Religious and ceremonial arts Books

Book Synopsis A captivating artistic and philosophic exploration of humankind’s complex moral codes A companion piece to Pandemonium: A Visual History of Demonology and Elysium: A Visual History of Angelology, Seven Sins and Seven Virtues will complete this moral trilogy and finally consider God’s most enigmatic of creations: None of the conundrums of metaphysics are as baroque as the motivations of the human soul. Unlike the devils condemned to perdition and the angels compelled to paradise, humans are divine creatures that house within them warring impulses.Seven Sins and Seven Virtues will examine the literary, philosophical, theological, and most of all artistic expressions of the seven deadly sins and their respective seven cardinal virtues, drawing upon millennia of history to gather a compendium of humanity at its best and its worst. As a volume, the book will explore the Manichean nature of the human animal in all of

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Book SynopsisLos Clásicos selectos de C. S. Lewis es una hermosa y compacta presentación de ocho obras espirituales características de una de las figuras literarias más celebradas de nuestro tiempo.

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Book SynopsisLays out a range of theories, terms, and concepts and shows how they work together to centre materiality in the study of religion. Integrating carefully curated visual evidence, Morgan applies these ideas and methods to case studies across a variety of religious traditions, modeling step-by-step analysis and emphasizing historical context.

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Book SynopsisFollowing the award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, a panoramic exploration of peoples, objects and beliefs from the celebrated author of A History of the World in 100 Objects and Germany''Riveting, extraordinary ... tells the sweeping story of religious belief in all its inventive variety. The emphasis is not on our differences, but on shared spiritual yearnings'' Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times, Books of the YearOne of the central facts of human existence is that every society shares a set of beliefs and assumptions - a faith, an ideology, a religion - that goes far beyond the life of the individual. These beliefs are an essential part of a shared identity. They have a unique power to define - and to divide - us, and are a driving force in the politics of much of the world today. Throughout history they have most often been, in the widest sense, religious.Yet this book is not a history of religion, nor an argument inTrade ReviewThe David Attenborough of things that don't move ... Think of it as his Blue Planet -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times *He shows how human beings have always used religion and objects as a way to understand the world around us, from finding some accommodation with light, water and the seasons, to attempting to find some approach towards death. ... Anyone wishing to deepen, if not change their life, will certainly benefit from this remarkable book -- Douglas Murray * Evening Standard *A mind-expanding book -- John Carey * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisThinking about church architecture has come to an impasse. Reformers and traditionalists are talking past each other. In Theology in Stone, Richard Kieckhefer seeks to help both sides move beyond the standoff toward a fruitful conversation about houses of worship. Drawing on a wide range of historical examples with an eye to their contemporary relevance, he offers refreshing new ideas about the meanings and uses of church architecture.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: The First Factor: Spatial Dynamics 2: The Second Factor: Centering Focus 3: The Third Factor: Aesthetic Impact 4: The Fourth Factor: Symbolic Resonance 5: Late Medieval Beverley: Traditional Churches in a Traditional Culture 6: Chicago: Traditional Churches in a Modern Culture 7: Rudolph Schwartz: Modern Churches in a Modern Culture 8: Issues in Church Architecture Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn the late Middle Ages, Europe saw the rise of one of its most virulent myths: that Jews abused the eucharistic bread as a form of anti-Christian blasphemy, causing it to bleed miraculously. Valiantly reconstructing the cult environments created for these sacred places, this title offers a look at Christian-Jewish relations in premodern Europe.

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Book SynopsisA study of the controversies over religious images that pervaded Italian life both before and parallel to the Reformation north of the Alps.Trade Review"Alexander Nagel's account of the underappreciated radicality of Renaissance aesthetic experiments is packed with solid research, original interpretive insights, and flashes of poetry. This is a substantial, well-written, and much-needed book that will make a major impact on the field." - Rebecca Zorach, University of Chicago"

