Representation Of God Research Articles

DEWI IZANAMI DAN DEWA IZANAGI DALAM AGAMA SHINTO JEPANG (STUDI SEMIOTIK DALAM FILM NORAGAMI ARAGOTO)

This study examines the mythology of Izanami Goddess and Izanagi God in Japanese Shinto religion and representations of Izanami Goddess and Izanagi God in the film Noragami Aragoto Adachitoka’s creation directed by Kotaro Tamura. This study is important because the story of Izanami Goddess and Izanagi God has never been adopted in modern scientific literature even though it has been listed in several anime in Japan. The research data was collected through documentation on the Kojiki and Nihonsoki books as well as capturing scenes of Noragami Aragoto films. Then analyzed using Christian Metz's language cinematography theory and Rudolf Otto's sacred theory. The results showed that firstly, based on the phenomenological perspective and sacrity from Rudolf Otto, Izanami Goddess and Izanagi God in Japanese Shinto mythology were the ancestors of the Mother and Father of the Gods and divine beings and played an active role in the creation of islands in Japan along with its contents. Secondly, in the Noragami Aragoto film, the perspective of cinematographic language Christian Metz, Izanami Goddess and Izanagi God are represented as mysteries of Father and Mother of Ebisu God (Hiruko) and Yaboku God (Awashima or Aha) with backgrounds that are very different from each other.Key Words: mythology, Shinto, Izanami, Izanagi, cinematographic language, and sacred.

The concept “God” (case study: phraseological units in the English, Russian, Tatar and Turkish languages)

The concept is represented as a unity of perceptions, representations, and assessments existing in the communal and individual linguistic consciousness and can be expressed at all language levels, characterizing English, Russian, Tatar and Turkish linguocultures and revealing unique and universal features. The sphere of concepts of each national culture has a number of its unique and distinctive features, expressed in the representation of God. In English, Russian, Tatar, Turkish linguocultures some of the described features can be considered as a part of a conceptual component, but in some cases, they are completely absent. On the periphery, there is a visual image of God, which proves the fact that concepts of God in the researching cultures are in some way different. The phraseological unit scope of the concept “God” contains the conceptual “soul”, “fate”, “goodness”, “light” which serve to fully understand and reveal the semantic structure of the concept being studied.

Representations of Women and Divinity in Medieval Tamil Literature

In this article, the author proposes a feminist reading of medieval South Asian literature that aims to dismantle a long held split-image view of Hindu "femininity." With this reading, Comeau also presents stylized poetry as a viable historical source for the study of womanhood in South Asia. She analyzes excerpts from the ninth-century devotional text, Tirukkōvaiyār, to address one intersection of religiosity and portrayals of women in the Tamil literary corpus. In addition to decentering the central character of the heroine, the author develops an inclusive feminist reading strategy that takes account of supporting female characters, such as servants, messengers, and kin. The essay aims to disband the accepted, though disturbing and monolithic category of "the good Tamil woman." In its place, Comeau offers an opportunity to acknowledge and promote the relative diversity of roles played by female characters in fictional verses.

Feminist Christology: A New Iconoclasm?

