scholarly journals Carthusian symbolism in Architecture and Art: San Lorenzo of Padula

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Maria Fernanda García Marino

The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate through the study of the concrete example of the Charterhouse di San Lorenzo in Padula (Province of Salerno, Italy) how and to what extent, the utopian value of the spirituality of the Carthusian monks - inspired by the model of the Desert Fathers and the Church of primitive Christianity, devoted to the practices of strict enclosure, of rigorous abstinence, of meditation, of contemplation and of prayer - has affected the definition and development of a specific iconography; both for what concerns the figurative arts, which have as a milestone the theme of martyrdom and angels (the creatures closest to God), present within the monasteries of the order, both for what interests the architectural structure of buildings. Always the same as themselves, especially for the design, distribution and function of the spaces, which as a whole and in particular, they reflect, strictly and everywhere, the immutability of the Carthusian Rule, never changed since the foundation of the order in 1084. Following the model of the first monastery, built on the Chartreuse massif, in Grenoble (France), made by St. Bruno of Cologne, new settlements were erected and spread throughout Europe, with an exponential growth that does not suffer interruptions until the end of eighteenth century and that, left a deep and unequivocal cultural mark in the territory on which they extended. The Charterhouse model, a kind of Earthly Jerusalem like an imitation of the Celestial Jerusalem, can be well included in the universe of utopian architecture, but of the possible ones, where spirituality became tangible reality and where the sacredness of space conceived and built by the monks puts us in touch today the man with sensitive and perceptible experience, the so-called hierophany.

1976 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eamon Duffy

Historians of the eighteenth century have written of William Whiston, if at all, with an ill-concealed smile. ‘The engaging Whiston’, that ‘most amiable of heretics’, is duly noted in every account of the development of Arianism in England, but his lunatic vagaries are kept well to the fore. Yet Whiston has some claims to serious historical attention. His heresies were considered dangerous enough to provoke the champions of both high and low-church to counter attack, and to unite the warring factions in the turbulent Convocation of 1710/11 in a concerted attempt to silence ‘this corrupter of our common Christianity’, this ‘fallen star of our church’. To Whiston, rather than to Samuel Clarke, belongs the dubious credit of having revived the Arian heresy in England, and although Clarke's less flamboyant teaching was ultimately more influential, Whiston, in converting the dissenters Joseph Hallett and James Peirce to Arian views, was indirectly responsible for the conflagration at Salter's Hall in 1719, and the spread of Unitarianism in English dissent. The story of the discovery of ‘Primitive Christianity’ and the prolonged persecution which Whiston's attempts to propagate his new gospel provoked is not widiout elements of farce, but there is a serious side to the episode. The abortive attempt to cite Whiston before the ‘court of Convocation’ in 1711, and his subsequent prosecution in the Court of Delegates, were seen by churchmen as yet another demonstration of the impotence of the Church of England in the face of her enemies, and by latitudinarians and unbelievers as a dangerous attempt on the liberties of protestant Englishmen. Like the Sacheverell trial, to which it forms a pendant, the Whiston affair was, while it lasted, a cause célèbre, and casts further light on the eighteenth-century debate on the place and function of the Church in Society.


Author(s):  
Mark Hill QC

This chapter examines the constitution of the Church of England, beginning with a discussion of the Anglican Communion of which the Church of England is a component Church. The Anglican Communion is a worldwide network of thirty-nine autonomous national and regional churches, each belonging to the Communion by virtue of a common tradition, ecclesiology and doctrine. The Archbishop of Canterbury is a focus of unity for the Communion, as are the three so-called instruments of unity, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council and Primates Meeting. The chapter also considers the synodical government of the Church of England and provides an overview of the composition, purpose and function of the Archbishops' Council, General Synod, diocesan synods, and deanery synods. Finally, it describes the Church Commissioners, courts and tribunals, and the Court of Faculties.


Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

This chapter investigates changes in mentalities after the Black Death, comparing practices never before analysed in this context—funerary and labour laws and processions to calm God’s anger. While processions were rare or conflictual as in Catania and Messina in 1348, these rituals during later plagues bound communities together in the face of disaster. The chapter then turns to another trend yet to be noticed by historians. Among the multitude of saints and blessed ones canonized from 1348 to the eighteenth century, the Church was deeply reluctant to honour, even name, any of the thousands who sacrificed their lives to succour plague victims, physically or spiritually, especially in 1348: the Church recognized no Black Death martyrs. By the sixteenth century, however, city-wide processions and other communal rituals bound communities together with charity for the poor, works of art, and charitable displays of thanksgiving to long-dead holy men and women.


