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Invisible

Aviad Kleinberg

in The Sensual God: How the Senses Make the Almighty Senseless

Where outraged iconoclasts and horrified philosophers are told that seeing is believing.

 Zen Rites: The Eclipse of Buddha

Steven Heine

in Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up?

The next area of debate, nonduality versus mediation, examined in Chapter Three involves the function of rituals and other intermediating elements of practice, such as objects of worship, in what is ... More

The next area of debate, nonduality versus mediation, examined in Chapter Three involves the function of rituals and other intermediating elements of practice, such as objects of worship, in what is supposedly an iconoclastic tradition founded on direct, unmediated experience realized through meditation conducted in the Monks Hall of the seven‐hall monastery grounds. By looking at key examples of how prayer temples evolved in relation to monastic training centers, this chapter argues that the traditional view of Zen must acknowledge that the religion allows for a wide variety of compound layouts. Temples that put an emphasis on aesthetic contemplation for monks may incorporate rock gardens or teahouses, for example, while those emphasizing the pursuit of worldly benefits for lay followers generally have a prominent shrine dedicated to an indigenous or esoteric deity that has been assimilated as an avatar or bodhisattva.Less

 Movements of Ritual and Sincerity

Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, Michael J. Puett, and Bennett Simon

in Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity

This chapter looks at different cultural examples of the tensions between ritual and sincerity over time. First, it discusses the interplay of law and love, Judaism and Christianity, and ritual and ... More

This chapter looks at different cultural examples of the tensions between ritual and sincerity over time. First, it discusses the interplay of law and love, Judaism and Christianity, and ritual and sincerity in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. Second, it looks at the history of architectural ornament, which is ritual-like in its repetitions and rhythms and in its concern with boundaries and framing. Here the ritual/sincerity tension plays out typically as conflict between ornament and pedagogy. Iconoclasm is a core theme of this section. Finally, it compares the formal features of music to those of ritual. Like ritual, music is a way of establishing and crossing boundaries, and of ordering a messy world through techniques of intonation, rhythm, and ornament. The tension between ritual and sincerity culminates in 20th-century attempts to move beyond the conventions of tonality completely.Less

 The Protestant Reformation in the Church and the Arts

Richard Viladesau

in The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation

This chapter examines the context of the Protestant Reformation and explores the centrality of the cross in the theologies of the Reformers, especially Luther and Calvin. Both Reformers espoused a ... More

This chapter examines the context of the Protestant Reformation and explores the centrality of the cross in the theologies of the Reformers, especially Luther and Calvin. Both Reformers espoused a form of the theory of Christ's “penal substitution” for sinful humanity in his suffering on the cross. The emphasis on the Bible as the “word of God” resulted in iconoclasm on the part of some Reformers, and a devaluation of the pictorial arts for others. Albrecht Dürer is presented as a transitional figure, showing elements of both late medieval devotionalism and of the new humanist approach in his many portrayals of the Passion. Lukas Cranach exemplifies the direct influence of Luther on art, both thematically and in technique.Less

Bevin’s Union: Loyalism and Iconoclasm

David Howell

in MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931

As the Labour Party's political and industrial leaderships moved rapidly to define and to consolidate their position after the August 1931 collapse of the Labour Government led by Ramsay MacDonald, ... More

As the Labour Party's political and industrial leaderships moved rapidly to define and to consolidate their position after the August 1931 collapse of the Labour Government led by Ramsay MacDonald, achievement of these objectives was hindered by accumulating tensions between Labour politicians and trade union leaders. Walter Citrine, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary, had been central to the bargaining over delicate issues between the Labour Government and the TUC. Increasingly, he had become dismayed about what he saw as Government insensitivity towards legitimate concerns of trade unions. Trade union priorities were central to the post-MacDonald Labour Party and they were expressed most forcibly by Ernest Bevin, the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union. This chapter looks at Bevin's approach to politics, loyalism, and iconoclasm as a union leader towards the Labour Party.Less

The Consolidation of the Protestant Movement, 1561–1562

Allan A. Tulchin

in That Men Would Praise the Lord: The Reformation in Nimes, 1530-1570

This chapter describes the evolution of the Nîmes Protestant movement from the first meeting of the church’s governing body, the consistory, to the outbreak of civil war the following year. In this ... More