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Book SynopsisA brisk and entertaining (Wall Street Journal) journey into the mystery behind why the forbidden fruit became an apple, upending an explanation that stood for centuries. How did the apple, unmentioned by the Bible, become the dominant symbol of temptation, sin, and the Fall? Temptation Transformed pursues this mystery across art and religious history, uncovering where, when, and why the forbidden fruit became an apple. Azzan Yadin-Israel reveals that Eden's fruit, once thought to be a fig or a grape, first appears as an apple in twelfth-century French art. He then traces this image back to its source in medieval storytelling. Though scholars often blame theologians for the apple, accounts of the Fall written in commonly spoken languagesFrench, German, and Englishinfluenced a broader audience than cloistered Latin commentators. Azzan Yadin-Israel shows that, over time, the words for fruit in these languages narrowed until an apple in the Garden became self-evident. A wide-ranging study of early Christian thought, Renaissance art, and medieval languages, Temptation Transformed offers an eye-opening revisionist history of a central religious icon.Trade Review"A brisk and entertaining investigation into the cultural history of Adam and Eve’s comestible catastrophe . . . [with a] sly sense of humor that peeks through refreshingly cant-free prose. Temptation Transformed is easy to follow for any curious amateur who enjoys getting to the bottom of a puzzle. By the end, Mr. Yadin-Israel at least has exonerated the apple; the serpent might present a more difficult task.” * Wall Street Journal *“[A] scrumptiously scholarly morsel of a book . . . In addition to being a philological detective story, Temptation Transformed is a kind of miniature coffee-table book, employing forty-two images of Fall of Man art to chart the transformation from grape and fig (and a few other fruits) to apple . . . Yadin-Israel is a master of philological and iconographic detective work, and the joy of this beautiful little book is in following his reasoning as he thinks through words (in a daunting number of languages) and images.” * Jewish Review of Books *"[A] delightfully readable study . . . tracing the apple iconography from its roots in 12th-century France. In fewer than 100 pages, with ample illustrations, Yadin-Israel builds a compelling argument around the convergence of textual evidence, semantic shifts, and the visual arts in medieval Europe.” * The Christian Century *“Temptation Transformed is a serious study of a biblical topic, which should appeal primarily to biblical scholars.” * Washington Jewish Week *“So what at first seemed like a simple question — where did that apple come from? — becomes a complicated story of changes across time and space as Jewish families adjust to the Christian world around them, and Jews and Christians alike adjust to changes in language, theology, and geography.” * Jewish Standard *"An accessible, well-argued, well-researched book and a testament to the power of interdisciplinary work to clarify age-old conundrums . . . A must-read for those interested in the mechanisms by which religious ideas and iconography develop . . . [and] for those interested in the history of Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation, especially of Genesis 3. . . [and] a gift to art lovers everywhere." * Reading Religion *A Best Medieval Book of 2023 * Medievalists.net *"Meticulously researched and engagingly written, this study yields more fascinating discoveries per page than anything I have read in years." * Religious Studies Review *“If Genesis speaks only of the forbidden ‘fruit,’ how and when did that fruit become an apple? To answer, Yadin-Israel leads us from Genesis to the Song of Songs, through an iconographic survey worthy of Erwin Panofsky, into medieval languages, and even a brief history of apples in ancient and modern horticulture. This visual and literary masterpiece will serve as a methodological guide for future research, but its ultimate subject is nothing less than the pictorial representation of human sinfulness and the hope for redemption.” -- James Kugel, author of 'The Bible as It Was'“A fascinating cornucopia of insights from language, literature, and art history, Temptation Transformed offers the tantalizing fruit of rigorous textual and iconographic research into the identification of the forbidden fruit. Yadin-Israel provides compelling evidence for a new understanding of the development of the apple tradition in medieval France. I will use his historical insights every time I teach Genesis.” -- John H. Walton, author of 'The Lost World of Adam and Eve'“Temptation Transformed traces the rise of the forbidden fruit across centuries—from ancient Hebrew manuscripts to wall paintings and more. This is an engaging and beautiful book.” -- Miri Rubin, author of 'Mother of God: A History of the Virgin Mary'Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Introduction: The Curious Case of the Apple 1 The Missing Apple 2 A Bad Latin Apple 3 The Iconographic Apple 4 The Vernacular Apple Conclusion: A Scholarly Reflection Acknowledgments Appendix: Inventory of Fall of Man Scenes Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Doss’s clear and cogent prose, accented by crisp illustrations of key works and supported by extensive research, make this distinctly focused and illuminating study an essential choice for art history collections." -- Carolyn Mulac * Booklist *"Spiritual Moderns bravely retells the story of modern art, fraught as it may be, with a more honest look at how religion shaped it. . . . Through a series of four case studies, along with an intro and conclusion, Doss exposes how earlier historians of modern art have downplayed religion as a key ingredient in some of modern art’s most heralded breakthroughs. . . . [Doss's] strength as a historian shines bright." * Hyperallergic *Named one of The Best Art Books of 2023 * Hyperallergic *"Doss reclaims American modernism’s religious element...Spiritual Moderns casts new light on the history of American art." -- William J. Schultz * Christian Century *“Doss successfully demonstrates that the story of American modernism is not as secular as it is often presumed to be, and shows without telling that art criticism and history that disregard religion are necessarily shallower than a discourse open to religious thinking and concerns.” * The Brooklyn Rail *"Spiritual Moderns investigates how four 20th-century American modernist artists integrated their non-mainstream religious beliefs and commitments into their work. . . . Doss provides artist bios and helpful descriptions of the main characteristics and practices of their religious traditions. . . . The book presents convincing cultural history that brings religious influences forward. . . Recommended." * Choice *"Erika Doss presents a convincing challenge to the prevailing omission of religion in the story of twentieth-century modernist art in the United States. . . . an exemplary model." * Panorama *“Through detailed accounts of the life and work of four twentieth-century American artists, Doss works to unseat the notion that modern art and religion, or spirituality more generally, are incompatible and separate. She compellingly demonstrates how the significance of religion and spirituality in artistic practice has been suppressed and disavowed, or, alternatively, has contributed to an artist’s lesser status within the art-historical literature. In each thoroughly researched and lucidly written chapter, she illuminates the importance of religion and spirituality for these artists and in so doing deepens our understanding of their work.” -- Rachael Z. DeLue, Christopher Binyon Sarofim ’86 Professor in American Art, Princeton University“Spiritual Moderns is an apt extension of Doss’s rigorous art-historical scholarship, and there is a great need for this study. As Doss persuasively argues, it is time that the field of modern American art history recognized the singular importance of religion and spirituality within the production and reception of twentieth-century American art. The canonical figures Doss considers engaged deeply with their respective religious traditions while challenging conventional orthodoxies and crafting unique images of transcendence. Doss offers a compelling revisionist account of modern American art history and the cultural work that religion and spirituality performed, historically and aesthetically.” -- Marcia Brennan, Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Humanities, Rice UniversityTable of ContentsList of Figures Chapter 1. Spiritual Moderns: Twentieth-Century American Artists and Religion Chapter 2. Joseph Cornell and Christian Science: “White Magic” Modernism and the Metaphysics of Ephemera Chapter 3. Mark Tobey and Bahá’í: “White Writing” and Spiritual Calligraphy Chapter 4. Agnes Pelton and Occulture: Spiritual Seeking and Visionary Modernism Chapter 5. Andy Warhol and Catholicism: Pop Art’s “Spiritual Side” Chapter 6. Spiritual Moderns: Culture War Controversies and Enduring Themes Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In this luminous, revelatory, and sensitive book, at once wide-ranging and full of hidden depths, Velázquez lovingly follows the afterlives of Saint Mary of Egypt across words and images as well as spaces, places, and stages from Egypt to Spain. Velázquez’s beautiful prose and gorgeous readings express a deep care for her subject, leading us on a journey that touches the soul as well as the mind.” -- Julia R. Lupton, University of California, Irvine“In this superbly crafted meditation on religion and materiality, Velázquez interweaves the poems, art, and drama dedicated to Mary of Egypt in premodern Spanish Catholicism and its contemporary traces elsewhere. Her work on the creativity inspired by this saint evocatively reimagines the philosophical concept of beauty around the aging, holy female body and the Christian concept of grace around the profane. While grounded in thirteenth- and sixteenth-century Spain, this study fruitfully reimagines the peninsular Mary of Egypt as ‘good to think with’ for historians of European Christianity, art, and theater more broadly.” -- Jessica A. Boon, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillTable of ContentsList of Figures On Translations and Spelling In a Chapel: An Invitation to Imagine 1 Image Theory according to Saint Mary of Egypt 2 The Seductions of Hagiography 3 The Shoes of the Sinner and the Skin of the Saint 4 Neither Venus nor Venerable Old Men 5 Appearances Are Everything Epilogue: In the Artist’s Studio Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In this luminous, revelatory, and sensitive book, at once wide-ranging and full of hidden depths, Velázquez lovingly follows the afterlives of Saint Mary of Egypt across words and images as well as spaces, places, and stages from Egypt to Spain. Velázquez’s beautiful prose and gorgeous readings express a deep care for her subject, leading us on a journey that touches the soul as well as the mind.” -- Julia R. Lupton, University of California, Irvine“In this superbly crafted meditation on religion and materiality, Velázquez interweaves the poems, art, and drama dedicated to Mary of Egypt in premodern Spanish Catholicism and its contemporary traces elsewhere. Her work on the creativity inspired by this saint evocatively reimagines the philosophical concept of beauty around the aging, holy female body and the Christian concept of grace around the profane. While grounded in thirteenth- and sixteenth-century Spain, this study fruitfully reimagines the peninsular Mary of Egypt as ‘good to think with’ for historians of European Christianity, art, and theater more broadly.” -- Jessica A. Boon, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillTable of ContentsList of Figures On Translations and Spelling In a Chapel: An Invitation to Imagine 1 Image Theory according to Saint Mary of Egypt 2 The Seductions of Hagiography 3 The Shoes of the Sinner and the Skin of the Saint 4 Neither Venus nor Venerable Old Men 5 Appearances Are Everything Epilogue: In the Artist’s Studio Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBringing together recent scholarship on Islamic art, architecture, and archaeology being conducted in Canada and by Canadian scholars, Made for the Eye of One Who Sees provides the first survey of the Canadian contributions to this developing field. It covers topics from across the Islamic world dating from the eighth century to the present.Trade Review“A book for the times, Made for the Eye of One Who Sees presents an engaging account of the successes and diversity in the field of Islamic art, architecture, and archaeology in Canada.” Alan Walmsley, director of the Materiality in Islam Research Initiative, University of Copenhagen“Made for the Eye of One Who Sees represents a significant advance in Islamic art and history, bringing new materials and new interpretations into view.” Margaret Graves, Indiana University and author of Arts of Allusion: Object, Ornament, and Architecture in Medieval Islam

