The Role of Personality In Moving Encounters with Sacred Art

Convergences: Canon and Catholicity

The aim of this study is to review the multi-volume scientific publications and monographs (single and collective) from 1993-2021 that examine the sacred art of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukrainian territories. The methodology and specifics of the main works are clarified, and problematic issues and difficulties encountered by researchers during their work are identified. Methodology. The study employs an integrated approach that utilises scientific analysis methods such as systematisation and generalisation. It also combines historical, cultural, art historical, and theological methods. This approach is appropriate, considering the liturgical purpose of sacred art and the requirements set by the Catholic Church based on the Holy Scriptures. Research results. A review of scientific works in multi-volume publications, as well as individual monographs, suggests that the sacred art of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Ukraine was formed over many centuries. Researchers have studied over 500 shrines and tens of thousands of liturgical items of significant historical, cultural, and artistic value. Renowned scholars, including Jan K. Ostrowski, A. Betlej, T. Zaucha, K. Brzezina, P. Krasny, R. Quirini-Poplawski, J. Petrus, S. Lenartowicz, M. Biernat, M. Walczak, J. Skrabski, M. Kurzej, R. Nesteruw, T. Kukiz, and others (Polish edition), M. Buchek, I. Sedelnyk (Polish, Ukrainian edition), D. Antoniuk (Ukrainian edition), and others, conducted a comprehensive study, inventory, and attribution of these monuments. Scientific novelty. The obtained results highlight the challenges of studying sacred art monuments in Ukraine during the specified period. The specifics and methodology used by Ukrainian and foreign scholars in scientific research are identified through multi-volume scientific publications and monographs (individual and collective). Recommendations. Further historical, cultural, and art historical research is required to complement previous publications and enhance our understanding of the specifics of sacred art, particularly painting. This research will also reveal the methodology and technology used in creating these monuments. It is crucial to preserve these sacred monuments from destruction, especially during the period of military invasion by the Russian Federation since 24 February 2022

The aim of this study is to review the multi-volume scientific publications and monographs (single and collective) from 1993-2021 that examine the sacred art of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukrainian territories. The methodology and specifics of the main works are clarified, and problematic issues and difficulties encountered by researchers during their work are identified. Methodology. The study employs an integrated approach that utilises scientific analysis methods such as systematisation and generalisation. It also combines historical, cultural, art historical, and theological methods. This approach is appropriate, considering the liturgical purpose of sacred art and the requirements set by the Catholic Church based on the Holy Scriptures. Research results. A review of scientific works in multi-volume publications, as well as individual monographs, suggests that the sacred art of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Ukraine was formed over many centuries. Researchers have studied over 500 shrines and tens of thousands of liturgical items of significant historical, cultural, and artistic value. Renowned scholars, including Jan K. Ostrowski, A. Betlej, T. Zaucha, K. Brzezina, P. Krasny, R. Quirini-Poplawski, J. Petrus, S. Lenartowicz, M. Biernat, M. Walczak, J. Skrabski, M. Kurzej, R. Nesteruw, T. Kukiz, and others (Polish edition), M. Buchek, I. Sedelnyk (Polish, Ukrainian edition), D. Antoniuk (Ukrainian edition), and others, conducted a comprehensive study, inventory, and attribution of these monuments. Scientific novelty. The obtained results highlight the challenges of studying sacred art monuments in Ukraine during the specified period. The specifics and methodology used by Ukrainian and foreign scholars in scientific research are identified through multi-volume scientific publications and monographs (individual and collective). Recommendations. Further historical, cultural, and art historical research is required to complement previous publications and enhance our understanding of the specifics of sacred art, particularly painting. This research will also reveal the methodology and technology used in creating these monuments. It is crucial to preserve these sacred monuments from destruction, especially during the period of military invasion by the Russian Federation since 24 February 2022.

