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The Vampire as Metaphor

Anne Billson

in Let the Right One In

This chapter explains how horror stories have dabbled in parts of the human condition that more respectable mainstream culture dares not touch. It considers vampire movies and books that provide an ... More

This chapter explains how horror stories have dabbled in parts of the human condition that more respectable mainstream culture dares not touch. It considers vampire movies and books that provide an indirect way of dealing with the sort of subjects that are still regarded in certain quarters as taboo or upsetting to discuss outside the psychiatrist's office, such as sex, death, and intimacy. It also points out how the subtext of the vampire has changed over the years according to the social and sexual mores, political situations, religious beliefs, and fashions of the day. The chapter talks about how crucifixes, holy water and wafers lost potency of their symbolism, though crucifixes are still displayed for superstitious reasons or as fashion accessories. It discusses Eli in Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In, whose name is loaded with religious significance as the name of an Old Testament prophet.Less

Conclusion

Hilal Elver

in The Headscarf Controversy: Secularism and Freedom of Religion

In concluding chapter an evaluation is offered of all outcomes of the political and social arguments and court decisions in previously mentioned countries. Throughout the book several conclusions are ... More

In concluding chapter an evaluation is offered of all outcomes of the political and social arguments and court decisions in previously mentioned countries. Throughout the book several conclusions are reached. First, the headscarf controversy extends beyond an individual's freedom of religion, giving rise to the socio-political consequences of being "other," an effect of being a minority religion in Europe and in the United States. In Turkey however, the debate is embedded in its unique history, and the struggle in a religious society to establish and maintain a secular democracy based on the acceptance and representation of heterogeneous culture. Such a goal is compatible with the authoritarian and unchangeable features of the Turkish nation state in early 20th century. Second, the headscarf debate is strongly gendered and this aspects of the debate, is often obscured. The suffering of women who choose to wear a headscarf is an instance of acute discrimination, but as yet has not produced much concern in otherwise liberal democracies. Third, international law in general and international human right courts in particular have failed to protect the individual rights of Muslim women, causing them much grief.Less

{} Now You Are My Thorn, but Soon You Shall Be My Lily of Delight: The Transformation of Margaret Reilly

Paula M. Kane

in Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America

This chapter shows how Margaret Reilly received a nudge toward sainthood on an ordinary day in 1917 while cooking dinner. Although the kitchen seems an unlikely place for a mystical encounter, ... More

This chapter shows how Margaret Reilly received a nudge toward sainthood on an ordinary day in 1917 while cooking dinner. Although the kitchen seems an unlikely place for a mystical encounter, Margaret, while stooping over the oven to prepare a fish supper with her mother, felt a sharp pain over her heart and saw a three-dimensional crucifix emerging in blood. Her mother quickly put her to bed and immediately telephoned their pastor. This event was not Margaret's first divine communication. Four years earlier, in November 1913, a two-inch-long red cross had appeared on her breast. On that day, she recalled, “It pleased our dear Lord to send me a very severe illness for which He prepared me in a most extraordinary way.”Less

Under the Sign of the Cross in the Kingdom of Kongo: Religious Conversion and Visual Correlation

CéCile Fromont

in Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo

This chapter talks about the cross as a central symbol in both Kongo and European religious belief. The cross as a symbol that allowed the two sides to determine the religious significance and ... More

This chapter talks about the cross as a central symbol in both Kongo and European religious belief. The cross as a symbol that allowed the two sides to determine the religious significance and epistemological common ground of the nature of the supernatural and its manifestations. The cross created an opportunity for Christian orthodoxy to recognize central Africa manifestations of immanence and for Kongo to broaden its religious belief to include the powers of Christianity. Kongo artists and patrons expressed their new Kongo Christian worldview through portable and elaborately crafted crucifixes.Less

The Lamentation of a Sinner1

in Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence

This chapter dwells upon Katherine Parr's “Lamentation of a Sinner,” one of the most free-standing of Parr's works in its preponderance of original composition which presents a life-changing ... More

