medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> A cautionary note on the "theology of the icon". Although a subject of
considerable interest, anyone who limits themself to the official
pronouncements of the church regarding images, will not get very far in
understanding the place of images in medieval religion. I am coming to
believe, in fact, that the tepid efforts of the Catholic church to determine
and enforce "correct" attitudes towards images -- even at such crucial points
as the Council of Trent -- was tantamount to a realization that local folk
beliefs concerning images, which in themselves were far from orthodox, were
too entrenched to do much about.
> Social and religious practices and local folk beliefs regarding images,
although difficult to reconstruct for the Middle Ages, should probably be
considered of more importance, overall, than the official doctrines of the
church in charting the place of images in medieval religious culture.
point taken, Jim.
but, as you imply, there really are two seperate questions here :
--one "the place of images in medieval religion" [by which i assume you mean
"*popular/folk* religion"] ;
--the other the "Theology of the Icon", as elaborated and understood by the
tiny upper class of Elites, East & West, who, though miniscule in numbers,
were responsible for *all* the *major* campaigns of image production, the
pitiful remains of which have come down to us in one form or another.
that your 18th c. Spanish peasants knew "no other God nor any other St Mary
than the Virgin of the Snows" cannot be doubted (esp. if they said so).
chances are pretty good, i would guess, that their "Virgin of the Snows" was a
[perhaps distant] "replication" [in George Kubler's useful terminology] of a
Madonna which was produced in an atelier where the Theology of the Icon was
well known and appreciated.
the precise nature of "popular" image veneration --though an interesting study
in and of itself-- has little to do with the *Nature* of Images, as
understood (in a theoretical fashion) by the greatest thinkers of the age,
only their "use" or "function" within a particular percentage (~90%) of the
total population.
Different Strokes for Different Folks, surely, but for some [me] questions of
etiology are somewhat more interesting than those of ethnography.
just at present, at least.
best from here,
christopher
Gib$son'$ Folly:
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/jd/2004/jd040224.gif
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