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Book SynopsisInnovative and lavishly illustrated, Painting the Gospel offers an indispensable contribution to conversations about African American art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago. Kymberly N. Pinder escorts readers on an eye-opening odyssey to the murals, stained glass, and sculptures dotting the city''s African American churches and neighborhoods. Moving from Chicago''s oldest black Christ figure to contemporary religious street art, Pinder explores ideas like blackness in public, art for black communities, and the relationship of Afrocentric art to Black Liberation Theology. She also focuses attention on art excluded from scholarship due to racial or religious particularity. Throughout, she reflects on the myriad ways private black identities assert public and political goals through imagery. Painting the Gospel includes maps and tour itineraries that allow readers to make conceptual, historical, and geographical connections among the works. <Trade Review"This work offers a contribution to conversations about African American art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago, Illinois."--Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies "A beautifully written, in depth examination of the creation and nature of black religious art in Chicago."--Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"Pinder's book is incredibly rich in its interdisciplinarity, and it is broadly relevant to larger discussions of African American art, literature, music, and activism (to name a few realms) outside of Chicago."--College Art Association"A valuable, well-researched survey of Afrocentric Christian art... Recommended."--Choice"Pinder has provided a rigorously researched guide to black public art in Painting the Gospel. The value of this text, and its attention to the attendant folklore, will only deepen with time."--Journal of Folklore Research"Painting the Gospel is an excellent interdisciplinary study of black Christian imagery within a specific locale, and the factors that helped shape it."--Art and Theology"In a day when aging urban churches are faced with demolition on the one hand and inattention from scholars on the other, art historian Kymberly Pinder steps in to rescue overlooked African American religious art from this fate of double-oblivion. With estimable care and resourceful historical analysis, she explores work that conveys the cultural politics and religious ideals of black congregations in early twentieth-century Chicago. Paintings, murals, mosaics, stained glass, songs, and poetry spring to life to deliver one more time their testimony to Protestant and Catholic religious communities and to a vibrant black history that needs telling."--David Morgan, author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling"Kymberly Pinder's Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago is an immensely important volume. Her bold and insightful study of local urban religious practices of 'empathetic realism' and 'tragic space' fills an inexcusable chasm in the scholarly literatures. In demonstrating the multi-media visual, material, sonic, and performative cultures of religion mobilized by her African American subjects, she illuminates not only the significant particularities of twentieth-century artistic and political history in Chicago but also invites her readers to consider larger national implications of race and religion, far beyond any one city's geographical boundaries. This is a stellar contribution."--Sally M. Promey, Yale University "An exciting examination of the ways in which a variety of black denominations have visualized Christ in their own images throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."--Kristin Schwain, author of Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age "Painting the Gospel points out the significance of the visual within African American religious thought and practice. Pushing against the typical dominance of the written text, this volume, using Chicago as a case study, provides an intriguing discussion of how visual culture within public spaces offers significant insight into the thought and practice of African American religiosity. In so doing, Painting the Gospel offers an interesting take on the idea 'seeing is believing.'"--Anthony B. Pinn, author of The End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This work offers a contribution to conversations about African American art, theology, politics, and identity in Chicago, Illinois."--Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies "A beautifully written, in depth examination of the creation and nature of black religious art in Chicago."--Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society"Pinder's book is incredibly rich in its interdisciplinarity, and it is broadly relevant to larger discussions of African American art, literature, music, and activism (to name a few realms) outside of Chicago."--College Art Association"A valuable, well-researched survey of Afrocentric Christian art... Recommended."--Choice"Pinder has provided a rigorously researched guide to black public art in Painting the Gospel. The value of this text, and its attention to the attendant folklore, will only deepen with time."--Journal of Folklore Research"Painting the Gospel is an excellent interdisciplinary study of black Christian imagery within a specific locale, and the factors that helped shape it."--Art and Theology"In a day when aging urban churches are faced with demolition on the one hand and inattention from scholars on the other, art historian Kymberly Pinder steps in to rescue overlooked African American religious art from this fate of double-oblivion. With estimable care and resourceful historical analysis, she explores work that conveys the cultural politics and religious ideals of black congregations in early twentieth-century Chicago. Paintings, murals, mosaics, stained glass, songs, and poetry spring to life to deliver one more time their testimony to Protestant and Catholic religious communities and to a vibrant black history that needs telling."--David Morgan, author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling"Kymberly Pinder's Black Public Art and Religion in Chicago is an immensely important volume. Her bold and insightful study of local urban religious practices of 'empathetic realism' and 'tragic space' fills an inexcusable chasm in the scholarly literatures. In demonstrating the multi-media visual, material, sonic, and performative cultures of religion mobilized by her African American subjects, she illuminates not only the significant particularities of twentieth-century artistic and political history in Chicago but also invites her readers to consider larger national implications of race and religion, far beyond any one city's geographical boundaries. This is a stellar contribution."--Sally M. Promey, Yale University "An exciting examination of the ways in which a variety of black denominations have visualized Christ in their own images throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."--Kristin Schwain, author of Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age "Painting the Gospel points out the significance of the visual within African American religious thought and practice. Pushing against the typical dominance of the written text, this volume, using Chicago as a case study, provides an intriguing discussion of how visual culture within public spaces offers significant insight into the thought and practice of African American religiosity. In so doing, Painting the Gospel offers an interesting take on the idea 'seeing is believing.'"--Anthony B. Pinn, author of The End of God-Talk: An African American Humanist Theology

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Book SynopsisMargot E. Fassler's richly documented historywinner of the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of Americademonstrates how the Augustinians of St. Victor, Paris, used an art of memory to build sonic models of the church. This musical art developed over time, inspired by the religious ideals of Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and their understandings of image and the spiritual journey. Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris demonstrates the centrality of sequences to western medieval Christian liturgical and artistic experience, and to our understanding of change and continuity in medieval culture. Fassler examines the figure of Adam of St. Victor and the possible layers within the repertories created at various churches in Paris, probes the ways the Victorine sequences worked musically and exegetically, and situates this repertory within the intellectuaTrade Review"Margot Fassler is an original, imaginative scholar, and the first edition of Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris fulfilled our need for a historical account. A paperback edition will make this picture of twelfth-century European creativity available to students and a wider general audience." —Richard L. Crocker, University of California, Berkeley"What meanings did liturgical chant convey to its elite medieval audience, the educated clergy? How did this audience understand the connection between text and music, and how did this conception change over time? These timely questions form the backdrop for Gothic Song, Margot Fassler's engaging study of the twelfth-century sequence. Focusing primarily on the Augustinian abbey of Saint-Victor de Paris, Fassler argues that it was there and at the nearby cathedral that Adam Precentor (Adam of Saint-Victor) and his circle developed a new approach to sequence composition." —The Journal of the American Musicological Society". . . this represents a considerable revision and expansion of our previous knowledge of musical life in 12th-century Paris and of the background to the late medieval sequence. . . . It is through commendable, detailed studies such as [this] that our views of the early epochs of music will gradually crystallise into clearer shapes." —The Musical Times"In relation to this apotheosis of the Word, the sequences of the Middle Ages present an intriguing paradox. On one hand, the melodies of sequences in many sources carry a Latin text, intensely coloured by the Vulgate Bible and by the rich tradition of Christian Latinity. On the other hand, as Margot Fassler points out in this fine book, the sequence was often conceived in the Middle Ages as an anticipation of angelic praise and therefore of a heavenly song where human language has no meaning. Margot Fassler explores this contrast in a richly documented survey of the sequence tradition, concentrating upon the late sequence, which, as she convincingly shows, was championed at the Abbey of St Victor in Paris." —Early Music

