Idol anxiety / edited by Josh Ellenbogen and Aaron Tugendhaft.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Ellenbogen, Josh.

Tugendhaft, Aaron.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Idols and images--Worship.

Idols and images.

Idolatry.

Idols and images in art.

Idolatry in art.

Idols and images in literature.

Idolatry in literature.

Art and religion.

Physical Description:

vi, 242 p. : ill.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This interdisciplinary collection of essays addresses idolatry, a contested issue that has given rise to both religious accusations and heated scholarly disputes. Idol Anxiety brings together insightful new statements from scholars in religious studies, art history, philosophy, and musicology to show that idolatry is a concept that can be helpful in articulating the ways in which human beings interact with and conceive of the things around them. It includes both case studies that provide examples of how the concept of idolatry can be used to study material objects and more theoretical interventions. Among the book's highlights are a foundational treatment of the second commandment by Jan Assmann; an essay by W.J.T. Mitchell on Nicolas Poussin that will be a model for future discussions of art objects; a groundbreaking consideration of the Islamic ban on images by Mika Natif; and a lucid description by Jean-Luc Marion of his cutting-edge phenomenology of the visible.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Contributors

Editors’ Statement

Introduction

1. What’s Wrong with Images?

2. The Christian Critique of Idolatry

3. The Painter’s Breath and Concepts of Idol Anxiety

4. Idolatry: Nietzsche, Blake, and Poussin

5. Dreadful Beauty and the Undoing of Adulation in the Work of Kara Walker and Michael Ray Charles

6. Iconoclasm and Real Space

7. How Many Ways Can You Idolize a Song?

8. Iconoclasm and the Sublime

9. What We See and What Appears

10. On Heidegger, the Idol, and the Work of the Work of Art

11. Beyond Instrumentalism and Voluntarism: Idol Anxiety and the Awakening of a Philosophical Mood

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780804781817

0804781818

OCLC:

923700010