Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The role of representation in religion is complex. While often perceived as essential, it is also associated in many traditions with the liability of idolatry and provokes iconoclasm. The essays in this volume examine the nuances of representation in religion and the debate concerning its place across a variety of traditions from the three Abrahamic faiths, to those of antiquity and the East.
This volume consists of presentations made at an international conference held in honor of Moshe Barasch, art historian and cultural critic, who has done much to elucidate the light which representation and religion shed on each other. It pays tribute to Barasch by expanding the base of understanding and insight he has erected. It should be of interest to students of religion and of art history.
Synopsis
The volume consists of presentations made at an international conference. Authors consider the issues concerning the role of representation in religion across a variety of traditions, from the three Abrahamic faiths to those of antiquity and the East.
Table of Contents
The idol in the icon: some ambiguities / M. Barasch -- Two kinds of representation in Greek religious art / M. Finkelberg -- The truth of images: Cicero and Varro on image worship / H. Cancik and H. Cancik-Lindemaier -- Portraits, likenesses and looking glasses: some literary and philosophical reflections on representation and art in medieval India / P. Granoff -- Indian image-worship and its discontents / R.H. Davis -- The 'iconic' and 'aniconic' Buddha visualization in medieval Chinese Buddhism / K. Shinohara -- Jewish artists and the representation of God / H. Kèunzl -- Jewish art and 'iconoclasm': the case of Sepphoris / B. Kèuhnel -- Literarische und visuelle Hermeneutik oder die Unmèoglichkeit der Ikone Gottes / A.R.E. Agus -- Torah: between presence and representation of the divine in Jewish mysticism / M. Idel -- Representations of the Jewish body in modern times: forms of hero worship / R.I. Cohen -- Monumental mockery: sacred regality and dramatic representation in early modern England / J.R. Siemon -- Pictures versus letters: William Warburton's theory of grammatological iconoclasm / J. Assmann -- The roots of modern iconoclasm / A. Besanðcon -- The absent artist / P. Springer -- Iconoclasm on the 20th century musical stage (Schèonberg, Henze and Glass) / W.-D. Hartwich.