This chapter dwells upon Katherine Parr's “Lamentation of a Sinner,” one of the most free-standing of Parr's works in its preponderance of original composition which presents a life-changing conversion experience in the mode of a spiritual autobiography. The opening section of the book is penitential and confessional. Parr acknowledges her sins and her indulgence in evilness that condemned and despised God's holy precepts and commandments. She says that she has failed to understand the wonderful mystery of the mercy of God, a heavenly practice of regeneration and a spiritual enchantment of the grace of God. She proclaims that no mortal man is of power to help her and for the multitude of her sins as she did not lift her eyes to heaven, where the seat of judgment is. So she pledges to call upon Christ, the light of the world, the fountain of life, and to declare her ways to the Lord, stop loving darkness better than light so he would have mercy upon her. She decides to inwardly behold Christ upon the cross, relinquish the services of a blind guide called ignorance, who dimmed her eyes forcing her to travel uncomfortably in the foul, wicked, crooked, and perverse ways.Less

Doll

Joe Moshenska

in Iconoclasm As Child's Play

This chapter opens with a father in Cologne in the 1590s who snapped the arms from a crucifix and gave it to his children as a toy. Returning to the sermon by Edgeworth discussed in the preface, the ... More

This chapter opens with a father in Cologne in the 1590s who snapped the arms from a crucifix and gave it to his children as a toy. Returning to the sermon by Edgeworth discussed in the preface, the chapter considers this broken object as what Edgeworth calls an “idoll”--a hybridization of doll and idoll. This possibility is linked to the wider presence of “holy dolls” in medieval Christianity, but ultimately the doll is explored not as a stable and readily identifiable category but as a way of conceiving of ambiguous objects that may be more or less human at different moments and subjected alternatingly to violence and care. The implications of this possibility are explored in relation to a medieval Christ child, a broken crucifix, and a contemporary representation of a shattered doll.Less

“To Rouse Devotion in a Carnal People”

John Howe

in Before the Gregorian Reform: The Latin Church at the Turn of the First Millennium

This chapter examines the role of art in the tenth and eleventh centuries in helping lead simple souls to God. According to Bernard of Clairvaux, the “bishops have a duty toward both wise and ... More

This chapter examines the role of art in the tenth and eleventh centuries in helping lead simple souls to God. According to Bernard of Clairvaux, the “bishops have a duty toward both wise and foolish. They have to make use of material ornamentation to inspire devotion in a carnal people, incapable of spiritual things.” Conscientious churchmen debated about the merits and demerits of ecclesiastical luxury. In the medieval Latin West, however, a consensus gradually emerged that rich and splendid art had a role to play in helping lead simple souls to God. This chapter discusses the proliferation of altars and reliquaries in crypts, side chapels, and shrines from the Carolingian period forward and their influence on ecclesiastical architecture. It also considers the use of crosses and crucifixes on altars and the reappearance of three-dimensional religious statues in the tenth-century Latin West. Finally, it describes the sorts of ecclesiastical paraphernalia such as books, vestments, and liturgical equipment that were crafted to help bring simple souls to God.Less

“When My Soul Longs for the Divine Vision”

John Howe

in Before the Gregorian Reform: The Latin Church at the Turn of the First Millennium

This chapter examines how millennial Latin Christians attempted to approach their God through a specifially Christian theological perspective. It begins by discussing the contemplative spirituality ... More

This chapter examines how millennial Latin Christians attempted to approach their God through a specifially Christian theological perspective. It begins by discussing the contemplative spirituality of Abbot John of Fécamp, who declares in Confessio Theologica: “There are many types of contemplation which the soul devoted to you, O Christ, can profit from and enjoy … Behold, O Lord, when my soul longs for the divine vision, and, reaching out to capture you, meditates and sings of your glory, the burden of the flesh is less heavy, the tumult of thoughts ceases, the weight of our mortality and the well-rehearsed pattern of our anxieties fade … ” This chapter proceeds by exploring spirituality in the tenth and eleventh centuries; how the proliferation of private Masses in the millennial Church potentially turned the Mass into a private prayer; Eucharistic spirituality and the liturgy of the hours; how statues and images functioned in individual spirituality; devotional use of crosses and crucifixes; saints as models of spirituality; and nature as God's art.Less

