Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious ImagesThis 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
CONSTRUCTIVISM AND THE HISTORY OF VISUAL CULTURE | 1 |
Material Things and the Social Construction of Reality | 2 |
The Aesthetics of Everyday Life | 12 |
Images and Their Worlds | 17 |
THE PRACTICE OF VISUAL PIETY | 21 |
High and Low | 22 |
The Aesthetic of Disinterestedness | 26 |
Toward an Aesthetic of Popular Religious Art | 29 |
The Christology of Friendship and TwentiethCentury Visual Piety | 111 |
READING THE FACE OF JESUS | 124 |
The Head of Christ in Catholic and Lutheran Response | 125 |
The Discourse of Hidden Images | 135 |
AvantGarde and Popular | 143 |
DOMESTIC DEVOTION AND RITUAL | 152 |
A Domestic Description of the Sacred | 158 |
Domestic Ritual and Images | 171 |
The Psychology of Recognition | 34 |
Interactivity in the Reception of Popular Religious Images | 50 |
EMPATHY AND SYMPATHY IN THE HISTORY OF VISUAL PIETY | 59 |
Catholic Visual Piety from the Late Middle Ages to the Modern Period | 60 |
Jonathan Edwards and the Aesthetic of Piety | 74 |
Sympathy and Benevolence in NineteenthCentury American Protestantism | 78 |
HomeSympathy and Christian Nurture | 93 |
THE MASCULINITY OF CHRIST | 97 |
Jonathan and David | 98 |
MEMORY AND THE SACRED | 181 |
Memory and the Sacred | 183 |
Narrative and Anecdotal Memory | 197 |
RELIGIOUS IMAGES AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF EVERYDAY LIFE | 203 |
LETTERS AND DEMOGRAPHICS | 209 |
NOTES | 213 |
253 | |
259 | |
Other editions - View all
Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious Images David Morgan No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic agery American Tract Society Anderson University appeared artist Barton believers benevolent Bible body Bourdieu Bushnell Catholic chapter Chicago Christ at Heart's christology church contemplation Csikszentmihalyi David Morgan depictions devotional images discourse discussion disinterestedness divine domestic Edwards empathy evangelical everyday experience Family Christian Almanac FIGURE friendship God's Head of Christ Heinrich Hofmann hidden images Holy Holy Card human Ibid Icons identity image of Jesus imagery Jonathan Jonathan Edwards letters living room Lutheran masculinity means Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Millerites modern nineteenth century object one's painting Passion photographs picture of Jesus Pierre Bourdieu popular culture portrait practice prayer present Princeton Protestant Protestantism Religion René Magritte representation response Rita ritual role sacred saints Sallman's Head Sallman's image Sallman's picture Savior social construction spiritual Sunday school symbolic sympathy tion tradition trans twentieth century viewer visual culture visual piety Warner Sallman woman worship York