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There are episodes in Marx’s life that go unnoticed or that are considered insignificant in Marxian scholarship. A case in point is that Marx wrote a treatise on Christian art between 1841 and 1842 and a group of excerpts (the Bonn Notebooks) on the history of religious art that resulted from it. The treatise and the accompanying notebooks are either completely absent from Marx biographies and studies on young Marx or they are mentioned only in passing; if the notebooks are considered at all, one portion is usually singled out while the rest is effectively ignored. The present piece traces Marx’s motives for occupying himself with religious art as well as his interests, shifting from Christian, Greek and Egyptian arts to fetishism and idolatry. This study intends to highlight that young Marx was more involved in questions concerning the political culture of aesthetics than we usually think. The Bonn Notebooks provide access to a more vivid image of Marx in this regard than previous scholarship has suggested. [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 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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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.)

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]

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]

In the Middle Ages, angels were a constant presence and participated with the faithful in praising God. Due to the manifold roles played by angels in Christian theology, it is not surprising that they were a popular subject for church decoration. At the abbey church of Sainte-Foy at Conques, the attention paid to and regard for angels was expressed to an exceptional degree and therefore provide an excellent case study through which to understand how monumental sculpture communicated monastic identity and exegesis. This article considers the formal attributes and spatial arrangement of the sculpted angels at Conques as they relate to early medieval monastic conceptions of angels' function and role within the heavenly community, providing the monks with a celestial model to negotiate the boundaries between the active and contemplative life as articulated by Gregory the Great and the Venerable Bede. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Cultural Studies / Kültür Araştırmaları Dergisi is the property of Journal of Cultural Studies / Kultur Arastirmalari Dergisi 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.)