Feminist Christology: A New Iconoclasm? Sara Butler, M.S.B.T. IN ITS SOME OF ITS best-known expressions, feminist Christology1 is a contemporary version of iconoclasm.2 Several leading Catholic feminist theologians, in fact, explicitly claim their identity as “iconoclasts” (“image-breakers”) in their critique of Christian doctrine. They embark on a program of deconstruction and revision of Christian symbols because they believe that exclusively male representations of God and of Christ function as “idols” that legitimate male superiority over women.3 They object to the iconic argument for reserving priestly [End Page 493] ordination to men—namely, that it is fitting that a priest be male in order to represent Christ vis-a-vis the Church—by questioning the theological significance of Christ’s own maleness. Some conclude that granting this not only amounts to idolatry but also suggests that women are excluded from salvation.4 The idea that granting theological significance to Christ’s maleness constitutes idolatry is not entirely without precedent. There was a dispute over how to reconcile belief in Christ’s universal human nature with the significance of his concrete humanity, with its male character, during the iconoclastic controversy in the eighth and ninth centuries (726–843) in the Christian East.5 The iconoclastic controversy had to do with inanimate icons of Christ, images on wooden panels, and the legitimacy not only of venerating them but even of “writing” them at all. For iconoclasts, an icon of Christ either excludes his divine nature or attempts to circumscribe it. They deny that Christ is circumscribed by the flesh and object that since he assumed “man in general,” or flesh without distinguishing features, he cannot be portrayed.6 The feminist Christologies I have in mind are concerned [End Page 494] with which persons may be regarded as “icons” of Christ—males only, or both males and females.7 For feminists as well as iconoclasts, Christ’s humanity must be inclusive, so the claim that only males can function as his “icons” in the priesthood excludes females—not only from his humanity but also from salvation. Both, then, deal with purported deficiencies in visible representations of Christ. These feminist and iconoclastic theologians both, in fact, raise questions about the reality, permanence, and character of the Incarnation.8 While iconoclasts were initially concerned only with the veneration of icons, the debate they initiated was eventually recognized as a Christological controversy.9 While feminist theologians were initially concerned chiefly with women’s access to the ministerial priesthood, their critique has also given rise to questionable Christological claims.10 Saint Theodore the Studite (756–829), the leading champion of icons during the second phase of the iconoclastic controversy, is one of the few Fathers of the Church who took up the question of Christ’s maleness.11 I hope to show that St. Theodore’s response to the iconoclasts of his day also meets the objections [End Page 495] posed by feminist Christology. His appeal to Christ’s birth from the Virgin Mary Theotókos, moreover, calls attention to the traditional way of claiming a role for women in the economy of salvation. I. Feminist Christology12 I will take Rosemary Radford Ruether, Anne E. Carr, and Elizabeth A. Johnson as representatives of the feminist Christology that took shape in response to the iconic argument proposed to elucidate why priestly ordination is reserved to men.13 As expressed in the 1976 Declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Inter insigniores,14 the iconic argument appeals to St. Thomas Aquinas’s teaching that sacramental signs “represent what they signify by natural resemblance.”15 The declaration (art. 5) explains: The same natural resemblance is required for persons as for things: when Christ’s role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this “natural resemblance” which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man: in such a case it would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ. For Christ himself was and remains a man.16 [End Page 496] Advocates of women’s ordination charge that this...

Julia Domna and her Divine Motherhood: A Re-examination of the Evidence from Imperial Coins

The aim of this paper is to examine chronologically the imperial types advertising the maternity of Julia Domna. Several coins issued during the first years of Septimius Severus' reign celebrated the procreative capacities of the Augusta by either portraying her together with Caracalla and Geta or connecting her to representations of deities with children. Later types, however, seem to shift focus to a more universal concept of maternity by comparing Domna to deities such as Cybele, Vesta and Luna. This phenomenon became particularly evident during the reign of Caracalla, when her influence in public affairs reached its apex.

Dea Segetia on Reverse of Coins of Empress Salonina

The Ancient Romans knew a deity named Segesta and Segetia. In Gallia there was a cult of dea Segeta. A link between them in the contemporary interpretations became the antonimniani of DEAE SEGETIAE type issues under Valerian and Gallienus for empress Salonina (258–260 AD). According to some researchers, the figure on its reverses is Segesta/Segetia, a deity worshipped in Rome itself. Others suggest that dea Segeta, originates from Gallia. The advocates of both these views notice, however, that the only certain representation of this deity – known by name in the monetary legend – is her image in the coin iconography. Dea Segetia represented on the coins as a syncretic figure which possessed broad competences, all the more so that it received a very comprehensive iconographic form. The article is an overview of various interpretations put on the contents of aurei and antoniniani of DEAE SEGETIAE type, emitted for Salonina Augusta, the wife of the Roman Emperor Gallienus (253–268). Except for this case, the name of Segetia does not appear anywhere else in the imperial coinage while the image of the goddess on these coins combines several features more frequently found in the representations of other deities.

Theories of God: Explanatory coherence in religious cognition.

Representations of God in art, literature, and discourse range from the highly anthropomorphic to the highly abstract. The present study explored whether people who endorse anthropomorphic God concepts hold different religious beliefs and engage in different religious practices than those who endorse abstract concepts. Adults of various religious affiliations (n = 275) completed a questionnaire that probed their beliefs about God, angels, Satan, Heaven, Hell, cosmogenesis, anthropogenesis, human suffering, and human misdeeds, as well as their experiences regarding prayer, worship, and religious development. Responses to the questionnaire were analyzed by how strongly participants anthropomorphized God in a property-attribution task. Overall, the more participants anthropomorphized God, the more concretely they interpreted religious ideas, importing their understanding of human affairs into their understanding of divine affairs. These findings suggest not only that individuals vary greatly in how they interpret the same religious ideas but also that those interpretations cohere along a concrete-to-abstract dimension, anchored on the concrete side by our everyday notions of people.

