interior designer Lady Prudence Maufe and her husband Sir Edward Maufe, the cathedral's architect. However, it also allowed for considerable autonomy and self-expression on the part of the volunteers. The kneeler collection has a rich and varied iconography that ranges from expected Christian symbolism to representations of modern technology and nuclear weaponry. What emerged over the length of the project was a complex expression of the worldview of post-war England, and particularly the England and Englishness of the Home Counties. This worldview attempted to combine faith in God with faith in technological progress, and to reconcile internationalism with confidence in British military power. The Guildford kneelers are best understood as a distinctive form of conservative modernity, an attempt to place the changes of the mid twentieth century into longer traditions of Christian worship and Englishness. • The 1600 kneelers at Guildford Cathedral are an important collective artwork. • Produced between 1936 and 1969 by hundreds of predominantly female craftworkers. • Challenges established progressive understandings of community artwork. • Iconography expresses the world-view of post-war middle-class England. • Interprets relationship between faith, technology and nationalism as conservative modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores and discusses the cyanotype process on glass. Being the first academic article on the subject, the research goes through 19th-century written sources, analyses processes in the history of photography, compares technical variations, and finds five antique cyanotype transparencies in museum collections. Furthermore, it compares methods of contemporary practitioners and discusses such photographs of relics in the Duomo Museum in Florence. The works open a dialog between ontological theories on photography, symbolism of blue color, and expressive means of art glass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The origins of the formation of plant symbolism in Christian temple art have been investigated, particularly on the example of the texts of the Holy Bible. The primary connotations of the garden's symbolism in Christian sacral art are analyzed as an expression of the idea of a lost paradise, contemplation of the images of which is possible in the space of temples. Plant symbolism is revealed in the holistic art systems of the Sophia of Kyiv and St. Cyril's Church in Kyiv. The fundamental values of plant symbolism in St. Sophia's Cathedral and St. Cyril's Church are highlighted by the idea of the continuity of Christian semiotics with the Old Testament Judaism and the combination of local pre-Christian traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intimate relationship between religion and parties of the right in European politics has been well documented in political science, encompassing both the long-standing partnership between the church and Christian Democrats as well as the more recent adoption of Christian identity and symbolism by radical 'right-wing' parties. Yet in this contribution, it will be argued that in the 2019–2024 session of the European Parliament (EP), it is a third right-of-centre group that has now emerged as the clearest proponents of the role of Christianity in the modern-day European Union (EU). The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), led by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from Poland's Law and Justice Party (PiS), regularly and consistently advance the case for 'freedom of religion' and the positive role of churches as institutions in public affairs. While Christian Democrats have become secular, 'catch-all' peoples' parties and 'far-right' politicians are criticised for exploiting tensions over multiculturalism, it is the European conservatives, with their 'Euro-realist' agenda, who now represent the most novel and intriguing aspect to the interface between religion and the right in EU party politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]