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Book SynopsisDark Faith is a collection of essays that study Flannery O’Connor’s complex religious vision in her second novel The Violent Bear It Away.Trade Review"Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear it Away will make a welcome companion to Michael Kreyling's collection New Essays on Wise Blood. The essays in Susan Srigley's 'new essays' will assist critics and readers in probing the complex terrain of violence not only in O'Connor's second (and last) novel but in all her fiction. Serious students of the novel or of O'Connor's thought and artistry will find numerous rewards in its pages." —Joseph M. Flora, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill"Dark Faith is a rich collection of perspectives on O'Connor's second novel, a work frequently overlooked by critics. The reader will find much to illuminate a careful reading of The Violent Bear It Away, including fresh theological insights and detailed discussions of imagery and symbols. Of particular interest are Richard Giannone's analysis of ditch imagery and Gary Ciuba's consideration of adoption as both a social and thematic concern. This collection should be on the shelves of every serious student of O'Connor's fiction." —Sarah Gordon, author of Flannery O'Connor: The Obedient Imagination and A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia"Flannery O’Connor would be pleased with Dark Faith. Susan Srigley gives us nine essays, religiously informed, in tribute to O’Connor’s second great novel, and The Violent Bear It Away deserves all the attention this volume will bring. The contributors—including such leading O’Connor scholars as Gary M. Ciuba, John F. Desmond, Richard Giannone, Ruthann Knechel Johansen, and editor Srigley—provide nuanced readings in which the complexities of each of the novel’s major characters are investigated." —Marshall Bruce Gentry, Flannery O’Connor Review"A solid, accessible, and useful set of essays on one of O'Connor's more difficult pieces." —Dale Brown, King College“Literary criticism, a niche pursuit, is often a lofty, parochial sport with many participants drafted from academia. That said, this particular collection of essays reveals the genre at its most exacting as Dark Faith dissects disorderly journeys from ditch to eternal destiny through the offerings of nine admired minds. Mary Flannery O’Connor would be pleased!” —New Oxford Review“[Dark Faith] is clearly focused on a single aspect of O’Connor’s most complex work—namely, her refusal to write as a triumphalist Catholic who flattens her secular opponents with the hard fist of orthodoxy. Quite to the contrary, her work is built on a drastically contested faith characterized by its descent into the abyss of divine absence rather than an ascent to the heights of divine presence.” —Flannery O’Connor Review“With one of the best essays of the lot, Srigley brings to a fitting conclusion a wonderfully satisfying collection of essays that celebrate the polyvalent character of this brilliant novel. Flannery O’Connor, a deeply prophetic and compassionate writer, shares her own dark faith through her work that bears away the kingdom of God not with violence, but with love.” —Transpositions Blog

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Book SynopsisThis second edition chronicles the career of William Schickel since the original 1998 publication, with new chapters and images of his paintings.Trade Review"This glorious book, Sacred Passion, tells the story of a lifetime of craftsmanship devoted to the service of God. It reminds readers not simply of the place in the spiritual life of art, but also of space. Mr. Schickel's life also helps to explain why the master builders of the cathedrals of the early and late middle ages were content to labor for centuries until they got it right. Art matters. It matters because it can help to lead us to God. Thomas Merton's heart, formerly hardened against organized religion, was softened when as a young man he wondered into some of the great cathedrals of Western Europe. My own heart soars when I set foot in St. Ignatius and the Abbey of Gethesemani. Your heart no doubt finds a home in places that only you can know." —from the Foreword by James Martin, S.J.“A chronicle of the artistic career of Schickel (1919–2009), a 1944 graduate of Notre Dame whose Living Water sculpture graces the ND grotto. His work as a painter, sculptor, architectural and furniture designer, and stained-glass artist was informed by his devotion to God. This edition offers new chapters on the artist’s recent contributions to the built environment in several communities and his recent paintings, as well as additional color images.” —Notre Dame Magazine“This attractive, oversized art book does an excellent job of showing the long career and contributions of the noted religious artist William Schickel. . . . Visually, it gives the reader a great wealth of images of religious art work of the last sixty years, depicted in paintings, stained glass, sculptures and architecture.” —Catholic Library World“William Schickel, the subject of this book, is one of the most prolific and versatile contemporary artists in the United States. This is a beautifully designed and illustrated book, worthy of the distinguished career of a humble, intuitive, and talented artist whose deep faith illuminates his work, whose art consistently expresses his roots in the best aspects of Christian humanism, and whose prolific output symbolizes his conviction expressed in the aphorism which opens the book: ‘God’s love causes the beauty of what He loves; our love is caused by the beauty of what we love.’ (Jacques Maritain).” —Worship“A book like this does not appear very often. It is simply a masterpiece: the layout, the type, the photographs, the work contained. A wonderful example of a publication effort whose expense was not spared, it succeeds brilliantly in presenting the quality of good honest art, the faithful work of a faithful life.” —Archives of Modern Christian Art Newsletter"Notre Dame and Gregory Wolfe have done themselves proud preparing this beautiful full-color book of the work of William Schickel in the "Beauty of Catholic Life Series." William Schickel has done himself proud through a long life of artmaking for the church and for fortunate "secular" patrons and clients. And anyone who has the slightest interest in such art, in seeing what can be conceived and effected by a single imagination through decades in a society called secular ought to obtain, study, and enjoy this work." —Christian Century"Frugality and splendor, splendor and humility: To me, that sums up all of Schickel's work as I turn the pages of this beautifully designed, gracefully written and personally inspiring book." —St. Anthony Messenger“Seldom does one see such an exquistely produced book as Sacred Passion. We should be grateful to the publisher for providing so many full-color illustrations in the paperback edition. This volumne deserves a place in the libraries of monasteries, religious houses, seminaries, and universities as well as on the shelves of all who are interested in contemporary art, both religious and secular.” –Cistercian Studies Quarterly 34.4 “...remarkable volume of marvelous photographs and illuminating text.” —Common Sense"Schickel is a mature and powerful artist. . . ." —Lesley Constable, Columbus Dispatch