Sacred places and tourism in the Roman Catholic tradition

The Roman Catholic tradition in sexual ethics and sexual understanding has had a long history and a great influence on people and attitudes both within and outside the Roman Catholic Church down to the present day. However, at the present time the Catholic tradition and teaching are being questioned by many Catholics themselves.KeywordsHuman SexualityCatholic Social TeachingSexual EthicCatholic TraditionCatholic TeachingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This artistic research project delves into the role of organ music in the Dutch Protestant liturgy. It studies the added value of organ music in church services by looking at one specific manifestation of liturgy in which organ music has a prominent role: organ vespers. An organ vespers is a brief Christian service of prayer with a prominent role for organ music. This research provides historical and practical context to organ vespers by relating it to Jewish, Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions of Evening Prayer, and to how Dietrich Buxtehude entertained local businessmen in his series of Abendmusiken. It discusses relevant literature and the guidelines of the Dutch Protestant Service Book on prayers and music. Three practices of organ vespers in the Netherlands are compared. Two outcomes are presented. First, this research presents the order of service for four organ vespers in the Goede Herderkerk in Rotterdam. Second, it describes the results of a questionnaire held amongst the visitors of those vespers. In total 82 questionnaires were filled in by those attending at least one of the vespers. Based on the results, this study argues that organ music in a liturgical context has the exquisite quality of engaging and interacting with listeners and participants in the liturgy. Furthermore, it illustrates how the age-old role of organ music in liturgy continues to be of great value in both musical as well as religious context.

Working from a peace studies perspective, this article develops a normative framing of climate justice, which subsequently points to duties to prevent and mitigate both socio-economic and ecological inequalities arising from anthropogenic climate change. This climate justice lens is then employed to survey select responses to climate change from within the Roman Catholic tradition – viz., brief references to some of the intellectual and practical initiatives of the laity and religious brothers and sisters, as well as Catholic Social Teaching on green issues, and the support of and resistance to these initiatives from within the tradition. Building on the tensions and promises brought into focus by this analysis, we end with a discussion of the promise of an emerging integrated Catholic methodology of responsible action to effectively respond to multi-layered social injustice and ecological degradation resulting from anthropogenic climate change.

Maryam bint 'Imran as "Our Lady of Muslims" Christopher Evan Longhurst Mary, Maryam, Our Lady, Mary in the Qur'an, Marian devotion Ample comparative analysis about Mary, the mother of Jesus, and her place in Christianity and Islam has already emerged in Muslim-Christian dialogue. This essay explores how appropriate it might be to refer to Mary in Islam as "Our Lady" and to use the expression "Our Lady of Muslims." It also inquires into the advantageous common use that this title may have among Muslims and Christians for interreligious dialogue. The appellation "Our Lady" is typically an honorific title addressed to Mary by Roman Catholics and high Anglicans. The idea that Muslims would refer to Mary as their lady, too, or that the expression "Our Lady of Muslims" would be used by either Muslims or non-Muslims may sound strange at first hearing, probably due to its strong association with Roman Catholic and high Anglican devotion. Its strangeness may even be strengthened by presumptions that "Our Lady" does not exist in Islam or that using such an expression would exploit commonalities between Islam and Anglo-Roman Catholicism. Furthermore, to speak of Mary in Islam as "Our Lady" may even be seen to confuse historical and religious identities by betraying the meaning of "Our Lady" in Catholic and Anglican traditions and distorting the significance of Maryam bint 'Imran for Muslims. All this might only add to the revulsion of religious syncretism perceived by zealous believers in each religion. However, the Arabic term "sayyidah," equivalent to the English word "lady," is already popularly ascribed to Mary by both Catholic and Muslim voices. For example, in 1952, Catholic Archbishop Fulton Sheen stated, "Mary is for the Muslims the true Sayyidah, or Lady." 1 In his book La Madonna dei musulmani (Our Lady of Muslims), Gino Ragozzino, former Professor of the history of religion at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in [End Page 465] Naples, explored what Muslims thought of Jesus' mother, concluding that Mary was not only "la Madonna" (The Lady) but also their Madonna, a woman whom he called "Sittina Maryam" (Lady Mary). 2 From within Islam, Najeeba Syeed-Miller, professor of interreligious education at Claremont School of Theology, called Mary "sayyidah," 3 and at the madrasa Al-Hidaya, Mary is spoken of as "Sayyidah Maryam." 4 There are, in fact, many stories in Islam that talk about "Sayyidah Maryam," so it might not be news to some readers that Muslims attribute the title "Sayyidah" (Lady) to her or call her "Sayyidah Maryam" (Lady Mary). 5 In Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions, the title "Our Lady" typically associates Mary with a particular place, such as Fatima, Lourdes, or Walsingham, or with spiritual values such as good counsel, perpetual help, sorrow, and equity, or even with some object such as the snow, a pillar, a pew, or even hens. Despite these peculiar associations, it seems sensible to believe that, based on Catholic teaching on Mary's universal value, no Catholic would object to sharing this title with Muslims. Conversely, according to Islamic teaching from the Qur'ān, it would seem that no Muslim would object to honoring Mary with a respectful title. Mary's universal value is often associated with a kind of maternal spiritual quality, as if she were a spiritual mother or sister for Muslims. This assertion is made based on the fact that devout Muslims call each other "brothers" and "sisters" in Allah's Ummah (see Q. 49:10); 6 therefore, Mary would be symbolically "sister" to all Muslims, also understood in the sense that the mu'hsin are spiritual children [End Page 466] of Allah. Similarly, if Jesus were the brother of all Christians and Muslims, then Mary's maternal qualities toward him could be extended to all Christians and Muslims as well. Already in Roman Catholicism Mary has been referred to as spiritual mother of all peoples. For example, in the encyclical Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II stated that Mary was "for all people their 'mother in the order of grace,'" 7 that her motherhood was humanity's "inheritance," 8 and that "[h]er exceptional pilgrimage of faith represents a constant point of reference . . . for all humanity...

