Sandro Magister on a book by Timothy Verdon : this is a quote from Italian-German theologian Romano Guardini, but read the whole thing."All were living in the gaze [original German: Alle lebten im Blick], all were rapt in contemplation."
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"One must not only believe, confess, profess; one must also 'look upon' the faith. Jesus is the one who has 'seen and heard' his Father. In him is the union of word and image; he is Logos and Eikon (cf. Colossians 1:15). It is no accident that, since the fourth or fifth century, the legend grew in the ancient Church that the evangelist Luke had also been a painter. To this legend may be added the anathema of the second council of Nicaea, according to which 'If anyone does not accept the artistic representation of scenes from the Gospel, let him be excommunicated.' Painting the face of Christ, of Mary, of the saints is another way of writing the Gospel, and thus also of passing it on, proclaiming it, permitting it to be read, meditated upon, and understood by the faithful. In Nicaea, in 787, Church teaching incorporated the legend and gave it the dignity of doctrine, including within the deposit of tradition not only written and oral tradition, but artistic tradition as well; not only the writings of the Old and New Testament and the books of the Church Fathers, but also the images that translate into full color the black ink of the sacred writers."
1 comment:
This is one of the issues that really perplexes me. The Churches in my area are all spartan. Very little artwork at all. There is no where to look when the mind wanders. All you see is brick or plain white wall. You would imagine Cromwell had a go at them, but sadly no. This was our own doing.
It is very peculiar when you think we are such image based creatures. If an advertiser wanted you to fall in love with a car, the first thing he'd do is show you a picture of it. In our homes we put up pictures of people we love, places we love etc. In my local Churches - nothing. It would be lovely to give them a faith based makeover. It is so helpful with contemplation to have images.
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