The Temple Gallery in London has more than 200 items of Eastern Orthodox religious art, principally icons, on its website, both from the
current exhibit as well as
older pieces. Icons have been a part of Orthodox Christianity for centuries and they are loaded with meaning. The theology is elaborated upon in
this essay on the history, principles and function of icons by iconographer Dr. George Kordis. One of the subjects of the essay is the
Byzantine iconoclasm, a central event of which was the Seventh Ecumenical Council,
depicted here in an icon. Here are some other icons I like:
The Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia,
St. Alypius the Stylite,
Synaxis of the Archangels,
Dormition of the Virgin and
Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
[Click on any image for a larger view]
posted by Kattullus
on May 10, 2009 -
9 comments
Interpreting Revelation's "Millenium." Outside of the all-too-virulent
rapture-crazy pre-tribulational dispensationalist premillenialism permeating JesusLand, some Christians hold to other, more nuanced eschatological alternatives. You've got
historic post-tribulational premillenialism, which places the transformation of the faithful at the final judgment rather than before it;
amillenialism, which regards Christ's "millenial" reign as a symbolic spiritual reign culminating in the last judgment; and
postmillenialism, which sees the millenium as a gradual progression towards goodness and light. Overlapping those, you have the "it's all been fulfilled"
preterists, and their prophecy-party-pooping compatriots, the
hyper-preterists. It's a debate just slightly more fun than
the end of the universe. Meanwhile, the
noncanonical apocalypses sit in a corner, sadly ignored, and
sunny Megiddo is still waiting for some end times
action.
posted by brownpau
on Feb 1, 2006 -
76 comments
"How do we nurture the healing side of religion over the killing side? How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state? OVER THE PAST few years, as the poor got poorer, the health care crisis worsened, wealth and media became more and more concentrated, and our political system was bought out from under us, prophetic Christianity lost its voice. The Religious Right drowned everyone else out. And they hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, 'The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.' The very Jesus who told 5,000 hungry people that all of you will be fed, not just some of you. The very Jesus who challenged the religious orthodoxy of the day by feeding the hungry on the Sabbath, who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast, who raised the status of women and treated even the tax collector like a child of God. The very Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple. This Jesus has been hijacked and turned into a guardian of privilege instead of a champion of the dispossessed. Hijacked, he was made over into a militarist, hedonist, and lobbyist, sent prowling the halls of Congress in Guccis, seeking tax breaks and loopholes for the powerful, costly new weapon systems that don't work, and punitive public policies."
Bill Moyers on democracy excruciate.
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Jul 15, 2004 -
91 comments
"Jesus?" he murmured, "Jesus -- of Nazareth?..." Pontius Pilate,
prefect of
Judea, is
the only historical figure named in the
Nicene Creed -- Coptic
saint or
eternally damned, his role in the
greatest story ever told has been debated by many of history's greatest minds:
St Augustine,
Dante Alighieri,
Tintoretto,
John Ruskin,
Mikhail Bulgakov,
Monty Python. Unfortunately,
there is very little historical evidence about him. His role in the
death of a
certain charismatic
Galilean healer and
apocalyptic preacher
is still being debated today by
theologians and historians
alike. He is also, of course, the main character of
The Procurator of
Judea, the classic short story (complete text in main link) by
Anatole France. (France's magnificent story has lately been tragically neglected by publishers, even if the author was one of his era's most acclaimed writers in the world -- he won the Nobel Prize in 1921 over Shaw, Yeats, Joyce, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, and Proust, and when he died in 1924,
hundreds of thousands of people followed his funeral procession through Paris). These last 2,000 years of fascination with
Pilatus can be explained, some argue...
(more inside, for those unwilling to wash their hands of this post)
posted by matteo
on Jun 24, 2004 -
37 comments
