Paradise Found

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mailan S. Doquang
Keyword(s):  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Hortus Conclusus

This chapter inquires into the formal and metaphorical connections between medieval French churches and the paradisiacal garden. Drawing on textual and visual evidence, it demonstrates that monumental flora operated in tandem with organic motifs in other media, as well as with figural sculptures and the liturgy, to forge and promote links between sacred buildings and the earthly and celestial paradise. It explores the relationship between sculpted foliage and the Tree of Life, the hortus conclusus, and the Garden of Joseph of Arimathea (the location of Jesus’ rock-cut tomb and the site of the church of the Holy Sepulcher). The chapter concludes with an account of the possible negative connotations of vegetal motifs in church settings, which relate to the Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden.

The Garden as Unfinished Narrative of the Good in C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-80
Author(s):  
Evrea Ness-Bergstein
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
Literary Devices ◽  
Hortus Conclusus

In Lewis’ transposition of Milton’s Paradise to a distant world where Adam and Eve do not succumb to Satan, the structure of Eden is radically different from the enclosed garden familiar to most readers. In the novel Perelandra (1944), C.S. Lewis represents the Garden of Eden as an open and ‘shifting’ place. The new Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve unfallen, is a place of indeterminate future, excitement, growth, and change, very unlike the static, safe, enclosed Garden—the hortus conclusus of traditional iconography—from which humanity is not just expelled but also, in some sense, escapes. The innovation is not in the theological underpinnings that Lewis claims to share with Milton but in the literary devices that make evil in Perelandra seem boring, dead-end, and repetitive, while goodness is the clear source of change and excitement.

Dryden’s Post-Revolutionary Theology of Providence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John West
Keyword(s):  
Human Action ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

For Dryden, enthusiasm often signalled transcendence from the earthly and glimpsing the divine. The chapter examines the fate of this idea by tracing his late thinking about the relationship between providence and human action. The Hind and the Panther (1687) presents providence as mysteriously distant from humanity and inspiration as mediated through the Church. After the 1688 Revolution, such a view stood in contradistinction to the rhetoric of special providential intervention commonly used by Williamites. Dryden sometimes condemns this rhetoric as enthusiasm. His recurrent preoccupation in the 1690s is not militant Jacobitism, however, but learning to live in exile and suffering. The chapter argues that mystical Catholicism linked with Jansenism provides an intellectual context for this turn in Dryden’s thought. It reads this mysticism in Dryden’s late translations of Juvenal, Persius, Virgil, and Ovid which reflect on how contemplative reflection of God’s mysterious providence could help navigate a corrupt world.

At the Edge of Reformation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Linehan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Europe ◽  
History Of ◽  
Portuguese Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

This book springs from its author’s continuing interest in the history of Spain and Portugal—on this occasion in the first half of the fourteenth century between the recovery of each kingdom from widespread anarchy and civil war and the onset of the Black Death. Focussing on ecclesiastical aspects of the period in that region (Galicia in particular) and secular attitudes to the privatization of the Church, it raises inter alios the question why developments there did not lead to a permanent sundering of the relationship with Rome (or Avignon) two centuries ahead of that outcome elsewhere in the West. In addressing such issues, as well as of neglected material in Spanish and Portuguese archives, use is made of the also unpublished so-called ‘secret’ registers of the popes of the period. The issues it raises concern not only Spanish and Portuguese society in general but also the developing relationship further afield of the components of the eternal quadrilateral (pope, king, episcopate, and secular nobility) in late medieval Europe, as well as of the activity in that period of those caterpillars of the commonwealth, the secular-minded sapientes. In this context, attention is given to the hitherto neglected attempt of Afonso IV of Portugal to appropriate the privileges of the primatial church of his kingdom and to advance the glorification of his Castilian son-in-law, Alfonso XI, as God’s vicegerent in his.