Black Catholicism

This study, based upon empirical phenomenological research, explores an essential phenomenon of human existence: the interpermeating communion of self and world. In interpermeation, the supposed separation of self and world is transcended. The being, energy, life, and meaning of the world "flow into" one's self and become integrated as part of who one is; simultaneously, one's being, consciousness, awareness, and self "flow into" the world (via perception and action) and become part of the world. Conscious of interpermeation, we tend to understand ourselves and reality differently, and to be more aware and compassionate with others and the natural world: awareness of interpermeation generates love as love generates awareness of interpermeation. A hermeneutic dialogue is offered between existential phenomenology, transpersonal psychology, and the world's spiritual traditions.

Author’s IntroductionReligious conversations – both scholarly and popular – routinely employ the term ‘spirituality,’ a term whose ubiquity is matched only by its obscurity. ‘Spirituality’ is seldom, if ever, defined. Most people seemingly appeal to commonsense when they speak of ‘spirituality’ as ostensibly referring to something immaterial and by a certain extension non-natural. The spiritual is supposed to transcend the historical. For those working in Religious Studies, such a position ought to be, and finally is beginning to be, looked upon with suspicion because the (substance) dualism informing commonsense definitions of spirituality is no longer viable. As such, the commonsense definition of ‘spirituality’ is untenable for scholarly purposes. We need a new definition of ‘spirituality,’ and this new definition demands a new approach. To be sure, contemporary academic consilience counsels methodological naturalism. Religious Studies rightly abides such academic consilience. Eschewing all appeals to the supernatural, a natural definition of spirituality suggests that it is existential self-esteem. Although there may be multiple manifestations of self-esteem, spirituality is a misrecognized form of self-esteem as the ‘sociometer.’ Existential self-esteem mitigates interpersonal death anxiety. There are two types of ‘spirituality,’ the non-natural and the natural. Non-natural spirituality pursues ‘literal’ immortality; natural spirituality pursues ‘symbolic’ immortality. Methodological naturalism disallows the former and at least countenances the latter. This guide outlines an approach to teaching about and ultimately defining spirituality as a wholly natural phenomenon.