Nationalism, Secularism, and Cultural Heritage

Geneviève Zubrzycki

in Beheading the Saint: Nationalism, Religion, and Secularism in Quebec

In chapter 5 the author turns her attention to the relationship between religious symbols, cultural patrimony, and secularism in an analysis of the debates over “reasonable accommodation” and the ... More

In chapter 5 the author turns her attention to the relationship between religious symbols, cultural patrimony, and secularism in an analysis of the debates over “reasonable accommodation” and the Charter of Values/Charter of Secularism proposed in 2013, finding trances of the ghostly presence of Catholicism in Québec society.Less

The Myth of the Neutral State and the Individualization of Religion: The Relationship Between State and Religion in the Face of Fundamentalism

Karl-Heinz Ladeur

in Constitutional Secularism in an Age of Religious Revival

In postmodern societies religious freedom is increasingly transformed into an apolitical private right to opt for a belief. The specificities of different religions and their self-interpretations are ... More

In postmodern societies religious freedom is increasingly transformed into an apolitical private right to opt for a belief. The specificities of different religions and their self-interpretations are ignored. At the same time, the negative freedom ‘to be left alone’ seems to prevail over the positive version of religious freedom. As a consequence, even the factual constraint of having to look at religious symbols (for examples crucifixes) in public schools is regarded as an infringement of religious freedom. At the same time, the new fundamentalist understanding of religion (Christian and Muslim in particular) imposes a paradoxical constraint on its followers to refer to this privatized version of religious freedom in order find a legitimation for their religious vision that remains fixated on the collective self-interpretation of a group that questions the secularization of public institutions. Islam is confronted with particularly pressing conflicts because it has never developed the institutional infrastructure that is characteristic of the Christian religion.Less

The Tempting of Europe, the Political Seduction of the Cross: A Schmittian Reading of Christianity and Islam in European Constitutionalism

Susanna Mancini

in Constitutional Secularism in an Age of Religious Revival

This chapter examines legal and political responses to the growing presence of Islam in Europe through the lens of Carl Schmitt’s thought. It points out how such responses draw on an essentialist and ... More

This chapter examines legal and political responses to the growing presence of Islam in Europe through the lens of Carl Schmitt’s thought. It points out how such responses draw on an essentialist and idealized notion of the people, and aim at artificially reinforcing the cultural and religious homogeneous character of the European public sphere, thus pursuing an ‘identitarian’ model of democracy. It concludes that the role attributed to the ‘Christian roots’ of Europe in contemporary discourses is analogous to the role that Schmitt ascribed to the Catholic Church in representing the values which were the essence of European civilization and separated it from ‘uncivilized’ others.Less

Uproar about the Constitutional Court’s Jurisprudence

Dieter Grimm

in Dieter Grimm: Advocate of the Constitution

The chapter deals with the two most contested judgements of the Court in which Dieter Grimm was involved (“Soldiers are Murderers” and “Crucifix in Classrooms in Bavaria”), the protests that the ... More

The chapter deals with the two most contested judgements of the Court in which Dieter Grimm was involved (“Soldiers are Murderers” and “Crucifix in Classrooms in Bavaria”), the protests that the judgments entailed, his personal attitude vis-à-vis the protest, murder threats against him, relationship between national and constitutional law.Less

The Desire for Images: Lutheran Identity in Electoral Saxony and Brandenburg

Bridget Heal

in A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany

Chapter 3 examines in detail the impact of Calvinist reform on Lutheran attitudes towards images in the two territories that form the main focus of this study: Electoral Saxony and Brandenburg. It ... More

