Religion and the Arts最新文献

The article analyzes four works of poetry and illustration produced by the artist, poet, and occultist Marjorie Cameron (1922–1995) in the 1950s and 1960s. Widow of rocket scientist and occultist John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons (1914–1952), an early follower of Aleister Crowley’s (1875–1947) religion Thelema, Cameron was also a friend and collaborator of Beat artist Wallace Berman (1926–1976) and avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger (1927–2023). In the 1950s and 1960s, Cameron delved deeply into Crowley’s magical writings alongside those of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell (1904–1987). The article especially highlights how Cameron creatively adapted and re-worked the ideas of both thinkers in her artistic interpretations of her Holy Guardian Angel. A core argument of the article is that art, poetry, and esotericism were intertwined pursuits for Cameron, and that extra-textual sources (e.g., letters and biographical details) contemporary with the analyzed creative works are helpful in untangling their meaning.

According to writer and poet Charles Cammell (1890–1968), Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) believed that through his influence and guidance, he could significantly improve an artist’s nascent abilities. Crowley claimed success for the musical achievements of Leila Waddell (1880–1932), the poetry of Victor Neuburg (1883–1940) and the artistic talents of Frieda, Lady Harris, née Bloxam (1877–1962). In 1938, Crowley invited Harris to illustrate The Book of Thoth, his last major magical work, designating her “artist executant.” Their partnership extended far beyond the requirements of the Thoth Tarot paintings: not only did Harris become Crowley’s magical pupil; they formed a strong and enduring friendship that lasted to the end of Crowley’s life. Harris had already achieved moderate success as an artist, but Crowley showed her how she could express esoteric concepts in her paintings, thereby creating “something completely new in art” (Harris to Crowley, Letter, 10 December 1940). Harris’s correspondence with Crowley shows that she eagerly embraced his guidance, determined to manifest the Tarot images in accordance with his vision. At the same time, she applied the same techniques to her own works and came to the realisation that art was the true basis of her spiritual path. Using extracts from Crowley’s and Harris’s correspondence, Crowley’s diary entries, and examples of Harris’s artwork, this article will argue that in the case of Frieda Harris, Crowley did indeed draw out her nascent artistic skills, and in doing so, enabled her to manifest Tarot designs, which on his own admission, “any given card is something beyond anything I had ever contemplated” (Crowley to Harris, Letter, 25 January 1939).

This essay aims at an appraisal of Nicholas Wolterstorff’s magum opus on the subject of art, the book Works and Worlds of Art, published in 1980 by the Clarendon Press in Oxford. The book is well known by analytic philosophers of religion, but its innovative value still seems to receive less recognition from other schools of thought and from artists and scholars in the area of Arts. Therefore, this introduction situates the book in the history of Philosophy of Art, with special focus on the state of affairs for the discipline in the twentieth century, engaging dialogue with other philosophical proposals in the period. Finally, the core concepts of Wolterstorff’s philosophy of art will be presented and defined in order to offer a glimpse of the richness that this book could still provide to contemporary scholarship.

Since Buddhism appeared around the fifth century BCE, it has established itself as a discipline that gives philosophical teachings to many people beyond religion. After the twentieth century, Buddhism has gone beyond being a representative ideology of the East and continues to be a social and cultural inspiration for many people worldwide. By focusing on the artworks of three Korean artists, Jeong Hwa Choi, Kimsooja, and Do Ho Suh, this study explores in detail how Buddhism inspires artists to visualize self-reflection and transnational identity and how traditional Buddhism contributes to the universalization, conceptualization, and communication of contemporary art. It also discusses how Buddhism is being reinterpreted and visualized by contemporary artists today, becoming a work of art for the public, not art for the few. Their artworks, inspired by Buddhism, show how contemporary art shows humanist, participatory, empathic, diverse, and global aspects and conveys multilayered messages.

In his Middle-earth lore, Tolkien presents death as a special gift that Eru gave to Men alone, and not any other beings. This paper tries to answer why death can be understood as a gift even by us, even though this idea seems to contradict the traditional belief that death is a punishment for the sin of the first people in Paradise. As unorthodox as it may seem, this paper suggests that it might have been inspired by Aquinas, who presented death as an essential attribute of the human body given to it from the moment of creation, but which in Paradise was only suppressed by a special grace from God. Aquinas suggests that after the introduction of sin to the world, this grace was removed and death regained its appointed effect. Death actually became a necessary means through we are able to come back to God’s presence—thus in a sense, it is a gift.

This article will elucidate the philosophy of the image that developed in the wake of the Iconoclastic Controversy in the Eastern Christian Empire in the ninth Century. Iconophilia was finally reinstated after a wave of iconoclasm swept across the Empire. The controversy coincides with dramatic changes within the Byzantine empire, making it difficult to establish consensus amongst scholars regarding its possible causes. After discussing several of the theories that seek to explain the adoption of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire, we will seek to show how image veneration was transformed and differentiated from relic worship thanks to its encounter with iconoclasm. After reviewing icon veneration prior to the Iconoclastic Controversy, this article will elucidate the philosophy of the image developed by Patriarch Nicephorus in order to show how he differentiated veneration from idolatry by redefining the image as “similar to” (homoiosis) rather than consubstantial with (homoousios) its model. By differentiating image veneration from the theory of consubstantiality that was normative within Judaism and Islam, Christian philosophy of the image will differentiate resemblance from identity, inscription from circumscription, and thereby reveal iconoclasm to be in the eye of the beholder.

This article argues that modern examples of the Devil as a player of plucked and bowed stringed instruments extend early medieval representations of the Devil’s music as a powerfully persuasive force that can be used to draw souls toward Satan and, conversely, to defend against his musical machinations. By examining Homily X of the Vercelli Book (c. tenth century) in relation to early medieval music theory, the legend of St. Dunstan, and modern examples of the fiddle-playing Devil, this article demonstrates that the musical Devil and his opponents show every sign of sustaining the motif’s power into the future.