Ancient From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church. By Francis A. Sullivan, SJ. (New York and Mahwali, New Jersey: The Newman Press. 2001. Pp. xi, 253. $28.95.) Father Sullivan's confessional allegiances are not unimportant in this book and neither, therefore, should mine be. I am an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia (a union church of Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches formed in 1977); half my teachers during my foundational theological training in Melbourne in the late 1970's were Jesuits; I am Principal of the Uniting Church theological college in Brisbane, which is itself part of a highly integrated ecumenical consortium (the Brisbane College of Theology: Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Uniting), and with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane (John Bathersby) I am Co-Chair of a National Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Uniting Churches. The basic question which Father Sullivan explores in this very well written book is whether the historic episcopate, particularly as understood by the Anglican, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic traditions, is of divine institution, an issue he properly describes as truly church splitting. In his own words,[t]he question that divides Catholics and Protestants is not whether, or how rapidly, the development from the local leadership of a college of presbyters to that of a single bishop took place, but whether the result of that development is rightly judged an element of the divinely willed structure of the church(p.viii). He acknowledges that none of the Apostles could be described as in the historic sense, that until the early part of the second century no single bishop presided over any Christian community, and that even then, apart from inAntioch and the Roman province of Asia, probably nowhere did they do so until the middle of that century. By the end of the century, however, and this would be agreed across confessional divides, in a development which can only be described as rapid, the structure of single bishop-presbyters-deacons had become the norm everywhere. This fact leads to a number of observations: first, that the traditional Roman Catholic claim that there is, as an integral part of the structure of the Church, an apostolic succession represented by an unbroken line of episcopal ordination from Christ through the apostles down through the centuries to the bishops of today1 is unsustainable as our author himself acknowledges; and second, that while the historical record alone will not support such a claim, the rapid emergence of the threefold ordering of the Church as normative does require, at the very least, the exploration of potential theological arguments arising out of that record. …

In Altar of the Dead Henry James examines the nature of both sacred art and the artist who creates it. His aesthetic gentleman, George Stransom, visualizes internal images, imagines types and frames, arranges objects, expects interpretation of his work (a lighted altar), and yearns for immortality like any other maker. However, because generating sacred art requires beatitude the creator, Stransom's intolerance, pride, and need objectify people hinder its completion. Only the descent of charity and Stransom's forgiveness of his enemy, Acton Hague, allow for compositional harmony and the artwork's final execution. Set a Catholic church, the altar even comes embody the three Scholastic requirements for beauty: integrity, proportion, and radiance. Some critics have denied value this tale, deploring what they believe be its sentimentality and perverted of love. Others have been positive but found the story only psychological significance. In contrast, I believe that Altar of the Dead depicts a true understanding of caritas, displays irony regarding its epiphanies, and reflects on theological as well as psychological truths. Redemption does not occur without cost: Stransom's charity could not have blossomed without the sometimes troubling influence of eros; Stransom and Hague could not have achieved their apotheoses without the aid (and suffering) of an unnamed woman. Grace may redeem individuals, but it does not obviate past selfishness. James always balances sublimity with a clear-headed awareness of the mixed motives and conflicted emotions with which it interweaves. George Stransom, an older man of affairs, habitually lights mental candles for his dead, a habit designed respect their memories and maintain a tie with the living. Visiting a suburban London church, he conceives the idea of externalizing his the form of a side altar. The table, soon ablaze with attracts the devotion of a middle-aged woman. Over time Stransom becomes intimate with this unnamed woman and discovers, his shock, that she has been mourning her lover Acton Hague, a former best friend excluded from Stransom's dead because of an ancient betrayal. This revelation suspends intimacy between Stransom and the woman as the man, unforgiving, finds himself unable light a candle for Hague. At length, haunted, sick, and dying, Stransom visits the church and beholds the of his long-deceased fiancee, Mary Antrim, within its lights. Infused with her generous spirit, Stransom forgives Hague and finds that he can mentally insert the last candle his altar needs for symmetry. Desperate pass on this revelation, Stransom turns and finds the woman, who, inexplicably, has discovered that she can forgive his cold-heartedness and return honor his dead. Evidently thinking of Hague, Stransom exclaims that there is room for just more, but the shocked woman demurs because her eyes the one more is Stransom himself, whose face [now] had the whiteness of death. (1) Though not an artist by vocation, Stransom is what Krishna Baldev Vaid describes as a man of vision (218). At the tale's outset his life, which had been fill[ed] the brim by the presence of Mary Antrim, has been emptied by her death (450). Turning away from the pain of the actual, Stransom, the manner of an expressionist artist, fills his internal canvas with images. These images do not originate the material world. At Mary's grave site, for example, he does not actually see the grave; rather, his eyes open to another light, a realm where the deceased may be condensed a simplified[,] intensified essence (451). Rearing an altar in his spiritual spaces, Stransom creates a harbinger of the artwork, a conjuring that escapes mere subjective fancy through its unconscious connection archetypes. Confronted with a lighted altar, Stransom perceives how, if occasions like this had been frequent his life[,] he would have been frequently conscious of the great original type, set up a myriad temples, of the unapproachable shrine he had erected his mind (457). …