Global Insecure Attachment Predicts Indicators of Caregiving Faith Development among Australianbased African Pentecostals in New South Wales

This article reports on the association between global attachment styles and aspects of caregiving faith development that involve representations of God as a symbolic attachment figure in a cross-sectional cohort of 261 African Pentecostals in New South Wales, Australia. In particular, the applicability of the correspondence and compensation hypotheses of the adult attachment theory was tested by conducting bivariate and multivariate analyses, controlling for covariates such as age, gender, education level, and relationship status. After adjusting for covariates, insecure-avoidant attachment in human relationship experiences remained a significant predictor of indicators of caregiving faith, which involved proximity to God, perceiving God as a safe haven and secure base, and seeing God as a response to separation anxiety, thus supporting the caregiving faith compensation model in the attachment-religion framework and the role of trait-based attachment processes in faith development. Additional support for the compensatory attachment model is seen in the moderation analysis results-accounting for about 57% of the variance in attachment-affiliation with God-which reveal that African Pentecostals who are not in a relationship (single) and are avoidantly attached showed a trend towards developing attachment-to-God caregiving faith, compared to those in a relationship (married) who had lower level of attachment to God. Several study implications are discussed.

God and Idols: Representations of God in 1 Corinthians 8–10

Is Paul’s advice in 1 Cor 8 and 10 coherent? Does he provide different answers to two different situations? These are among the questions discussed by Trent A. Rogers in a monograph originally presented as a doctoral dissertation at Loyola University, Chicago. Chapter 1 provides a survey of possible solutions to problem of the coherence of 1 Cor 8–10. Of the suggested solutions, Rogers finds most helpful the work of scholars who propose that Paul’s argument builds on different first-century responses of Jewish diaspora writers to Greco-Roman idolatry (e.g., Liong-Seng Phua). Thus, a “coherence of Paul’s argument in 1 Cor. 8–10 can be understood . . . by examining the different ways in which God is represented” (p. 27).Chapter 2 discusses the complexity of Jewish and Christian interaction with the omnipresent idolatry of the Greco-Roman world. Rogers notes the different perspectives of Joseph and Aseneth and of Artapanus. Joseph and Aseneth reflects a rigorous rejection of idolatry. Artapanus, on the other hand, commends Moses as the great lawgiver of Judaism, while also crediting him with the creation of Egyptian religion. These perspectives reflect divergent understandings of what constituted idol worship in the Jewish Diaspora.Chapters 3–5 survey how three traditions of the Jewish Diaspora encountered idolatry: the wisdom tradition (ch. 3), Philo of Alexandria (ch. 4), and Josephus (ch. 5). Each chapter follows the same format: (a) structure of the argument, (b) analysis of the argument, (c) representation of God, and, (d) understanding of false worship. Chapter 3 focuses on how Wis 13–15 expanded the prophetic critique of idols such as that found in Isa 44:9–20. Philo’s critique was different. It began with Scripture and then proceeded to show why idolatry is philosophically untenable. Josephus, in Contra Apion, attacked the character of Greco-Roman divinities, demonstrating that they are unworthy of worship.Chapter 6 uses the same format to focus on 1 Cor 8–10. Rogers asserts that Paul drew on a rich tradition of idol polemic, nuanced Christologically, in conjunction with rhetorical conventions. By this means, Paul established that Christians’ exclusive allegiance is to the God of Israel revealed in Christ. Paul’s complex argument refuted the view of the “strong” who assert that Christians cannot be threatened by idols (8:1, 4). Paul points to both Israel’s history and God’s nature (10:1–22) to demonstrate the “strong’s” error. Participation in temple ceremonies, including banqueting, is prohibited, since that contradicts the exclusive character God’s call exemplified in the Lord’s Supper. On the other hand, Paul is more flexible on the eating of meat in private settings. Nevertheless, the law of love is to be the guiding factor. Paul employs his own example to demonstrate the validity of abandoning personal prerogatives for the sake of others (1 Cor 8:13–9:27).Rogers has provided a helpful resource for our understanding of Paul’s argument in 1 Cor 8–10. Paul’s argument is complex, employing rhetorical tools, Diaspora Jewish apologetic, and a Christological lens to make his case. The ubiquitous nature of polytheistic practice certainly tempted the “strong” to compromise with their society. On the other hand, Rogers’s case could be strengthened by additional attention to the pressures on Gentile Christian converts to conform to polytheistic practices as citizens of the city and empire, especially in the Roman colony of Corinth. Despite this caveat, Rogers has provided a helpful perspective for understanding 1 Cor 8–10.

