Visual piety : a history and theory of popular religious images / David Morgan. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morgan, David, 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spirituality--United States--History--20th century.

Spirituality.

Spirituality--United States--History--19th century.

Spirituality--History.

Christian art and symbolism--United States.

Christian art and symbolism.

Christian art and symbolism--Modern period, 1500-.

Popular culture--United States.

Popular culture.

United States--Religious life and customs.

United States.

Spirituality--History--20th century--United States.

Spirituality--History--19th century--United States.

Spirituality--History--Modern period, 1500---United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 265 p. ) ill. ;

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This fascinating study of devotional images traces their historical links to important strains of American culture. David Morgan demonstrates how popular visual images-from Warner Sallman's "Head of Christ" to velvet renditions of DaVinci's "Last Supper" to illustrations on prayer cards-have assumed central roles in contemporary American lives and communities.Morgan's history of popular religious images ranges from the late Middle Ages to the present day and analyzes what he calls "visual piety," or the belief that images convey. Rather than isolating popular icons from their social contexts or regarding them as merely illustrative of theological ideas, Morgan situates both Protestant and Catholic art within the domain of devotional practice, ritual, personal narrative, and the sacred space of the home. In addition, he examines how popular icons have been rooted in social concerns ranging from control of human passions to notions of gender, creedal orthodoxy, and friendship. Also discussed is the coupling of images with texts in the attempt to control meanings and to establish markers for one's community and belief. Drawing from the fields of music, sociology, theology, philosophy, psychology, and aesthetics,Visual Piety is the first book to bring to specialist and lay reader alike an understanding of religious imagery's place in the social formation and maintenance of everyday American life.

Contents:

Introduction: Constructivism and the History of Visual Culture

Material Things and the Social Construction of Reality

The Aesthetics of Everyday Life

Images and Their Worlds

The Practice of Visual Piety

High and Low

The Aesthetic of Disinterestedness

Toward an Aesthetic of Popular Religious Art

The Psychology of Recognition

Interactivity in the Reception of Popular Religious Images

Empathy and Sympathy in the History of Visual Piety

Catholic Visual Piety from the Late Middle Ages to the Modern Period

Jonathan Edwards and the Aesthetic of Piety

Sympathy and Benevolence in Nineteenth-Century American Protestantism

"Home-Sympathy" and Christian Nurture

The Masculinity of Christ

The Image of Male Friendship: Jonathan and David

The Christology of Friendship and Twentieth-Century Visual Piety

Reading the Face of Jesus

The Head of Christ in Catholic and Lutheran Response

The Discourse of Hidden Images

Avant-Garde and Popular

Domestic Devotion and Ritual

The Christian Home: A Domestic Description of the Sacred

Domestic Ritual and Images

Memory and the Sacred

Space and Time

Modes of Remembrance: Narrative and Anecdotal Memory

Conclusion: Religious Images and the Social Construction of Everyday Life

Letters and Demographics.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-258) and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-520-92313-8

0-585-26681-6