In the versions of the Finnish vernacular Ballad of the Death of Bishop Henry (Piispa Henrikin surmavirsi), there are several unclear parts. The part consisting of the Bishop's instructions for his coachman where to hide and from which place to observe his death is one of them. In one of the versions, the Bishop first mentions a stone as a hiding place, however, immediately realizes its unsuitability. Thereafter he suggests an oak tree (along with a horse in one of the versions). In diverse versions, there is also a dichotomy between listening and watching. The verse kun ei kilpiä kivessä ('there is no shield in the stone') is clearly an etymologizing adaptation of the folklore verse kirves kilpesty kivehen / kivestä (the axe rebounded from the stone / slid off the stone) from the epic cycle on Väinämöinen. Putting a stone in contrast with a tree, and transplanting a folklore verse about a stone as an agent of a serious injury into the context of a shield has a symbolic motivation: the medieval Christian symbolism operating with the axiological scale between the inanimate (the stone) and animate (the tree, the horse) matter, and the Christianized part of the Finnish folklore attributing the mere hearing/listening to the devil (Hiisi etc.) and the seeing/watching to God. Thus, the Bishop's instructions might be comprehended in three ways, all of them interconnected with concern for the hagiographic testimony: as an effort for the sake of the witness' survival, as an effort to find the proper place for observation of the sacrifice, and finally as an effort to maintain the proper axiological position to pass on the testimony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every school of the Japanese martial art of karate possesses special values and norms unique to its practice. Unsurprisingly, the philosophy of Idokan karate is therefore similar to other schools while remaining distinct in the myriad of martial art practices. Idokan karate possesses a practical philosophy (i.e., applicable to everyday life) influenced by Eastern and Western belief systems that are internalized and utilized by its practitioners as forms of today’s civilian warrior path. This single case study examines the prominent Idokan ethics, values, and rules as well as details its specific and symbolic content. It makes use of the hermeneutic phenomenology research method to present a content analysis of literature on Idokan within the wider discourse of martial arts studies. A broad discourse analysis of these topics in both scientific studies and popular publications was conducted. In doing so, this study’s practical implications are that it not only provides a glimpse into the uniqueness of Idokan karate philosophy but also into that of the vastness of the great martial arts menagerie. Idokan karate philosophy is derived distinctively from its founders’ understandings of Chinese and Japanese martial arts, Taoism, and Christianity and dictates practitioners a unique morality. Such teleology comes from special values, rules, and aims embedded in Idokan teachings. In normative ethics, the Decalogue and nobility of spirit (the Homo Creator Nobilis) are most important. Tao in Idokan is understood as God’s Word, the principle of love, and the way of (Christian) heaven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple symbols occupy a unique position within the semiosphere, constituting the symbolic core of culture with their ability to condense cultural memory into nimble, economic forms. This simplicity facilitates persistence, allowing these elementary symbols to recur diachronically, penetrating multiple layers of cultural strata to emerge and flourish in new contexts and variations. A novel example of a symbol which illustrates these attributes is Znak Polski Walczącej - the Fighting Poland symbol. Created in 1942 by the Polish Underground State as a propaganda tool, this straightforward monogram, consisting of interconnected letters P and W, became the official hallmark of Polish resistance and is now a controversial de facto national symbol. This article employs the symbol as a case study to explore two Lotmanian symbolic concepts: the vast semantic capacity of simple symbols, and their dual nature as invariable/variable entities. Born out of a utilitarian need for simplicity in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, the efficient form of the Fighting Poland symbol was a pragmatic matter of life or death. However, further examination of its simple design also reveals an underlying archaic depth. This article argues that the Fighting Poland symbol, metonymically known as the kotwica ('anchor') owing to its distinct shape, can also be viewed as an "emissary" from earlier cultural epochs, namely ante-Nicene Christianity, which made use of anchor symbology during an era of persecution and upheaval. Ultimately, this article provides a new semiotic perspective on a historically active yet understudied symbol with past and present relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses a significant research problem related to the typology and topography of early Christian baptisteries. After the historical and philological introduction, two main issues are discussed. The first is to present various architectural forms of baptisteries and their decorations. The second is to discuss the topography of baptisteries in church complexes. In conclusion, it was emphasized that in antiquity there was no type of building that would be characteristic of Christian baptisteries, and would clearly indicate the liturgical purpose of the building. The erection of baptisteries was also not guided by Christian symbolism, but existing architectural patterns were used, which the space could be adapted to the rites celebrated in them. It was also pointed out that there were no strictly defined rules for the location of baptistery in church complexes, because they were erected in various connections with the central object, which is the church. The Christian and liturgical purpose of the objects is indicated primarily by their decoration with a Christian theme and their location in the complexes of church buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with a socio-historical enigma: the articulation of family planning – through dedicated centres – and catholicism. How come self-identified catholics ended up defending contraception and decriminalisation of abortion while the Catholic Church kept reminding that sexuality should be conjugal and reproductive? The article examines the process of creating a discursive and practical normativity allowing the use of contraception and abortion through a catholic 'tool', that is, the pastoral power at a time of secularisation. Borrowing the concept developed by Michel Foucault enables highlighting the 'catholic governmentality' regarding contraception and abortion, namely, the 'responsible-freedom'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For all the important theological and practical diversity which emerged during the sixteenth century and later, a diversity whose legacies are still present in the forms of divided Christian bodies to this day, a uniquely medieval fascination with the cross endured. The reformation movements of the sixteenth century and later Protestants developed various ascetical programs and theological perspectives which were concerned with two well-worn medieval patterns: an appropriation of Jesus's work of atonement on the cross and an internalizing of the crucified Jesus as an exemplar. Thus, if we question the kind of role Jesus played in the spirituality of the Reformation era and later Protestantism, the answer must be the cross. This cruci-centrism appears in theologies of salvation, in sermons, prayers, and hymnody, in perceptions of Christian devotional art, and in varied conceptions of the Eucharist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nabo is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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 present article analyzes the spring, development and consecration as an autonomous painting genre of natural landscape in European painting, bringing examples from the works of the most representative masters of landscape. The seeds of the appearance of natural landscape are identified in the religious, philosophical and aesthetic thinking of the Early Middle Ages. Up to the moment of amalgamation with the humanist current, Christian symbolism included various directions of capitalization of the natural world through artistic language, thus generating conceptual and representational models in the field of visual arts. Starting with the Renaissance period, once painting techniques and representation methods started to develop, being oriented towards naturalism, the philosophy of nature generated in the European space pays its tribute to the general orientation - towards the knowledge and mastering of nature having as immediate usage the realization of progress. In this respect, nature has started to be regarded, in time, as a distinct reality, distant from the civilized world, thus the acute feelings of alienation and nostalgia towards the world of nature appear. The aim of this article is to underline these trends and the way they are reflected in the natural landscape up to the appearance of Impressionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Maracanan is the property of Revista Maracanan 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 pilgrimage routes to St. Olav's crypt offered new cultural landscape experiences. Primary attention to Christian dogma and art as discursive text leaves a ritual transformation from a Viking landscape unexplored. Pilgrim mental maps and belief may have been structured by land surveyed patterns of churches on the route. This article will map points of one route, Østerdalsleden. Among the six churches on today's recreational route, four are replaced with the earliest in the community. A complex pattern of alignments integrating all six church locations are compared to patterns created by substituting random points within community test areas. The existing pattern does not randomly reproduce in 10 000 sets of eleven total route points, leaving the high probability that these churches were organised as a cultural concept of pilgrimage landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of Christian art is often synonymous with the study of Christian images. Yet in this article we adopt a different approach; examining a particular corpus of Christian art not as a collection of images, so much as the outcome of bodily gestures. Specifically, we analyze an extensive collection of rock art from the deserts of northern New Mexico as traces left behind by generations of Catholics, particularly the members of a lay fraternity known as the Penitentes. These penitents sought to manifest their piety through the pain and suffering incurred in the repetitive pecking of crosses onto basalt boulders. Even though the result of their actions was an image, we argue that privileging an iconographic analysis of such art fails to adequately capture the kinaesthetic theology that underlay its production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An editorial is presented expressing views on America's second opiate crisis, including Christian nationalism. It mentions how American Christian Nationalism (ACN) is flooding the streets of political rhetoric, causing hyperactivity disorder in both religion and politics. It mentions that the dangerous aspect of ACN is that it provides voter support for the Republican Party and perverts Christian symbols, making it a spiritual narcotic inducing brain malfunction.