Author(s):  
B. W. Young

The dismissive characterization of Anglican divinity between 1688 and 1800 as defensive and rationalistic, made by Mark Pattison and Leslie Stephen, has proved more enduring than most other aspects of a Victorian critique of the eighteenth-century Church of England. By directly addressing the analytical narratives offered by Pattison and Stephen, this chapter offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of this neglected period in the history of English theology. The chapter explores the many contributions to patristic study, ecclesiastical history, and doctrinal controversy made by theologians with a once deservedly international reputation: William Cave, Richard Bentley, William Law, William Warburton, Joseph Butler, George Berkeley, and William Paley were vitalizing influences on Anglican theology, all of whom were systematically depreciated by their agnostic Victorian successors. This chapter offers a revisionist account of the many achievements in eighteenth-century Anglican divinity.


2020 ◽  
pp. 009182962097237
Author(s):  
Simone Mulieri Twibell

Short-term missions provide opportunities for the formation of cross-cultural relationships and joint evangelistic endeavors. Scholars have challenged the typical unidirectional nature of short-term mission and partnership efforts, advocating for a more bidirectional flow of resources. This article analyzes the dynamics of reverse short-term missions with the goal of understanding their contributions from the perspective of the American hosts. The author suggests that reverse short-term missions bridge social capital across social networks and function as “networks of invigoration” by bringing information benefits to their hosts. These types of exchanges have the potential to help the American church reinterpret familiar experiences and see the mission of the church in a new way. Five perceptual outcomes are identified: alteration of perspectives; service opportunities for the hosts; renewal of spiritual commitments; first-hand exposure to a different culture; and contact with faith-mission models.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-90
Author(s):  
CALEB MUTCH

ABSTRACTThe plagal cadence has long been a significant concept within musical discourse, but that discourse contains no convincing explanation of why the progression should be characterized as ‘plagal’. This article elucidates the meaning of the term ‘plagal cadence’ by examining its introduction into a mid-eighteenth-century Parisian debate over the nature of what would come to be called tonality instigated by Charles-Henri de Blainville's proposal of the ‘mixed mode’, a supplement to the major and minor modes. Owing to the properties of his new mode's scale, which corresponds to the Phrygian mode, Blainville identified the plagal cadence as the proper conclusion for pieces in the mixed mode. Curiously, although Blainville's work appears to contain the first published articulation of the term, he employs it as if his readers were already familiar with the ‘plagal cadence’. This article explains that oddity, finding that Blainville misread earlier accounts of plainchant as saying that plagal modes were characterized by the interval of the descending fourth. In conclusion, consideration of the controversy regarding the mixed mode and plagal cadence reveals that those historical disagreements bear striking similarities to current debates over the significance and function of the plagal cadence in theories of harmony.


Author(s):  
Estelle Murphy

The tradition of composing welcome, birthday, and New Year’s Day odes for the monarch in London is one that dates to as early as 1617. It was not until almost a century later that an equivalent tradition in Dublin is evident. The Dublin ode tradition has often been viewed as an imitation of that established at the London court, and, while it doubtless took the London odes as its model initially, its poets and composers developed a series of works that stand apart as unique in their rationale, style, and even musical genre. This chapter shall demonstrate that the Dublin works were distinctive in their political and social intent and function, their poetry housing the intentions of a loyal polity on the margins of the empire that had a unique and complex identity and relationship with Britain. It will discuss the music and word-setting of the works composed by Masters of the State Music Johann Sigismund Cousser and Matthew Dubourg, showing that this ceremonial music for Dublin constitutes a body of works invaluable to our understanding of the cultural and political climate in the city in the eighteenth century.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Mutch

Foucault’s conceptualization of “pastoral power” is important in the development and application of the notion of “governmentality” or the regulation of mass populations. However, Foucault’s exploration of pastoral power, especially in the form of confessional practice, owes a good deal to his Roman Catholic heritage. Hints in his work, which were never developed, suggest some aspects of Protestant forms of pastoral power. These hints are taken up to explore one Protestant tradition, that of Scottish Presbyterianism, in detail. Based on the history of the church in the eighteenth century, four aspects of Protestant pastoral power are outlined: examination, accountability, ecclesiology, and organizing as a good in its own right.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy A. Van Aarde

The missional church is a new consciousness which has been raised for the missionary sending of the church in the West to be a witness for the Kingdom of God in its own context. The missional church has returned mission to the centre of ecclesiology. A structural functioning of the missional church and its relation to existing church structures are essential to rescue the missional church from simply becoming the latest fad. The present missional church conversation in advocating for an organic church structure undermines existing institutional church structures. A dynamic functioning church structure in which the inward and outward dimensions of the church�s single ecclesiological structure are able to function in a cohesive unity is set out in Ephesians. The function of the gifted persons in the task of equipping of the believers to fulfil their missional calling, vocation and function is paramount to the healthy integration of the missional church model in existing mission and church paradigms and for it to function within the framework of existing church structures.Interdisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article suggests that a dynamic unity exists between the ecclesiology of the church and missional structure and function of the church. The article explores interdisciplinary implications from the fields of the New Testament and missiology.


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