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"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty that is both seen (with the eyes of faith) and eaten, on the other, intrigues me and inspires this book. One cannot ask theo-aesthetic questions about the Eucharist without engaging fundamental questions about the relationship between beauty, art (broadly defined), and eating."-from Eating BeautyIn a remarkable book that is at once learned, startlingly original, and highly personal, Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the phrase "eating beauty." The phrase evokes the destruction of beauty, the devouring mouth of the grave, the mouth of hell. To eat beauty is to destroy it. Yet in the case of the Eucharist the person of faith who eats the Host is transformed into beauty itself, literally incorporated into Christ. In this sense, Astell explains, the Eucharist was "productive of an entire 'way' of life, a virtuous life-form, an artwork, with Christ himself as the principal artist." The Eucharist established for the people of the Middle Ages distinctive schools of sanctity-Cistercian, Franciscan, Dominican, and Ignatian-whose members were united by the eucharistic sacrament that they received. Reading the lives of the saints not primarily as historical documents but as iconic expressions of original artworks fashioned by the eucharistic Christ, Astell puts the "faceless" Host in a dynamic relationship with these icons. With the advent of each new spirituality, the Christian idea of beauty expanded to include, first, the marred beauty of the saint and, finally, that of the church torn by division-an anti-aesthetic beauty embracing process, suffering, deformity, and disappearance, as well as the radiant lightness of the resurrected body. This astonishing work of intellectual and religious history is illustrated with telling artistic examples ranging from medieval manuscript illuminations to sculptures by Michelangelo and paintings by Salvador Dalí. Astell puts the lives of medieval saints in conversation with modern philosophers as disparate as Simone Weil and G. W. F. Hegel.

Art --- Christian dogmatics --- anno 500-1499 --- Lord's Supper --- Aesthetics --- Food --- Spiritual life --- Eucharistie --- Esthétique --- Aliments --- Vie spirituelle --- Catholic Church --- History of doctrines --- Religious aspects --- Catholic Church. --- Eglise catholique --- Histoire des doctrines --- Aspect religieux --- -Lord's Supper --- -Aesthetics --- -Food --- -Spiritual life --- -265.3 --- Life, Spiritual --- Religious life --- Spirituality --- Foods --- Dinners and dining --- Home economics --- Table --- Cooking --- Diet --- Dietaries --- Gastronomy --- Nutrition --- Beautiful, The --- Beauty --- Esthetics --- Taste (Aesthetics) --- Philosophy --- Criticism --- Literature --- Proportion --- Symmetry --- Communion --- Eucharist --- Holy Communion --- Sacrament of the Altar --- Blood --- Sacraments --- Sacred meals --- Last Supper --- Mass --- -History of doctrines --- -Catholic Church --- -Religious aspects --- -Eucharistie --- Psychology --- Christianity --- 265.3 Eucharistie --- Esthétique --- 265.3 --- Religious aspects&delete& --- Radio broadcasting Aesthetics

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Ann W. Astell here affords a radically new understanding of the rhetorical nature of allegorical poetry in the late Middle Ages. She shows that major English writers of that era-among them, William Langland, John Gower, Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Gawain-poet-offered in their works of fiction timely commentary on current events and public issues. Poems previously regarded as only vaguely political in their subject matter are seen by Astell to be highly detailed and specific in their veiled historical references, implied audiences, and admonitions. Astell begins by describing the Augustinian and Boethian rhetorical principles involved in the invention of allegory. She then compares literary and historical treatments of key events in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England, finding an astonishing match of allusions and code words, especially those deriving from puns, titles, heraldic devices, and personal cognizances, as well as repeated proverbs, prophecies, and exempla. Among the works she discusses are John Ball's Letters and parts of Piers Plowman, which she presents as two examples of allegorical literature associated with the Peasants' Revolution of 1381; Gower's allegorical representation of the Merciless Parliament of 1388 in Confessio Amantis; and Chaucer's brilliant literary handling of key events in the reign of Richard II. In addition Astell argues for a precise dating of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight between 1397 and 1399 and decodes the work as a political allegory.