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Book SynopsisIn Moses the Egyptian, Herbert Broderick analyzes the iconography of Moses in the famous illuminated eleventh-century manuscript known as the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch. A translation into Old English of the first six books of the Bible, the manuscript contains over 390 images, of which 127 depict Moses with a variety of distinctive visual attributes.Broderick presents a compelling thesis that these motifs, in particular the image of the horned Moses, have a Hellenistic Egyptian origin. He argues that the visual construct of Moses in the Old English Hexateuch may have been based on a Late Antique, no longer extant, prototype influenced by works of Hellenistic Egyptian Jewish exegetes, who ascribed to Moses the characteristics of an Egyptian-Hellenistic king, military commander, priest, prophet, and scribe. These Jewish writings were utilized in turn by early Christian apologists such as Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius of Caesarea. Broderick's analysis of thisTrade Review“This is a fascinating, innovative, thoughtful, and thought-provoking work, which makes a useful and timely contribution to the developing historical consideration of ongoing cultural relations between East and West. It is well-written and accessible to both its intended academic audience and to readers outside the academy.” —Michelle Brown, professor emerita of medieval manuscript studies, University of London“No doubt this publication will create a vivid discussion in different fields of the academic world. I hope that Egyptologists will also take note of this inspiring work.” —Dietrich Wildung, director emeritus, Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Berlin“Made famous by Michelangelo’s statue in Rome, the horned Moses seems altogether natural. As Herbert Broderick demonstrates in this complex and far-reaching analysis of the motif’s first occurrence, however, it is the product of successive interpretations, transmissions, translations, misunderstandings, and reflections. With dazzling erudition, intuition, and strength of convictions, Broderick puts forward powerful arguments that the prophet’s earliest appearances with horns in an eleventh-century illustrated Old English bible paraphrase derive ultimately from a Late Antique Egyptian exemplar that had interpreted the Greek Septuagint text through accumulated lore, exegesis, and local artistic conventions. At a moment when Coptic, Celtic, and Pakistani objects have been unearthed together in a ninth-century burial site in Sweden, Broderick makes a startling new contribution to our understanding of the global Middle Ages." —Herbert L. Kessler, professor emeritus, Johns Hopkins University"Herbert Broderick examines a widely recognized and important motif, the representation of Moses with horns on his head, in the first extant example that we know of in the early eleventh-century illustrated Old English Hexateuch (London, British Library Cotton MS Claudius B.iv). In an original, precise, thorough, and penetrating interpretation, he relates it to other 'Egyptianizing' symptoms illustrating various attributes of Moses in the manuscript and presents a convincing hypothesis about the origin of these motifs as a pictorial expression of an Egyptian Jewish Hellenistic apologetic, taken up later by early Christian writers, that Moses was more ancient than all the Egyptian gods and pharaohs, and that the attributes of these gods and pharaohs, such as horns of power and light, actually were plagiarized by both the Egyptians and the ancient Greeks in an attempt to co-opt the Hebraic original." —C. Edson Armi, professor emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara"Moses the Egyptian in the Illustrated Old English Hexateuch is a traditional work from the field of art history with significant implications for the study of the history of religion. While the author himself does not emphasize this point, it is of interest to scholars of the history of religion to note that Broderick’s analysis of Claudius B.iv also serves as a case study in the ways in which Hellenistic traditions continued to spread, converge, and develop well into the medieval era and across the globe." —Reading Religion“Broderick delivers the most persuasive hypotheses to date to explain the origin of this strange document. . . . The Anglo-Saxon artists were probably copying a manuscript brought from the Mediterranean world, perhaps by Aelfric in the eleventh century, that has itself disappeared, the origin and meaning of whose images they could not fully explain. Broderick turns them into magic ‘windows’ teleporting us to an originary period of Christian exegesis, proselytizing, and incipient self-understanding.” —The Heythrop Journal “...Broderick’s work offers new avenues for thinking about the visual culture available in the eleventh-century Canterbury… His work challenges readers to consider further how books transported ideas and artistic influences across time and space.” —Journal of English and Germanic Philology

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Book SynopsisQuill and Cross in the Borderlands examines nearly four hundred years of history, folklore, literature, and art surrounding the legendary Lady in Blue and her historical counterpart, Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda.This legendary figure, identified as seventeenth-century Spanish nun and writer Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the rudiments of the Catholic faith. Sor María, an author of mystical Marian texts, became renowned not only for her alleged spiritual travel from her cloister in Spain to New Mexico but also for her writing, studied and implemented by Franciscans and others around the world. Working from original historical accounts, archival research, and a wealth of literature on the legend and the historical figure alike, Anna M. Nogar meticulously examines how and why the person and the legend became intertwined in Catholic consciousness and social praxis.NogarTrade Review“Anna M. Nogar’s contribution is necessary and just, in great part because nuns from both sides of the Atlantic are frequently decontextualized for the sake of exclusively theological, gender, or ideological interests.” “Anna M. Nogar’s contribution is necessary and just, in great part because nuns from both sides of the Atlantic are frequently decontextualized for the sake of exclusively theological, gender, or ideological interests.” —Latin American Literature Today“Quill and Cross in the Borderlands is a work of synthesis. Nogar weaves Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda’s roles as woman religious, author, mystic, and protomissionary into a vibrant historical trajectory that moves beyond fragmentary treatment of the nun as a predominantly folk figure.” —Journal of Folklore Research “Quill and Cross in the Borderlands will be an invaluable source for scholars of the American Southwest and Mexico alike. Nogar’s remarkable archival research coupled with copious transcriptions and translations of historical documents reveals ho Sor María De Ágreda permeated New Spanish society.” —Aztlan"An exhaustive study of the 17th century Spanish nun who miraculously appeared to tribes in colonial-era New Mexico and taught them the Catholic faith—while never crossing the ocean. . . . While the Lady in Blue's apparition has been written off as fantastical, Nogar focuses on the nun's spiritual writings, which have been overshadowed by her folklore narrative." —Mirage Magazine"Nogar’s text is a welcome addition to scholarship on the history of the Church in northern colonial Spain. . . . Nogar produced an excellent study that lays out the entrance of Christianity into the northern borderlands. Most important, as a text on Ágreda’s life, writings, and apparitions, it clearly documents her significance to the history and colonization of New Spain’s northern frontier." —The Americas"Nogar excels in her fine-grain, textually grounded analysis. She draws on a broad and varied source base, ranging from seventeenth-century miracle narratives to architectural renderings, library index lists, and operas. Nogar also shines in her engagement with visual sources." —Hispanic American Historical Review"Quill and Cross in the Borderlands achieves the difficult balance between academic rigor and readability and is a valuable resource for Sor María specialists and students alike. It may also engage aficionados of early modern women’s writing or southwestern history." —Colonial Latin American Review"Nogar’s well-researched and beautifully written Quill and Cross in the Borderlands ties the early writings of Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda, the Lady in Blue, to the later folklore that arose from her miraculous visits to indigenous communities beginning in the 1630s." —Journal of the West"Writing about someone whose life and writings involve claims considered outrageously impossible by most contemporary scholars is challenging—to say the least—and so is having to interweave historical, theological, and literary analysis of the significance of any such wonder-worker, but Nogar grapples with this challenge successfully." —Church History"With Nogar’s monograph, the reader will be able to recognize and appreciate the importance of Sor María de Jesús as a writer and mystical missionary for the history and the spiritual life of Mexican and US-Mexico borderlands politics and folklore." —Early Modern WomenTable of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Illustrations Introduction: A Literary Protomissionary in the Borderlands 1. Seventeenth-Century Spiritual Travel to New Mexico: A Miracle Narrative in Text 2. Sor María’s Rise as Mystical Writer and Protomissionary in Early Modern Spain 3. “Como si fuera natural de México”: Publication, Reading, and Interpretation of Sor María’s Writing in Colonial Mexico 4. “Aquella voz de las conversiones”: Writer and Missionary on the New Spanish Frontier 5. Blue Lady of Lore: The Lady in Blue Narrative and Sor María in the Folklore of the American Southwest 6. Sor María and the Lady in Blue in Contemporary Cultural Imagination Conclusion: Quill and Cross In New Spain Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis"Maya Stanfield-Mazzi’s well-researched and thoughtful monograph, full of new material, is the first cultural and technical history of ecclesiastical textiles—imported, locally produced, or a combination of the two—highlighting the ways in which Indigenous artisans participated in outfitting the church." —Latin American and Latinx Visual CultureTrade Review“Although there are several studies on pre-Columbian textiles, this is the first book I am aware of that deals with colonial textile arts. Clothing the New World Church allows for comparisons between different native traditions, colonial economies, and church styles.” —Andrés I. Prieto, author of Missionary Scientists"Stanfield-Mazzi celebrates the vibrant transformation of Amerindian and European textile traditions crafted for a Spanish American Church that was 'shrouded in cloth.' Her insightful, fully documented Clothing the New World Church analyzes the fabrics’ materiality and techne, their warp and weft serving as an appropriate metaphor for a remarkable transatlantic synthesis." —Jeanette F. Peterson, author of The Paradise Garden Murals of Malinalco"Maya Stanfield-Mazzi’s book provides the first broad survey of church textiles of Spanish America, demonstrating that, while overlooked, textiles were a vital part of visual culture in the Catholic Church." —Trebuchet"Maya Stanfield-Mazzi provides the first comprehensive survey of church adornment with textiles, addressing how these works helped establish Christianity in Spanish America and expand it over four centuries. Including more than 180 photos, the book examines both imported and indigenous textiles used in the church, compiling works that are now scattered around the world and reconstructing their original contexts." —American Catholic Studies Newsletter"In five generous chapters dealing with different types of textiles extensively used in churches across the Americas . . . the author provides not only an overview of the richness and diversity of the liturgical textiles produced and consumed during the early modern period, but also offers detailed discussions of pieces that despite their unique qualities have often been left out from larger discussions of contemporaneous artistic production." —caa.reviews"This is a beautifully produced book of value to nonspecialist colonial historians and textile scholars, who will learn much about the social and cultural context in which church textiles were produced." —Hispanic American Historical Review"Clothing the New World Church is a powerhouse of original fieldwork and incorporation of literature in art history, textiles history and Church history." —Bulletin of Latin American ResearchTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Woven Silk 2. Embroidery 3. Featherwork 4. Tapestry 5. Painted Cotton and Cotton Lace 6. Conclusion Glossary of Liturgical and Textile Terms