Seeing Shiva, Seeing Ram: Visual representations of deities in the genre of mythology-inspired fiction, an analysis of the book covers of Amish Tripathi’s novels

ABSTRACT This article examines the manner in which Lord Shiva and Sri Ram are represented visually on the book covers of Amish Tripathi’s commercially successful Indian mythology-inspired novels. Through its focus on the ‘Shiva Trilogy’ book covers and the first novel in the ‘Ram Chandra’ series, I argue that despite the presence of the deity on each cover, the opportunity for darśan to be performed is prevented from taking place. The article makes a connection between this non-performance of darśan and the genre of mythology-inspired fiction, arguing that the latter is itself a textual portrayal of the former in that both the visual (of the book cover design) and the narrative content (of the mythology-inspired fiction) connect to and yet break from cultural and aesthetic traditions. The article considers in conclusion how such new modes of portraying deities talk to (and of) visuality and Indianness within the post-millennial Indian moment.

Double Vision: Epiphanies of the Dioscuri in Classical Antiquity

Abstract:The Dioscuri – Castor and Pollux – are among the most epiphanic of gods, frequently appearing in battle or to sailors struggling at sea. On Chios, a festival called the Theophania was founded in the third century BC to commemorate an epiphany of the twin gods. Indeed, their appearance at the Sicilian battle of the River Sagra c. 540 BC was so well known in Greek – and Roman – culture that it was invoked as a proverbial example of epiphanic manifestation in Cicero’s De natura deorum (2.1.13); as such, it was the model for several Graeco-Roman battle epiphanies featuring the Dioscuri and their horses, from Postumius’ victory at Lake Regillus in 496 BC to Constantine’s at the Milvian Bridge in AD 312. The numerous battle epiphanies of antiquity have been gathered and assessed by previous scholars (Pfister 1924 and Pritchett 1979). This article posits a new approach to the material, arguing that, because of their fame and ubiquity, epiphanies of the Dioscuri provided a model through which to explore both the validity and visual authority of divine manifestation. The conjuring of divine presence through the physical semeia of the gods is also an important element of the portrayal of the Dioscuri in image form. Representations of these epiphanic gods cover a spectrum of iconicity, ranging from highly anthropomorphized ‘re-enactments’ of their epiphanies (such as the sculptures set up in the Roman forum to commemorate the Lake Regillus victory) to metonymic denotations of their presence in the form of their polos hats, and sub-iconic depictions of twin stars. This combination of corporeal and cosmic semeia provides a sophisticated commentary upon the cognitive dilemmas raised by epiphany: what kind of bodies do the gods have, how do they reveal these forms to mortals, and how are we to recognize and identify them? As deities defined by dualism – mortals and immortals, gods and heroes, men and stars – the Dioscuri provide a particularly potent model for exploring such issues, for both ancient thinkers and modern scholars of epiphany.

Mind perception of God in Japanese children.

There is a theoretical debate regarding whether children represent God with reference to a human. Most previous studies have assessed this issue focusing on knowledge/omniscience in western children. This study used a theoretical framework characterising mental capacities in terms of motivational/emotional (experience) and cognitive (agency) mental capacities and tested whether Japanese children discriminated between God, a human, a baby and an invisible agent according to these capacities. Three- to 6-year-old children were asked about the experience and agency of the agents. The results revealed that children discriminated God from a human in terms of mental capacities including experience and agency in 3-year-old children. On the other hand, 4- to 6-year-old children, but not 3-year-old children, discriminated a human from a baby and an invisible person. The results suggest that the Japanese children's representations of God differed from their representation of a human during preschool years.

Inscribed and sculptured stones seen at the Roman fort of Auchendavy on the Antonine Wall in 1825

In September 1825 two Roman inscribed and sculptured stones were recorded at Auchendavy fort on the Antonine Wall in Central Scotland by the Revd John Skinner, an Anglican clergyman, in the course of a walk along the Roman frontier between Forth and Clyde. The publication in 2003 of Skinner's journal of his walk, illustrated with his own watercolour sketches, has allowed a better understanding of both stones, which are long since lost. One may be a dedication by soldiers in garrison at Auchendavy to a group of Roman deities, and the other a representation of a local Romano-Celtic god.