Allegorie --- Allegory --- Allégorie --- Inventio (Retorica) --- Invention (Rhetoric) --- Invention (Rhétorique) --- Medieval rhetoric --- Middeleeuwse retorica --- Retorica [Middeleeuwse ] --- Rhetoric [Medieval ] --- Rhétorique médiévale --- English literature --- Political poetry, English (Middle) --- Politics and literature --- Rhetoric, Medieval. --- Allegory. --- Personification in literature --- Symbolism in literature --- Rhetoric --- English political poetry, Middle --- Middle English political poetry --- Political poetry, English --- Political poetry, Middle English --- English poetry --- History and criticism. --- History --- Great Britain --- Politics and government --- Rhetoric, Medieval --- History and criticism --- Middle English, 1100-1500 --- Political poetry [English ] (Middle) --- To 1500 --- 1154-1399 --- 1399-1485

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Inspired by Vatican II, which attributed a special apostolate to the laity and affirmed their calling to holiness, this volume of original essays focuses on the shifting points of intersection between changing historical definitions of laity and sanctity. Ann W. Astell and ten other scholars examine a series of medieval and modern lay "saints" in order to explore how these figures perceived their own lay status and how this status has been perceived by others.

Laity --- Christian saints --- Catholic Church --- History of doctrines --- Religious life --- History --- 235*4 --- 260.2 --- Christian laity --- Laymen --- Church polity --- Lay ministry --- Saints --- Canonization --- 260.2 De Kerk: de gelovigen --- De Kerk: de gelovigen --- 235*4 Heiligheid--(theologische aspecten) --- Heiligheid--(theologische aspecten) --- Catholic Church&delete& --- Religious life&delete& --- Laity - Catholic Church - History of doctrines --- Laity - Religious life - History --- Sainteté laïque

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Hailed in Sacred Scripture as the "beginning of wisdom" (Ps 111:10), the "fear of the Lord" is seldom mentioned and little understood today. A gift of the Spirit and a moral virtue or disposition, the "fear of the Lord" also frequently entails emotional experiences of differing kinds: compunction, dread, reverence, wonderment, and awe. Starting with the Bible itself, this collection of seventeen essays explores the place of holy fear in Christian spirituality from the early church to the present and argues that this fear is paradoxically linked in various ways to fear's seeming opposite, love. Indeed, the charged dynamic of love and fear accounts for different experiences and expressions of Christian life in response to changing historical circumstances and events.The writings of the theologians, mystics, philosophers, saints, and artists studied here reveal the relationship between the fear and the love of God to be profoundly challenging and mysterious, its elements paradoxically conjoined in a creative tension with each other, but also tending to oscillate back-and-forth in the history of Christian spirituality as first one, then the other, comes to the fore, sometimes to correct a perceived imbalance, sometimes at the risk of losing its companion altogether. Given this historical pattern, clearly evident in these chronologically arranged essays, the palpable absence of a discourse of holy fear from the mainstream theological landscape should give us pause and invite us to consider if and how--under what aspect, in which contexts--a holy fear, inseparable from love, might be regained or discovered anew within Christian spirituality as a remedy both for a crippling anxiety and for a presumptive recklessness. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Christian spirituality, theology, biblical studies, religious studies, and religion and literature.

Christian theology --- Fear of God --- Fear --- Christianity --- Religious aspects&delete& --- Christianity. --- Religious aspects

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Hailed in Sacred Scripture as the "beginning of wisdom" (Ps 111:10), the "fear of the Lord" is seldom mentioned and little understood today. A gift of the Spirit and a moral virtue or disposition, the "fear of the Lord" also frequently entails emotional experiences of differing kinds: compunction, dread, reverence, wonderment, and awe. Starting with the Bible itself, this collection of seventeen essays explores the place of holy fear in Christian spirituality from the early church to the present and argues that this fear is paradoxically linked in various ways to fear's seeming opposite, love. Indeed, the charged dynamic of love and fear accounts for different experiences and expressions of Christian life in response to changing historical circumstances and events.The writings of the theologians, mystics, philosophers, saints, and artists studied here reveal the relationship between the fear and the love of God to be profoundly challenging and mysterious, its elements paradoxically conjoined in a creative tension with each other, but also tending to oscillate back-and-forth in the history of Christian spirituality as first one, then the other, comes to the fore, sometimes to correct a perceived imbalance, sometimes at the risk of losing its companion altogether. Given this historical pattern, clearly evident in these chronologically arranged essays, the palpable absence of a discourse of holy fear from the mainstream theological landscape should give us pause and invite us to consider if and how--under what aspect, in which contexts--a holy fear, inseparable from love, might be regained or discovered anew within Christian spirituality as a remedy both for a crippling anxiety and for a presumptive recklessness. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Christian spirituality, theology, biblical studies, religious studies, and religion and literature.

Fear of God --- Fear --- Christianity. --- Religious aspects