The Documentary Imagination in Twentieth-Century French Literature

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison James
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
French Literature ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
Current Events ◽  
Twentieth Century French Literature ◽  
A Site ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This book studies the documentary impulse that plays a central role in twentieth-century French literature. Focusing on nonfiction narratives, it analyzes the use of documents—pieces of textual or visual evidence incorporated into the literary work to relay and interrogate reality. It traces the emergence of an enduring concern with factual reference in texts that engage with current events or the historical archive. Writers idealize the document as a fragment of raw reality, but also reveal its constructed and mediated nature and integrate it as a voice within a larger composition. This ambivalent documentary imagination, present in works by Gide, Breton, Aragon, Yourcenar, Duras, and Modiano (among others), shapes the relationship of literature to visual media, testimonial discourses, and self-representation. Far from turning away from realism in the twentieth century, French literature often turns to the document as a site of both modernist experiment and engagement with the world.

The Sin of Abbé Mouret

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Émile Zola
Keyword(s):  
Serious Illness ◽  
Adam And Eve ◽  
The Church

‘I really don't understand how people can blame a priest so much, when he strays from the path.’ The Sin of Abbé Mouret tells the compelling story of the young priest Serge Mouret. Striving after spiritual purity and sanctity, he lives a life of constant prayer, but his neglect of all physical needs leads to serious illness, followed by amnesia. No longer knowing he is a priest, he falls in love with his nurse Albine. Together, like a latter-day Adam and Eve, they roam through an Eden-like garden called the ‘Paradou’, seeking a forbidden tree in whose shade they will make love. Zola memorably shows their gradual awakening to sexuality, and his poetic descriptions of the luxuriant and beautiful Paradou create a lyrical celebration of Nature. When Serge regains his memory and recalls his priestly vows, anguish inevitably follows. The whole story, with its numerous biblical parallels, becomes a poetic reworking of the Fall of Man and a questioning of the very meaning of innocence and sin. Zola explores the conflict between Church and Nature, the sterility of the Church and the fertility of Nature. This new translation includes a wide-ranging and helpful introduction and explanatory notes.

Canons to the Left of Him: Brevard Childs, his Critics, and the Future of Old Testament Theology

1997 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Provan
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Biblical Theology ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Probable Origin ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

It is well known that the seeds from which the modern discipline of OT theology grew are already found in 17th and 18th century discussion of the relationship between Bible and Church, which tended to drive a wedge between the two, regarding canon in historical rather than theological terms; stressing the difference between what is transient and particular in the Bible and what is universal and of abiding significance; and placing the task of deciding which is which upon the shoulders of the individual reader rather than upon the church. Free investigation of the Bible, unfettered by church tradition and theology, was to be the way ahead. OT theology finds its roots more particularly in the 18th century discussion of the nature of and the relationship between Biblical Theology and Dogmatic Theology, and in particular in Gabler's classic theoreticalstatementof their nature and relationship. The first book which may strictly be called an OT theology appeared in 1796: an historical discussion of the ideas to be found in the OT, with an emphasis on their probable origin and the stages through which Hebrew religious thought had passed, compared and contrasted with the beliefs of other ancient peoples, and evaluated from the point of view of rationalistic religion. Here we find the unreserved acceptance of Gabler's principle that OT theology must in the first instance be a descriptive and historical discipline, freed from dogmatic constraints and resistant to the premature merging of OT and NT — a principle which in the succeeding century was accepted by writers across the whole theological spectrum, including those of orthodox and conservative inclination.

‘This Romish business’ - Ritual Innovation and Parish Life in Later Nineteenth-Century Lincolnshire

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 384-395
Author(s):  
R. W. Ambler
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Holy Communion ◽  
Parish Church ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Mixing Water