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Book SynopsisMargot E. Fassler's richly documented historywinner of the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the John Nicholas Brown Prize from the Medieval Academy of Americademonstrates how the Augustinians of St. Victor, Paris, used an art of memory to build sonic models of the church. This musical art developed over time, inspired by the religious ideals of Hugh and Richard of St. Victor and their understandings of image and the spiritual journey. Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris demonstrates the centrality of sequences to western medieval Christian liturgical and artistic experience, and to our understanding of change and continuity in medieval culture. Fassler examines the figure of Adam of St. Victor and the possible layers within the repertories created at various churches in Paris, probes the ways the Victorine sequences worked musically and exegetically, and situates this repertory within the intellectuaTrade Review"Margot Fassler is an original, imaginative scholar, and the first edition of Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris fulfilled our need for a historical account. A paperback edition will make this picture of twelfth-century European creativity available to students and a wider general audience." —Richard L. Crocker, University of California, Berkeley"What meanings did liturgical chant convey to its elite medieval audience, the educated clergy? How did this audience understand the connection between text and music, and how did this conception change over time? These timely questions form the backdrop for Gothic Song, Margot Fassler's engaging study of the twelfth-century sequence. Focusing primarily on the Augustinian abbey of Saint-Victor de Paris, Fassler argues that it was there and at the nearby cathedral that Adam Precentor (Adam of Saint-Victor) and his circle developed a new approach to sequence composition." —The Journal of the American Musicological Society". . . this represents a considerable revision and expansion of our previous knowledge of musical life in 12th-century Paris and of the background to the late medieval sequence. . . . It is through commendable, detailed studies such as [this] that our views of the early epochs of music will gradually crystallise into clearer shapes." —The Musical Times"In relation to this apotheosis of the Word, the sequences of the Middle Ages present an intriguing paradox. On one hand, the melodies of sequences in many sources carry a Latin text, intensely coloured by the Vulgate Bible and by the rich tradition of Christian Latinity. On the other hand, as Margot Fassler points out in this fine book, the sequence was often conceived in the Middle Ages as an anticipation of angelic praise and therefore of a heavenly song where human language has no meaning. Margot Fassler explores this contrast in a richly documented survey of the sequence tradition, concentrating upon the late sequence, which, as she convincingly shows, was championed at the Abbey of St Victor in Paris." —Early Music

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Book SynopsisHidden Possibilities combines solid scholarship with engaging personal tributes that, collectively, offer an unabashed celebration of Muriel Spark and her work. Trade Review"Hidden Possibilities combines solid scholarship with engaging personal tributes that, collectively, offer an unabashed celebration of Muriel Spark and her work. The essays are a significant addition to full-length studies of Spark while remaining accessible to Spark's fans and readers." —Margaret E. Mitchell, University of West Georgia"I teach Spark in undergraduate British literature and women's literature courses. This book would be very useful to my students, and is really an ideal collection for undergraduates in that it demonstrates the breadth of critical approaches to an author's work. In short, I think this is the rare book that would have crossover appeal to a general and scholarly audience and would be particularly useful for undergraduates or readers just being introduced to Spark's oeuvre." —Julie Nash, University of Massachusetts Lowell". . . A satisfyingly eclectic mixture [of essays]. If the first section provides some much-needed sustained critical appreciation of Spark's literary genius, the woman herself is brought wonderfully to life in the final essays . . .". —Times Literary Supplement "Hosmer has assembled a distinguished mix of academics and notable popular authors (e.g., John Updike and Doris Lessing) to address various aspects of Spark's vast bibliography and how her life informed her work . . . the contributors present a fairly well-rounded and informed perspective on Spark's oeuvre. Perhaps the strongest points of the volume are the interviews with Spark, in which her passion for writing and her remarkable wit are center stage." —Library Journal“An extraordinary collection, ‘Hidden Possibilities: Essays in Honor of Muriel Spark’ is very highly recommended reading and an essential addition to academic library Literary Studies reference and study collections.” —The Midwest Book Review". . . an excellent new collection of critical responses to the Scottish-born author's work." —BookForum

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Book SynopsisThe sacred and the secular in medieval literature have too often been perceived as opposites, or else relegated to separate but unequal spheres. In Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred, Barbara Newman offers a new approach to the many ways that sacred and secular interact in medieval literature, arguing that (in contrast to our own cultural situation) the sacred was the normative, unmarked default category against which the secular always had to define itself and establish its niche. Newman refers to this dialectical relationship as crossoverwhich is not a genre in itself, but a mode of interaction, an openness to the meeting or even merger of sacred and secular in a wide variety of forms. Newman sketches a few of the principles that shape their interaction: the hermeneutics of both/and, the principle of double judgment, the confluence of pagan material and Christian meaning in Arthurian romance, the rule of convergent idealism in hagiographic romance, aTrade Review"Barbara Newman, in her (as usual) fine study of medieval literature, takes on the debate of the past three decades around 'exegetics' or 'Robertsonianism,' offering a new approach to the sacred and secular in medieval literature. . . . Newman's concise yet readable narrative makes this accessible to non-specialists. Students of medieval literature, literary criticism, and hermeneutics will appreciate Newman's keen insights." —Magistra“This important book should be read by anyone with a serious interest in medieval English and French literature, the Bible and literature, the history of medieval theology (Latin and vernacular), and the vital and complex manifestations of sacred and secular motifs in Western thought.” —Renaissance Quarterly“The strengths of Medieval Crossover are manifold. . . . This is essential reading for students of history, religion, literature, and cultural studies, with sensitive English translations catering to readers who lack proficiency in Latin or Medieval French. Like those medieval texts that open themselves up to ‘double judgment,’ Medieval Crossover is guaranteed to provoke further debate and delight.” —French Studies“Although Newman acknowledges her debt to other critics who have drawn attention to the use of paradox—the both/and—in the Middle Ages, her work itself is a strong contribution to this field of study. Instead of examining only the presence of sacred and secular, her work illustrates the different ways that the sacred and secular are integrated and does so in a text that is easily accessible to the reader.” —Sixteenth Century Journal“The undeclared subject of this book is nothing less amazing or mysterious than the procreation of life through art. From the altitude of a medium-earth-orbit satellite, Newman’s ‘meandering path’ and its side-tracks describe an intricate pattern, crisscrossing and double-crossing, as elaborate as the swiveling of Love. . . . Thanks to Newman’s game-changing encore to the Donaldson/Robertson debate, we now can see a way to speak of crossovers between secular and sacred as tools of indigenation, and of indigenation as a protean driver in the evolution of social values.” —The Medieval Review“Understanding these texts in conversation as crossover works, as Newman does, enriches and complicates our reading of each. . . . This book will be essential reading for any student of religion, history, or literary studies and will doubtless inspire much scholarship to come.” —Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies “In the conclusion, Newman generously identifies her work as laying a path to be pursued by others. In addition to the method it outlines, Medieval Crossover provides the ground for exploring why so many medieval texts and genres—in serious and playful registers—construct an inextricable relationship between the secular and the sacred, even when they seem most antithetical to one another.” —Studies in the Age of Chaucer“Beyond the field of late medieval literary studies, Medieval Crossover is a must-read for scholars in any discipline concerned with secularization and passage to modernity. Medieval Crossover is the most powerful book about the interaction of pre-modern sacred and secular literary cultures since D.W. Robertson’s A Preface to Chaucer.” —Modern Philology“Newman’s book works against the effects of Robertson’s totalizing program, and on that score alone its contribution is considerable. . . Newman thus reveals a strain in medieval literary history with long antecedents and wide application. It would seem to have been waiting a long time to be revealed. On this view, then, Newman’s book is revelatory.” —Comparative Literature Studies "Prolific medievalist Newman argues that though the sacred was the default perspective in medieval thinking, the sacred did not exclude the secular: there was ample creative room to blend the two perspectives. . . . A textual study at its best, Newman's work attempts to set the field back on track after years of debate over how to read a medieval text and whether medieval writers used the holy texts literally or could deploy them creatively at times." —Library Journal