Chapter 3 examines in detail the impact of Calvinist reform on Lutheran attitudes towards images in the two territories that form the main focus of this study: Electoral Saxony and Brandenburg. It shows that images served as confessional markers not only for Lutheran theologians but also for laypeople. In Saxony, where Elector Christian I introduced short-lived Calvinist reforms in 1586–91, members of the political elite expressed their loyalty to Lutheranism through the epitaphs and altarpieces that they commissioned. In Brandenburg, where Elector Johann Sigismund attempted to introduce a fully fledged Calvinist Reformation in 1615, there was widespread resistance to iconoclasm. In April 1615, Berlin’s Lutheran inhabitants rioted, in part in response to the stripping of the city’s main church. The chapter analyzes accounts of this riot and considers its legacy, arguing that during this period conflict served to embed images even more firmly in Lutheran confessional consciousness.Less

Lutherans and the Suffering of Christ

Bridget Heal

in A Magnificent Faith: Art and Identity in Lutheran Germany

Chapter 5 focuses on one particular type of Lutheran devotional image: the crucifix. It examines transformations in Lutheran Passion piety from the early Reformation to the era of Paul Gerhardt ... More

Chapter 5 focuses on one particular type of Lutheran devotional image: the crucifix. It examines transformations in Lutheran Passion piety from the early Reformation to the era of Paul Gerhardt (1607–76), using this to illustrate the increasing significance accorded to images. Luther himself had condemned the excesses of late-medieval Passion piety, with its emphasis on compassion for Christ and the Virgin Mary, on physical pain and on tears. From the later sixteenth century onwards, however, Lutheran sermons, devotional literature, prayers and poetry described Christ’s suffering in increasingly graphic terms. Alongside this, late-medieval images of the Passion were restored and new images were produced. Drawing on case studies from the Erzgebirge, a prosperous mining region in southern Saxony, and Upper Lusatia, the chapter investigates the ways in which images of the Passion were used in Lutheran communities during the seventeenth century.Less

Karlsruhe Republic, 1990–2001

Justin Collings

in Democracy's Guardians: A History of the German Federal Constitutional Court, 1951–2001

Chapter 5 assesses the Court’s role in the process of German reunification. The Court played a mediating, integrationist role. It was, at times, the only forum where Eastern interests received a full ... More

Chapter 5 assesses the Court’s role in the process of German reunification. The Court played a mediating, integrationist role. It was, at times, the only forum where Eastern interests received a full hearing and partial vindication. The chapter chronicles a host of landmark decisions dealing with Soviet land expropriations, abortion, free speech, freedom of conscience, and foreign military expeditions. Nearly every core controversy of reunification made its way, in one form or another, before the Court. The Court stirred unprecedented controversy with its freedom of religion and freedom of expression decisions. But once again, respect for the Court’s traditional role ultimately trumped outrage at its recent offences. By the dawn of the new millennium, it was clear that, although the capital had moved from Bonn to Berlin, Germany remained ‘the Karlsruhe Republic’.Less

Books Under the Razor

Brian Cummings

in Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book

This chapter returns to the territory of iconoclasm but via extraordinary examples of attacks on books—with a knife—called here ‘biblioclasm’. The first case study is of a book of Catholic ritual ... More

This chapter returns to the territory of iconoclasm but via extraordinary examples of attacks on books—with a knife—called here ‘biblioclasm’. The first case study is of a book of Catholic ritual which is subjected to savage violence in seven different attacks. The second case study is an attack on an apparently secular book—a Second Folio of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies (1632), where the whole of the play Measure for Measure is cut out with a razor by an English Jesuit in Spain. What do these cases tell us about an attitude to the contents of books, and of the human subjective realm felt to reside within them? The chapter considers questions of secularization and also theories in modern philosophy (such as Heidegger) of erasure.Less