In February 1889 Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, appeared before the court of the Archbishop of Canterbury charged with illegal practices in worship. The immediate occasion for these proceedings was the manner in which he celebrated Holy Communion at the Lincoln parish church of St Peter at Gowts on Sunday 4 December 1887. He was cited on six specific charges: the use of lighted candles on the altar; mixing water with the communion wine; adopting an eastward-facing position with his back to the congregation during the consecration; permitting the Agnus Dei to be sung after the consecration; making the sign of the cross at the absolution and benediction, and taking part in ablution by pouring water and wine into the chalice and paten after communion. Two Sundays later King had repeated some of these acts during a service at Lincoln Cathedral. As well as its intrinsic importance in defining the legality of the acts with which he was charged, the Bishop’s trial raised issues of considerable importance relating to the nature and exercise of authority within the Church of England and its relationship with the state. The acts for which King was tried had a further significance since the ways in which these and other innovations in worship were perceived, as well as the spirit in which they were ventured, also reflected the fundamental shifts which were taking place in the role of the Church of England at parish level in the second half of the nineteenth century. Their study in a local context such as Lincolnshire, part of King’s diocese, provides the opportunity to examine the relationship between changes in worship and developments in parish life in the period.

Attitudes toward Mormons and Voter Behavior in the 2012 Presidential Election

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Hawley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Voter Behavior ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Active Member ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

AbstractPrior to the 2012 presidential election, some commentators speculated that Mitt Romney's status as a devout and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would undermine his presidential aspirations. Using the 2012 American National Election Survey, this study examines the relationship between attitudes toward Mormons and voter behavior in the United States in that election year. It finds that attitudes toward Mormons had a statistically-significant effect on turnout — though these effects differed according to party identification. It additionally finds that these attitudes influenced vote choice. In both cases, the substantive effects were small, indicating that anti-Mormon feelings did play a role in the 2012 presidential election, but they did not determine the final outcome.

Jan II van Coninxloo en zijn werkzaamheden voor het benedictinessenklooster van Groot-Bijgaarden bij Brussel

1998 ◽  
Vol 112 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 104-126
Author(s):  
Frank Van Der Ploeg
Keyword(s):  
Significant Part ◽  
The Veil ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between the Brussels painter Jan 11 van Coninxloo (ca. 1489-1561 or later) and the Benedictine convent of Groot-Bijgaarden. In earlier publications by J. Maquet-Tombu the link between certain members of the Van Coninxloo family and the Vorst convent have already been pointed out. A new chapter can now be added. In the archive of Groot-Bijgaarden convent are two books in which payments made by the prioresses Françoise and Catherine van Straten for the dccoration of the convent and the church are recorded. The books list a separate item for painting and polychrome work. Here, for the first time, the name Jan van Coninxloo crops up in connection with a sum paid for painting the side panels of the main altar. Van Coninxloo was also paid for painting organ doors, a vaulted ceiling and for 'rough painting'. Four triptychs by Van Coninxloo have also been preserved; they were commissions from women of noble birth who had taken the veil. The names of three of these nuns are known: Anthonine de Locquenghien, Berbel van dcr Noot and Marie Brant. The fourth was called Barbara (Berbel). In view of all this material it may be concluded that Van Coninxloo played a significant part in the decorative appearance of the convent church. He was responsible for triptychs on altars dedicated to St. Anne, St. John and St. Benedict. He also painted the smaller triptych with the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, the panels of the high altar, doors for an organ and (part of) the ceiling decorations. The article offers a new insight into the context of a group of paintings and adds a number of works to Jan 11 van Coninxloo's oeuvre.

ARMINIANISM, CATHOLICISM, AND PURITANISM IN ENGLAND DURING THE 1630S

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL QUESTIER
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Stuart Period ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The relationship between Arminianism and Roman Catholicism in the early Stuart period has long been a source of historiographical controversy. Many contemporaries were in no doubt that such an affinity did exist and that it was politically significant. This article will consider how far there was ideological sympathy and even rhetorical collaboration between Caroline Catholics and those members of the Church of England whom both contemporaries and modern scholars have tended to describe as Arminians and Laudians. It will suggest that certain members of the English Catholic community actively tried to use the changes which they claimed to observe in the government of the Church of England in order to establish a rapport with the Caroline regime. In particular they enthused about what they perceived as a strongly anti-puritan trend in royal policy. Some of them argued that a similar style of governance should be exercised by a bishop over Catholics in England. This was something which they believed would correct the factional divisions within their community and align it more effectively with the Stuart dynasty.

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