You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The long nineteenth century (c.1780–c.1920) in Western Europe saw an unprecedented rise in the production and possession of material goods. The material culture diversified and led to a rich variety of expressions. Dovetailing with a process of confessionalisation that manifested itself quite simultaneously, material religion witnessed its heyday in this period; from church buildings to small devotional objects. The present volume analyses how various types of reform (state, societal, and ecclesiastical) that were part of the process of modernisation affected the material devotional culture within Protestantism, Anglicanism, and Roman Catholicism. Although the contributions in this book st...
Presents the Order's figureheads, practical life and spiritual horizon, and its contribution to medieval Europe's religious, cultural and political climate.
Chinese people have been instrumental in indigenizing Christianity. Sinizing Christianity examines Christianity's transplantation to and transformation in China by focusing on three key elements: Chinese agents of introduction; Chinese redefinition of Christianity for the local context; and Chinese institutions and practices that emerged and enabled indigenisation. As a matter of fact, Christianity is not an exception, but just one of many foreign ideas and religions, which China has absorbed since the formation of the Middle Kingdom, Buddhism and Islam are great examples. Few scholars of China have analysed and synthesised the process to determine whether there is a pattern to the ways in which Chinese people have redefined foreign imports for local use and what insight Christianity has to offer. Contributors are: Robert Entenmann, Christopher Sneller, Yuqin Huang, Wai Luen Kwok, Thomas Harvey, Monica Romano, Thomas Coomans, Chris White, Dennis Ng, Ruiwen Chen and Richard Madsen.
Sacred architecture as reality and metaphor in secularised Western society Christian monasteries and convents, built throughout Europe for the best part of 1,500 years, are now at a crossroads. This study attempts to understand the sacred architecture of monasteries as a process of the tangible and symbolic organisation of space and time for religious communities. Despite the weight of seemingly immutable monastic tradition, architecture has contributed to developing specific religious identities and played a fundamental part in the reformation of different forms of religious life according to the changing needs of society. The cloister is the focal point of this book because it is both architecture, a physically built reality, and a metaphor for the religious life that takes place within it. Life Inside the Cloister also addresses the afterlife and heritagisation of monastic architecture in secularised Western society.
This book traces the origins of the Chinese Sisters of the Precious Blood in Hong Kong and their history up to the early 1970s, and contributes to the neglected area of Chinese Catholic women in the history of the Chinese Catholic Church. It studies the growth of an indigenous community of Chinese sisters, who acquired a formal status in the local and universal Catholic Church, and the challenge of identifying Chinese Catholic women in studies dealing with the Chinese Church in the first half of the twentieth century, as these women remained "faceless" and "nameless" in contrast to their Catholic male counterparts of the period. Emphasizing the intertwining histories of the Hong Kong Church, the churches in China, and the Roman Catholic Church, it demonstrates how the history of the Precious Blood Congregation throws light on the formation and development of indigenous groups of sisters in contemporary China.
Contains essays that investigate how the cultures of the town and the countryside interact in architecture.
11 Post- tradition in Japanese culture -- Heritage -- 12 Industrial architecture -- 13 Landscape architecture -- 14 Middle- class housing -- Memory -- 15 Cultural institutions -- 16 Architectural photography -- Conservation -- 17 Laws and regulations -- 18 Technology -- Economy -- 19 Economic analysis -- Index of places -- Index of names
In Devotional Portraiture and Spiritual Experience Ingrid Falque analyses the meditative functions of early Netherlandish paintings including devotional portraits, that is portraits of people kneeling in prayer. Such paintings have been mainly studied in the context of commemorative and social practices, but as Ingrid Falque shows, they also served as devotional instruments. By drawing parallels between the visual strategies of these paintings and texts of the major spiritual writers of the medieval Low Countries, she demonstrates that paintings with devotional portraits functioned as a visualisation of the spiritual process of the sitters. The book is accompanied by the first exhaustive catalogue of paintings with devotional portraits produced in the Low Countries between c. 1400 and 1550. This catalogue is available at no costs in e-format (HERE) and can also be purchased as a printed hardcover book (HERE).
This abundantly illustrated book is an illuminating exploration of the impact of medieval imagery on three hundred years of visual culture. From the soaring castles of Sleeping Beauty to the bloody battles of Game of Thrones, from Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings to mythical beasts in Dungeons & Dragons, and from Medieval Times to the Renaissance Faire, the Middle Ages have inspired artists, playwrights, filmmakers, gamers, and writers for centuries. Indeed, no other historical era has captured the imaginations of so many creators. This volume aims to uncover the many reasons why the Middle Ages have proven so flexible—and applicable—to a variety of modern moments from the eighteent...
Religious heritage and sacred sites offer an opportunity for visitors to explore a community's cultural knowledge. However, it is important to consider the role of interpretation, meaning, experience and narrative. This book is a timely re-assessment of the increasing interconnections between the management of diversity and religious tourism, and secular spaces on a global stage. It explores key learning points from a range of contemporary case studies on religious and pilgrimage activity; these relate to ancient, sacred and emerging tourist destinations, and new forms of pilgrimage, faith systems and quasi-religious activities. By providing a conceptual framework, the book demonstrates the symbolism of sacred spaces within religious traditions and the relationships developed between them. It offers explanations on how to manage and communicate religious diversity and provides a solid overview of: Religious tourism as a tool for intercultural dialogue; Interpretation of religious heritage for tourism; Cross-cultural contacts. This book will provide a valuable resource for those researching and practising tourism management, pilgrimage and religious tourism.