ETIKA SAINS DALAM PERSPEKTIF SPIRITUALITAS ISLAM

This paper aims to explore the idea of the importance science ethics in the Islamic spirituality perspectives. This study used library research to determine the ethical dimension of Islamic science which is more concerned with the benefit of the people rather than the negative impact of the development of science and technology. By using the view of Islamic spirituality, the development of modern science should be guided by ethics and morals that represent esoteric wisdom as the heart of religion.This study shows that the ethics of science in the view of Islamic spirituality always emphasizes the dimensions of wisdom as reflected in the use of science without neglecting the most basic human values. The ethics of science contained in Islamic spirituality is a reflection of the esoteric dimension that encourages its people to be more sensitive to the future of nature which becomes the most beautiful representation of God's face. The ethical-esoteric dimension inherent in Islamic science is expected to be implemented by religious people to better appreciate the universe as God's creation.

Meditative representations of God in J. Kirk Richard’s work

Meditative representations of God in J. Kirk Richard’s work

Ancient Ideologies of Ineffability and Their Echoes

Ancient ideas about the limits of what can be put into words demonstrate the popularity of the notion that language is a guide to truth, even if that truth is defined by the limits of language. Two ancient and one modern example all locate truth in a reality that can be tracked both by the possibility of and the inherent failure of definition. Ancient exegetes started with the basic concept that words were both names for objects and the best formal representations of divinity. Yet names were not capable of fully defining ineffable divinity. These two ideologies—that names formally represent divinity and yet fail to completely describe divinity—coexisted in a delicate balance. The theme of divine ineffability, first articulated as part of a theology emphasizing the complete power of the deity over matter, has been adopted by modern scholars and converted to a theory to locate reality in hard-to-define personal experiences. The ineffable as what cannot be spoken about shifts focus from divinity to the self (the locus of modern experience).

Divine Epiphany and Pious Discourse in Plato's Phaedrus

Divine Epiphany and Pious Discourse in Plato’s Phaedrus ANDREA NIGHTINGALE In this essay, I will focus on the divine epiphany of the Forms in Plato’s Phaedrus. As Plato indicates in his middle dialogues, the Forms are “divine” (theios).1 Indeed, they are ontologically higher than the gods and thus could be called “ultra-divine.” To set forth the soul’s epiphany of the Forms in the Phaedrus, Plato incorporated the terminology of poetic narratives of divine epiphanies and also ritualistic discourses used in religious festivals to evoke the epiphany of a god. By analyzing Plato’s use of epiphanic discourses and rituals, I show that he created an epiphanic narrative in his account of the philosophic soul’s vision of the Form of Beauty. To set up this argument, I examine two key passages in the Phaedrus that focus on a god who seizes and/or inspires a human: first, Socrates and Phaedrus ’ conversation about the myth of the wind-god Boreas ravishing Oreithuia; and second, Socrates’ claim that the local divinities inspired his discourse in the palinode. I then analyze Socrates’ assertions that he must speak “piously” and “truthfully” about divine beings, both the gods and the Forms. Given Plato’s radical claim that the gods are rational and good, and that the Forms are “divine,” he must offer a new mode of discourse for speaking about divinity. Just as the Greeks paid careful attention to speaking “piously” about the gods, Plato showcases the right and wrong ways of talking about divine beings. In this essay, I take seriously Plato’s claim that the Forms are divine beings. In my view, we cannot fully understand Plato’s metaphysics—his ontology and epistemology—without acknowledging its theological aspects. arion 26.1 spring/summer 2018 DIVINE ENCOUNTERS in the opening scene of the Phaedrus, Socrates and Phaedrus discuss a traditional story of a god who ravished a human being. This discussion sets up later scenes that focus on a god seizing, inspiring, or manifesting itself to a human being. We must therefore look closely at the opening scene. Here, Socrates and Phaedrus leave the city and find a “beautiful ” (pankalon, 230b) spot along the Ilissus River. They enter a “sacred place” that has a shrine for the nymphs and the river:2 as Socrates observes, “based on the female figurines (korai) and statues (agalmata), this place appears to be sacred (hieron) for the nymphs and the river Achelous” (230b). Socrates also notes that there is an altar nearby of Boreas, the wind god that snatched and ravished Oreithuia (who, according to the myth, gave birth to the winged “Boreads”; 229c). Thus, this natural area has been ritually marked out as sacred to various deities. As Susan Cole has shown, for the Greeks, “the landscape was a living world, alive with the possibility of divinity.”3 Indeed, many places in ancient Greece were marked as belonging to the gods by way of shrines and mythic narratives: Geographically based narratives, probably as old as the institutions they claim to explain, locate the individual community in its landscape and connect it to mythic representations of the larger universe . Anthropomorphic representations of divinity and personifications of features of the natural world encouraged the belief that the world of the gods and the world of nature were parts of a single continuum.4 In the Phaedrus, Socrates and Phaedrus sit down in a holy spot that features this “continuum” between the gods and nature. Indeed, upon arriving in this place, Socrates and Phaedrus launch into a discussion of the story of the wind god Boreas snatching up the maiden Oreithuia. We should note that the Athenians had set up the altar for Boreas on the 62 divine epiphany and pious discourse Ilissus River because the god had responded to their prayers during wartime, providing divine aid in two important battles (Herodotus 7.189.3). The story of Boreas and Oreithuia had particular importance for the Athenians: in their civic theology, Boreas had “married” the Athenian maiden Oreithuia and was thus a divine relative (and helper) of Athens (Herodotus 7.189; Pausanias 1.19.5). Indeed, Aeschylus wrote a satyr play on Boreas and Oreithuia...