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Book SynopsisExplores ten monumental stained-glass windows, designed by the artist Jacob Landau, for the Keneseth Israel synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.Trade Review“An important contribution to our knowledge and understanding of Jewish life in Pennsylvania and religious life more broadly. The Prophetic Quest brings attention to hitherto unknown items that themselves carry artistic, historic, and religious significance.”—Dianne Ashton,author of Hanukkah in America: A History“The Prophetic Quest is an essential companion for anyone who takes a trip to Elkins Park to see these glorious windows.”—Ilka Gordon Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

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Book SynopsisExamines the image networks of St. George in the eastern Mediterranean, revealing how the different portrayals became central to Crusader, East Christian, and Islamic visual cultures.Trade Review“This panoramic volume follows the images of military saints across Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Crusader, Georgian, Islamic, Syriac, and many other fields of study usually held separate. Badamo ties together the fragmented political map of the later medieval eastern Mediterranean in unexpected ways that cause us to rethink broader questions of global art and history.”—Benjamin Anderson,Cornell University“Saint George Between Empires particularly excels in highlighting the importance of Saint George / al-Khiḍr in both Christian and Islamic contexts, and is by far the most all-encompassing study on this subject.”—Dr. Mat Immerzeel,Fellow International Studies, Leiden University

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Book SynopsisGives an account of various movements in art and their relation to the visual and in churches and in liturgy, for example the Franciscan movement, different approaches to the crucifixion, the restoration of creation. It recovers the links between the cross and creation, and relates the baptismal covenant to a commitment to care for creation.Trade ReviewIn this important and wide-ranging book, Christopher Irvine explores the two-way relationship between worship and art. More specifically, he examines the use of imagery related to the cross with reference to its liturgical environment and associated rituals. The opening chapter encourages us to ‘see liturgically’ and compares the meanings of works of art as exhibited in galleries with those located and used in places of worship. Thus our understanding of religious art is related to the distinctive activity of the worship space wherein the artwork is or was located. A discussion of the Isenheim altarpiece in its entirety, rather than solely at the figure of Christ crucified, as well as to consider the impact and effect of the altarpiece in its original liturgical setting. The panel beneath the central crucifixion scene (the predella) which depicts the lamentation, or burial, of Christ was originally positioned along the back edge of the stone mensa. It would, then, have brought a visual correspondence between the physical body of Christ and the sacramental body of Christ in the lowering of the bread by the celebrant after the dominical words. This is but one example. In the second chapter, Irvine goes on to discuss in more detail a range of altarpieces in relation to the lines of sight existing between the congregation and the liturgical action at the altar, in order to demonstrate that these pieces were integral to the rite and its meaning. In subsequent chapters different aspects of cross imagery are discussed. ‘The Cross in Blood’ is concerned primarily with images in which the blood from the crucified Christ is depicted as being collected in chalices and so forth, and associated with the Eucharist. Following an interesting investigation of the complexity of the symbolism of blood, from anthropological, historical and scriptural standpoints, this evolves toward consideration of a broader sense of a ‘living cross drenched in blood’ (70), and of a regenerative life-force expressed as ‘The Cross in Bloom’ (62). Further chapters entitled ‘The Noble Tress’, ‘The Living Cross’ and ‘The Tree of Life’ explore in more detail such broader imagery of the cross: as an emblem of victory, a source of the renewal of creation and a sign of the whole mystery of God’s saving work. In so doing, the narrative takes us with Egeria to experience the Holy Week liturgies of fourth-century Jerusalem, to the papal liturgies of seventh- or eighth-century Rome, and via Syrian and Ethiopian rites to the modern day paintings of Norman Adams, the life and work of St Francis (whose experience with the cross at San Damiano was integral to his calling), the architecture and art of Assisi, and Franciscan spirituality and writing. These chapters are perhaps the heart of the book, as they bring to life our Christian heritage as seen through the lens of the cross. The book about the living liturgy of the church in ages past and present, and about the very real role that art plays in the liturgy as well as in our understanding of it. The final chapter brings the reader full circle, and looks at the design, structure and decoration of baptismal fonts and baptisteries, focusing on the three interwoven themes of entering into the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection, re-birth through water and the spirit and the flourishing of a new creation. The book uses a wide range of examples, including illustrated liturgical books, church architecture, mosaics, paintings, stone and painted crosses, poetry, sermons, hymns, daily offices and other liturgical texts, ranging across the centuries, and from diverse origins including Syrians, Armenian, Ethiopian, Anglo-Saxon, Franciscan sources. These are interwoven throughout with scriptural references and reflections. All of this makes for an interesting read and the imagery is well developed. Pricing and readership considerations may have prevented the inclusion of more illustrations, and while the pictorial examples are described in detail by the author, more illustrations would make the book more accessible. As it is, one is led to read the book alongside Google Images. That aside, this is an engrossing book for anyone interested in our worshipping heritage, and will likely encourage the reader to think more creatively and broadly about the cross, both liturgically and in personal devotion. -- Kathryn Naylor * Anaphora 9.1 (June 2015) *In surmising this book, I can’t do better than to quote from the Foreword by Rowan Williams: ‘The ancient symbolism of the cross as the tree of life in the garden of God’s presence is shown to be of cardinal importance to our fuller understanding of what is done once and for all on Calvary.’ Further ‘This study challenges any view of Christ’s crucifixion that reduces it either to a human tragedy or to a transaction that saves souls.’ In terms of a discussion of Christian art per se and physical presentation, this book cannot compete with the one by Richard Harries which was featured in a recent issue of this magazine. However, the value of Irvine’s book is in its theological treatment of the themes depicted in Christian art, and as Williams makes clear in his Foreword, the author has provided us with a readable and rich account of how Christian art and liturgy have interpreted the events of Good Friday over the centuries. Seeing the cross as the tree of life helps us realise the full extent of Christ’s redeeming act – the cross and resurrection are about the recreation of all that is, and the restoration of our intended place before God – which is so much more than a ‘paying back’ of the debt that is due to our sin, which is all too frequently the emphasis of our hymnody and preaching. That the cross is the tree of life in the garden of God’s presence and as such is a re-ordering of creation is surely the real good news that we have to proclaim. -- Marion Gray * The Reader *