This chapter describes the evolution of the Nîmes Protestant movement from the first meeting of the church’s governing body, the consistory, to the outbreak of civil war the following year. In this period the movement converted key segments of the elite, including members of the présidial, and created its institutional structures. Protestants had become particularly prominent in Nîmes’s most influential factions, and in general had higher betweenness than Catholics. The consistory focused on morals legislation, promoted charity, and attempted, unsuccessfully, to restrain iconoclasm. By the end of 1561 Nîmes’s churches were in Protestant hands.Less

Idols and a History of Corruption

John E. Cort

in Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History

The use of icons in Jainism has not gone uncontested. In particular, the Shvetambara layman Lonka Shah agitated against icons in the fifteenth century. From this anti‐iconic tradition the ... More

The use of icons in Jainism has not gone uncontested. In particular, the Shvetambara layman Lonka Shah agitated against icons in the fifteenth century. From this anti‐iconic tradition the Sthanakavasi movement emerged in the seventeenth century. It is still strong today. The Sthanakavasis have constructed their own historical narratives to explain the use of Jina images, understanding them not to be holy icons, but rather corrupt idols. This chapter analyzes a nineteenth‐century Sthanakavasi narrative of idols, as well as the twentieth‐century history of Jainism by the Sthanakavasi monk Hastimal. This Sthanakavasi history of idols is then contrasted with a Murtipujaka history of iconoclasm constructed by the Murtipujaka monk Jn_nsundar. The Sthanakavasi iconoclasm is then further compared with the Christian Protestant movement, in which the rejection of images is also joined with a call to return to the “original” forms of the religion, and a critique of the intervening tradition. This leads to an analysis of the ways that discourses of idolatry and critiques of tradition in some ways overlap with modern fundamentalism, and in other ways do not.Less

The Inevitability of Tangible Form: A Natural Theology of Icons

John E. Cort

in Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History

In the twentieth century, we find new Jain narratives in defense of icons. These new narratives take into account a growing awareness of the fact that Jainism is just one among many religions in the ... More

In the twentieth century, we find new Jain narratives in defense of icons. These new narratives take into account a growing awareness of the fact that Jainism is just one among many religions in the world, and also the rise of new discourses such as that of “history.” The Murtipujaka monks Jnansundar, Buddhisagar, Bhadrankarvijay, and Kalyanvijay all responded with defenses of icons in the new language of modernity. They argued that since humans are embodied, they must use material form, and so icon worship is “natural.” They argued for a processual development from that which has form to that which is formless, an argument that is then compared to the similar much earlier argument advanced in Christianity by Dionysus Areopagite (Pseudo‐Dionysus), John of Damascus, Theodore of Studion, as well as the Protestant Christian defense of material form by Martin Luther. The Jain authors also argued that icons and icon‐use are universal, and therefore argued against what David Freedberg has termed “the myth of aniconism.” Their arguments had to account for the rise of iconoclasm; here, the Jain defenders of icons pointed to Islam as the global root of all iconoclasm. This leads to an investigation of the long‐standing trope of Muslim iconoclasm in Jain literature.Less

“Christ Appeared”: Material Religion and the Conquest of Mexico

Jennifer Scheper Hughes

in Biography of a Mexican Crucifix: Lived Religion and Local Faith from the Conquest to the Present

In 1543 the Cristo Aparecido appeared to the Spanish missionary friar, Antonio Roa, and to the community of newly converted indigenous Christians of the pueblo of Totolapan (in modern-day Morelos, ... More

In 1543 the Cristo Aparecido appeared to the Spanish missionary friar, Antonio Roa, and to the community of newly converted indigenous Christians of the pueblo of Totolapan (in modern-day Morelos, Mexico) where he ministered. This chapter weaves together two seemingly irreconcilable origin myths, one from art history, and the other the narrative of faith, to explain the circumstances in which the arrival of the crucifix was understood to be extraordinary. Beyond legend and miracle, the Cristo’s origins reveal the central role of objects of material religion in the spiritual conquest of sixteenth-century Mexico.Less

‘Rage Against the Dead’: Reform, Counter-reform, and the Death of Purgatory

PETER MARSHALL

in Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England

This chapter analyses the impact on the commemoration of the dead of the mid-Tudor decades, and the contrasting religious policies of Edward VI and Mary Tudor. It describes the 1547 dissolution of ... More