The Emergence of Twofold Shinto System on Namsan: The Construction of Joeseon Singung andthe Reaction by Gyeongseong Sinsa

This study tries to show that the relationship of Shinto Shrines on Namsan in Seoul played out as a twofold shrine system. It is to be shown which changes occurred on Namsan during this process, and what this change meant to the Korean populace. In 1897, Namsan daesingung was established by settlers and was changed to Gyeongseong sinsa after Korea was put under Japanese rule. Joseon singung, a high-ranking government shrine, was inaugurated in 1925. As a reaction to this, Gyeongseong sinsa opted for expansion via satellite shrines, all being either representations of important Shinto gods, or such helpful in loyality education. In time, Namsan and its Shinto facilities became the symbol of assimilation and Hwangguk sinminhwa policies in Korea. But Gyeongseong sinsa and Joseon singung had different approaches in winning over the Koreans for the Japanese cause. Whilst Joseon singung had to rely on measures of forced attendance, Gyeongseong sinsa used its autumn festival parade to win over Koreans culturally. Thus the shrine relations worked out in a twofold system of competition and co-existence. This way, Namsan was appropriated by Japan to become a place where Korean worshippers’ identity was challenged to be aligned with the identity as Japanese.

The Jerusalem temple between “theology” and archaeology: which issues, what dialogue?

Divine presence on earth constitutes an aporia. However, it is also necessary, since that which we call “religion” is simply a series of social practices which aim to establish a line of communication, benevolent if possible, between superior beings and mankind. Ontologically speaking, divine powers are “superhuman”, which means that common parameters do not apply to them. This paper explores the first temple of Jerusalem using two sources: textual and archaeological evidence. We will therefore compare the theological and archaeological data in order to analyse the interactions between these two disciplines. The place of worship appears to be an ideal laboratory where several disciplines, methodologies and issues can be brought together to understand representations of divinity. In other words, we will explore how the consideration of “discourses about the gods” (theo-logy) can enhance the work of archaeologists and raise new questions: inversely, we will highlight that which archaeology contributes to those who conduct research into the representation of divinity in the texts.

Allegorische Diagrammatik und diagrammatische Allegorisierung. Erkenntnisprozesse in einem allegorischen Ikonotext der ‚Regia Carmina‘ des Convenevole da Prato

AbstactSubject of this essay is the question of how the invisibility of God can be visualized. The ‘Regia Carmina’ of Convenevole da Prato (London, British Library, Royal 6 E IX) serves as an example. They are designed through allegorical iconotexts. Convenevole’s reflection consists basically of a mental image and a painted picture. This essay deals with two questions: 1) How are the mental image and the painted picture arranged to initiate a thought process regarding the relation of the painted picture to God in a diagrammatic transfer? The thought process aims to gain knowledge about the figurative representation of God. 2) Is the iconotext only modelled as a medium of insight or can it also be seen as a figure of reflection of a diagrammatic way of thinking, in which the possibilities and limits of pictorial and verbal signs are defined? In this example the fundamental and productive connection of allegorical and diagrammatic method becomes apparent. On the one hand the diagrammatic way of thinking is influenced by allegory. On the other hand the process of allegorisation that is based on a diagrammatic point of view becomes evident.