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Book Synopsis Months before Alma López''s digital collage Our Lady was shown at the Museum of International Folk Art in 2001, the museum began receiving angry phone calls from community activists and Catholic leaders who demanded that the image not be displayed. Protest rallies, prayer vigils, and death threats ensued, but the provocative image of la Virgen de Guadalupe (hands on hips, clad only in roses, and exalted by a bare-breasted butterfly angel) remained on exhibition. Highlighting many of the pivotal questions that have haunted the art world since the NEA debacle of 1988, the contributors to Our Lady of Controversy present diverse perspectives, ranging from definitions of art to the artist''s intention, feminism, queer theory, colonialism, and Chicano nationalism. Contributors include the exhibition curator, Tey Marianna Nunn; award-winning novelist and Chicana historian Emma Pérez; and Deena González (recognized as one of the fifty most importaTrade Review"An exceptionally important and powerful collection of essays, opening new interpretive paths and new tools for the activist-scholar-student. This is the most serious consideration of the oeuvre of Alma Lopez published to date." - --Charlene Villasenor Black, Associate Professor of Art History, UCLA "This book has many great and laudable qualities. First, it doesn't "wax poetic" or try to sound overly intellectual, just strict reporting of events. Secondly, the plain tone of the writing allows for balanced and unbiased reporting; it gives equal weight to both the artist and her critics, without passing judgment on either. The author respects the fact that the icons are important to some people, and Lopez' artwork isn't something they're accustomed to." - Olive Branch United blogTable of Contents Acknowledgments Our Lady of Controversy: A Subject That Needs No Introduction (Alicia Gaspar de Alba) 1. The Artist of Our Lady (April 2, 2001) (Alma López) 2. It's Not about the Art in the Folk, It's about the Folks in the Art: A Curator's Tale (Tey Marianna Nunn) 3. The War of the Roses: Guadalupe, Alma López, and Santa Fe (Kathleen FitzCallaghan Jones) 4. Making Privates Public: It's Not about La Virgen of the Conquest, but about the Conquest of La Virgen (Deena J. González) 5. Art Comes for the Archbishop: The Semiotics of Contemporary Chicana Feminism and the Work of Alma López (Luz Calvo) 6. Queering the Sacred: Love as Oppositional Consciousness in Alma López's Visual Art (Clara Román-Odio) 7. The Decolonial Virgin in a Colonial Site: It's Not about the Gender in My Nation, It's about the Nation in My Gender (Emma Pérez) 8. It's Not about the Virgins in My Life, It's about the Life in My Virgins (Cristina Serna) 9. Do U Think I'm a Nasty Girl? (Catrióna Rueda Esquibel) 10. Devil in a Rose Bikini: The Second Coming of Our Lady in Santa Fe (Alicia Gaspar de Alba) 11. It's Not about the Santa in My Fe, but about the Santa Fe in My Santa (Alma López) Appendix: Selected Viewer Comments About the Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisSpanning some three hundred years, this masterful study of the transmission of the Virgin of Guadalupe from Spain to the Americas and back again explores the subjectivity of seeing and the power of an image at the intersection of religion and politics.Trade ReviewIncredibly thorough in both research and analysis, this book sets a standard for scholars of Spanish and Mexican art, religion, and culture. * Library Journal *The book expands the understanding of the connections between sacred representations and the ways they are envisioned by different communities of the faithful. . . . Future researches on Latin American sacred art and Mexican culture in general will indeed be inspired by Visualizing Guadalupe. * The Americas *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Subjectivity of Seeing Chapter 1: The Sacrality of Blackness Chapter 2: “Because She Was of Their Color” Chapter 3: Her Presence in Her Absence Chapter 4: Making Guadalupe Chapter 5: A “Book of Miracles” Chapter 6: Sacred Cloth and Veiled Body Chapter 7: Aura and Authorship Chapter 8: The Civil/Savage Paradox Chapter 9: The Viceroys and the Virgin Chapter 10: Collecting Guadalupe Notes Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"In this beautifully illustrated and carefully researched book, Chanchani offers an innovative breakthrough study of the religion, art, architecture, and culture of the northern Ganga River and central Himalayan area. . . . This study is as pleasurable to read as it is informative. The ideas Chanchani puts forth are provocative and will interest scholars, in various disciplines, who work on the region. Nonspecialists who are curious about the region will also appreciate this work." * CHOICE *"[A]n indispensable resource." * The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians *"[B]eautifully written, deeply engrossing, and insightfully interdisciplinary book." * Journal of Asian Studies *"This delightful, well-illustrated study of Central Himalayan temple architecture and statuary marks a significant addition to the history of Uttarakhand." * The Indian Economic and Social History Review *"The author’s holistic approach is particularly stimulating; he does not look at temples simply as archaeological monuments inserted into an often-blurry historical context, but as symptoms of larger phenomena that he investigates, combining geographical, ecological, literary, historical, political, social, epigraphical, religious, cultural, stylistic and architectural perspectives." * Arts Asiatiques *"An essential text for art historians, central Himalayan scholars, or anyone interested in artifact-based research. It is carefully and incisively written, visually lush with over 100 images...and almost every chapter has a dedicated map focused on that chapter’s sites." * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"A ground-breaking contribution to the emerging field of eco–art history, the book examines architecture, paintings, photography, and prints created in Braj alongside theological treatises and devotional poetry to foreground seepages between the natural ecosystem and cultural production. The paintings of deified rivers, temples that emulate fragrant groves, and talismanic bleeding rocks that Ray discusses will captivate readers interested in environmental humanities and South Asian art history." * South Asia Research Note *"A wonderfully imaginative addition to the growing body of literature on the Little Ice Age. Sugata Ray traces the influence of climatic variations on South Asian art, architecture and devotional practices with extraordinary interpretive skill. This book is a must read for everyone with an interest in human responses to climate variability." -- Amitav Ghosh * author blog *"By opening art history to questions about how humans have thought about the earth, and how art and religion have been shaped by human changes and natural disruptions to the earth, Ray’s brilliant book guides us to new problems, and to new ways of thinking about art" * H-Asia (H-Net) *"This is an excellent book that is well worth reading. Sugata Ray is a very good writer, and Climate Change and the Art of Devotion was impressively researched." * Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) / Reading Religion *"This is a thought-provoking work whose greatest contribution is that it carves a path for new studies that may extend our understanding of the deep and complex interrelationships among geoaesthetics, ecology, spiritual practice, and the built environment in early modern India." * Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians *"[E]nchanting and compelling. Ray musters visual and textual evidence for an original approach to representations of the natural environment in art and temple architecture devoted to the god Krishna during a three-hundred-year time span, 1550-1850." * The Middle Ground *"[T]he methodologies entailed in geoaesthetics and eco art history open up new avenues for understanding the history of Braj religion and art in particular, and the cultural dynamics of climate change more broadly. As we enter ever more deeply into the Anthropocene, scholarship such as Ray’s will be increasingly important." * Journal of Religion *"To call the methodology of this book transdisciplinary does not do justice to this well-constructed and beautiful masterpiece...Climate Change and the Art of Devotion is a must-read for all who care about religion and ecology, religion and art history, Indian philosophy and religion, Asian art, art history, and geoaesthetics." * Reading Religion *

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Book SynopsisClarifies the significance and function of reliquaries from excavations of Gandharan monastery sites around modern Peshawar

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Book Synopsis

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