Religion, Art, and Visual Culture

S. BRENT PLATE is Assistant Professor of Religion and the Visual Arts at Texas Christian University. His previous publications include the edited volumes, Imag(in)ing Otherness: Filmic Visions of Living Together and The Apocalyptic Imagination: Aesthetics and Ethics at the End of the World. He is Film Review Editor of the Journal of Religion and Film and Associate Editor of Literature and Theology.

• Introduction; S.Brent Plate SECTION 1: THE EYE AND THE MIND Introduction to Section One; S.Brent Plate From 'Vision'; D.Ackerman , From Eye and Mind ; R.L.Gregory From 'To See and Not See'; O.Sacks From 'Metaphors on Vision'; S.Brakhage SECTION 2: ICON: THE IMAGE OF JESUS CHRIST AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY Introduction to Section Two; S.Brent Plate From 'Image'; M.Miles From Painting the Word ; J.Drury From The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion ; L.Steinberg From 'Would Jesus Have Sat for a Portrait? The Likeness of Christ in the Popular Reception of Sallman's Art'; D.Morgan SECTION 3: QALAM: THE RELATIONSHIP OF WORD AND IMAGE IN ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY Introduction to Section Three; S.Brent Plate From Mediation of Ornament; O.Grabar From 'The Spiritual Message of Islamic Calligraphy'; S.H.Nasr From Calligraphy and Islamic Culture ; A.Schimmel From Modern Islamic Art ; W.Ali SECTION 4: SHINJIN: THE SEEING MIND-BODY IN JAPANESE ZEN GARDENS Introduction to Section Four; S.Brent Plate From Buddhism and the Arts of Japan ; R.Pilgrim From The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind-Body Theory ; Y.Yasuo From The Ocean in the Sand ; M .Holborn 'The Japanese Zen Garden'; S.Nagatomo & P.Winfield SECTION 5: DARSHAN: SEEING THE DIVINE IMAGE IN INDIA IN THE MODERN AGE Introduction to Section Five; S.Brent Plate From Darshan ; D.Eck From the Prologue to Devi: Goddess of India ; J.S.Hawley From 'All in the (Raghu) Family'; P.Lutgendorf From Lives of Indian Images ; R.Davis SECTION 6: ZAKHOR: JEWISH MEMORY BUILT INTO ARCHITECTURE Introduction to Section Six; S.Brent Plate From Jewish Icons ; R.Cohen From The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning ; J.Young 'Idolizing/Idealizing the Holocaust Era Boxcar'; O.Stier 'Building Zakhor: Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, Berlin'; S.Brent Plate

'The essays in Religion, Art, and Visual Culture roam across Renaissance art galleries, YMCA lobbies, Zen Gardens, Hindu movie palaces and Holocaust museums to reveal what is unique and what is common in our human desire to see God-and His/Her desire to see us. It is an enlightening trip for anyone who keeps an altar, or wonders why other people do.' - Donald Cosentino, Professor of World Arts and Cultures, UCLA; Curator, Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou; Editor, African Arts 'Timely, well-conceived, and clearly organized, Plate's book is also important. It considers how art is joined to religion, a concern and a weakness of Western religious traditions since antiquity, welcomes other religious traditions to the discussion, and incorporates visual culture, a field of vital scholarly interest from the 1990s. The selections anthologized here will enrich many discourses and help us understand how the holy might be communicated.' - Robert Nelson, Professor of Art History, University of Chicago and editor of Visuality Before and Beyond the Renaissance 'Brent Plate's well-chosen volume pulses with the excitement and deep purpose of popular imagery from the world's major religions. God exists in the visual details of everyday life, as well as in the high arts of formal religion. Readers will learn how sacred icons intersect with mass media, Islamic calligraphy with made-for-TV Hindu epics, Zen gardens with Holocaust memorials.' - Allen F. Roberts, Professor, UCLA, Dept. of World Arts & Cultures 'The book is a good beginning point for religion and cultural studies classes at the undergraduate and graduate level.' - Nadine Pence Frantz, Religious Studies Review