In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture by David Lyle Jeffrey (review)

Jeffrey has been teaching such a course for 20 years, and he's been publishing on theology and the visual arts for more than 45 years, so even though his formal training is in literary scholarship, this book has been percolating in his thoughts and affections for decades. Mary is a student of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChristianity & literature Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 344 - 347
Main Author Bilbro, Jeffrey Lyle
Format Journal Article Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Malibu Johns Hopkins University Press 01.03.2019
Subjects
Aesthetics
Christianity
Cultural instruction
Hearing
Jeffrey, David Lyle
Theology
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Summary:Jeffrey has been teaching such a course for 20 years, and he's been publishing on theology and the visual arts for more than 45 years, so even though his formal training is in literary scholarship, this book has been percolating in his thoughts and affections for decades. Mary is a student of the Word, and her agency in responding to the angel's proposal mirrors—in a redemptive reversal—Eve's choice to take the fruit offered by the serpent. On the one hand, the Catholic Church, particularly in Rome, had become enamored with wealth and power such that much of the art it sponsored was intended to convey the church's status more than God's holiness. While religious poets and musicians continued to thrive in Protestant Europe and England, the Protestant emphasis on the aural—faith comes by hearing—caused many painters to turn toward the natural world for suitable subjects.
Bibliography:content type line 1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Review-1
ISSN:0148-3331
2056-5666