This chapter analyses the impact on the commemoration of the dead of the mid-Tudor decades, and the contrasting religious policies of Edward VI and Mary Tudor. It describes the 1547 dissolution of the chantries as well as the officially-inspired iconoclasm against tombs and monuments, and assesses popular responses to these developments. It investigates the ways in which the dead were commemorated in the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer. It then assesses the restoration of traditional doctrine and practice after the accession of Mary. While conceding that Marian theologians were cautious about purgatory, and that some significant shifts in attitudes had taken place at the popular level, the chapter employs testamentary and other sources to dispute that the issues were completely marginalised, or that notions of purgatory and intercessory prayer were a permanent casualty of reform by this stage.Less

Against the Iconoclasts

Andrew Louth

in St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology

Brief account of the beginnings of Byzantine iconoclasm, and John's place in defending the veneration of icons against iconoclasm. The nature and importance of florilegia in his defence. An ... More

Brief account of the beginnings of Byzantine iconoclasm, and John's place in defending the veneration of icons against iconoclasm. The nature and importance of florilegia in his defence. An exposition of John's theology of the icon or image.Less

The Historical Context of Iconoclast Reform

Judith Herrin

in Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire

This chapter examines the historical context of iconoclast reform under the Byzantine Empire. In the early eighth century, the Byzantine Empire teetered on the edge of total collapse. From 695 to 717 ... More

This chapter examines the historical context of iconoclast reform under the Byzantine Empire. In the early eighth century, the Byzantine Empire teetered on the edge of total collapse. From 695 to 717 internal conflicts threatened to divide the empire, while Muslim forces seemed poised ready to capture Constantinople itself. This troubled period is therefore crucial to an analysis of Byzantium during the first outbreak of iconoclasm. The first reign of Justinian II, the last ruling member of the Heraclian dynasty, ended in a palace coup of 695, which established a usurper, Leontios, as emperor. This event was the first of many similar upheavals that followed with all too regular repetition, making nonsense of the tradition of a Byzantine imperial family. The chapter discusses the efforts of Leo III and his son Constantine to end a political crisis that nearly brought down the Byzantine Empire.Less

The Power of Imagination

Bernard Cooke

in Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an Experience-Based Pneumatology

Underlying humans’ creativity and their ability to plan the future is the power of imagination. Situated between thought and affectivity and involving both, the human imagination has power to shape ... More

Underlying humans’ creativity and their ability to plan the future is the power of imagination. Situated between thought and affectivity and involving both, the human imagination has power to shape humans’ lives in new and unexpected ways. Link of images to emotions, insights, decision and action. Religious problem of images of the divine, and the response of iconoclasm. Basic role of human bodiliness in imagination and in divine revelation.Less

The Imperial Feminine in Byzantium

Judith Herrin

in Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium

This chapter analyzes the cultural heritage, the imperial precedents, and variety of visual models on which powerful Byzantine empresses could draw. In particular, it demonstrates that by the eighth ... More

This chapter analyzes the cultural heritage, the imperial precedents, and variety of visual models on which powerful Byzantine empresses could draw. In particular, it demonstrates that by the eighth and ninth centuries there were significant resources available that might permit imperial authority to adopt feminine forms. The reason for this chronological framework lies in the prominence of two empresses, Irene and Theodora, during the periods of iconoclasm (roughly calculated from 730 to 843). Both reversed bans imposed on the veneration of icons. Irene set a precedent by summoning the Seventh Ecumenical Council held in 787, which justified icons and restored them to a central position in the church, while Theodora is commemorated as a saint for her role in ending the second phase of iconoclasm in 843.Less

The Iconoclast Controversy 726–843

J. M. Hussey

in The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire

The introductory part discusses the growing cult of the icon in the Orthodox Church and the controversies that this gave rise to in the period 728–843; the cult started in the late sixth and seventh ... More

The introductory part discusses the growing cult of the icon in the Orthodox Church and the controversies that this gave rise to in the period 728–843; the cult started in the late sixth and seventh centuries, and is attributed to a need for additional security. The first section discusses the North Syrian rulers and the initial phase of the controversy from 726 to 787: the background to the crisis, the opening actions against icons (iconoclasm) under Leo III, and the further measures taken by Constantine V and the council of 754. The second section discusses the first restoration of the icons, and covers the Empress Irene and the council of Nicaea (787), conflicting currents in 787–843, and Irene and Constantine VI. The third section discusses the second phase of iconoclasm, and the fourth the restoration of orthodoxy (of icon veneration) in 843 under Patriarch Methodius. The last section discusses the significance of the controversy over icons.Less