The Serpent and the Lamb: Cranach, Luther and the Making of the Reformation, by Steven Ozment. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2011. x, 325 pp. $35.00 US (cloth). The title of this engaging and delightful book comes from the copyright symbols for two of the monumental characters of the Reformation living in Wittenberg, Germany. Lucas Cranach the Elder was given the symbol of a serpent with bat wings by the elector of Saxony after he was hired as the court artist, while the lamb was one of the logos for Martin Luther, the controversial reformer and thorn in the side of the Roman Catholic church of his day. Ozment weaves a crisp and fetching narrative of the role Cranach played as the main propagandist for Luther's reformation, but his focus is definitely on the artist rather than the theologian. In doing so, the author provides a fascinating glimpse into the of medieval Wittenberg, electoral Saxony, and the ever-changing development of the artist within this context. He touches upon Cranach's personal life, his complex relationship with Roman Catholic and Lutheran patrons, and his connection with another famous artist and craftsman of the time, Albrecht Durer. Two themes develop within the pages of this book. First, Ozment explores Cranach's important role as the propagandist for the Lutheran reformation. Cranach portrays Luther's main theological themes in concrete graphic ways through his art. When combined with his involvement in the publishing business, Cranach disseminated Luther's teachings and reforms in ways that reform-minded individuals of earlier generations would never have imagined. Yet at the same time, he also painted for many Roman Catholic patrons. Cranach was above all pragmatic. At the same time, Ozment argues that the differences between Cranach and Durer reflect the differences between the Reformation and the Renaissance, respectively. The idealized human form portrayed by Durer, common to both the Roman Catholic and Renaissance traditions, are replaced with the transient moments of everyday life (p. 56), so ably portrayed by Cranach. One of the things that helped unite Cranach and Luther in a life-long partnership was how both responded to the threats posed by other, more radical reformers who wanted to get rid of all artwork and images in the churches, insisting that they were idols. For Cranach, such actions would take away a major source of income, since churches were important patrons of the arts. Luther, for his part, felt that such artwork could aid Christian piety, and that it was actually the suppressing of such artwork that turned this decorative art into the very ungodly idols the radical reformers were trying to protect against. As Ozment notes, an imageless faith was impossible (p. 134). When Cranach realized that Luther was not interested in clearing all the artwork from churches, the working relationship between them was cemented. …

Jewish spirituality and religion include dynamics that are different from other traditions and have important implications for relational forms of spirituality. Certain approaches to relational Judaism (e.g. Mussar) have offered insights for understanding the folk psychology of relational spirituality in Jewish contexts but have not generated empirical research. Existing research in the psychology of Jewish religion and spirituality draws on several theoretical frameworks and has generated helpful findings. In this synthetic review, we foreground the role of theory in psychological research and offer a brief review of several theoretical frameworks used in research on the psychology of Jewish religion and spirituality (cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, cultural psychology of religion, and positive psychology). The relational spirituality model (RSM) is summarized as a conceptual framework that could be useful for future research in this area. We use the RSM as a heuristic organizing framework to review several lines of prior empirical research on the psychology of Jewish religion and spirituality that fit within the RSM domains of spiritual dwelling, seeking, and struggles. The final section outlines future directions in research in this area based on the RSM, with particular attention to dimensions of diversity (e.g. gender, sexual orientation), diverse contexts of Jewish spirituality, Jewish spirituality in relation to both mental health suffering and flourishing, and historical trauma. We also highlight the need for research on Jewish spiritual development in communal settings (e.g. congregations, seminaries) to provide a deeper understanding at both individual and communal levels, and interdisciplinary integration with Jewish theology.