Amidst the growth and development of different civilizations, art and architecture progressed simultaneously, shaping one another. At many times they advanced analogously. This research presents different aspects of art that are employed in churches and investigates whether there is an analogy between these aspects in church architecture as well or not. Cases from different church denominations are presented from both Egypt and Mediterranean countries in Western Europe, thus discussing the dialect between art and architecture. The domain of the church was selected for this dialect, as art is employed affluently in many worship houses in general and churches specifically, deeming the task viable and comprehensible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The immediate connection between animals and humans became the basis for a long-lasting and highly structured relationship which also found its place in art and poetry. Slovak poetry uses animal elements with great intensity and variety taking into account a number of aspects: human dependency on nature as environment; the animal ancestry of humans on the one hand and exceptional qualities and faculties that distinguish humans from animals on the other; the hierarchical ordering of the world based on the evolutionary progression leading to the superiority of the human. Examples from Slovak Christian-based spiritual poetry show that animal elements are most commonly used for defining the human character and for testing moral values. Less common, although still numerous, are poems with de-humanized depictions of people that reveal a possible crisis of an individual or of society. Spiritual poetry also reveals a hidden tension between the declared high value of nature and the inherent anthropocentrism of both art and Christian religion which outline clear hierarchies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Electronic Turkish Studies is the property of Electronic Turkish Studies 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.)

Concerning the degree of the extensive examination of iconoclasm, Avril Cameron recognized "a subject which ... has been done to death" (Cameron 1992). In these essays (Christian C. Sahner for Islam, and Thomas F. X. Noble for the West), the need of adjusting Byzantine Iconoclasm within a related cultural environment becomes perfectly clear. [Extracted from the article]