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| Title: | THE FUNCTION OF THE AESTHETIC IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: A COMPARISON, MEDIEVAL AND MODERN |
| Contributor: | COURTNEY, DAVID WAYNE. Michigan State University |
| Description: | This study offers a reconsideration of the function or purpose of symbolism in religious art objects. Church architecture is considered a religious art object in this thesis. ; Many art historians and contemporary writers, who study church architecture, wish to discuss the "aesthetic form" that has been used or should be used in the construction of modern ecclesiastical buildings. This dissertation argues that church architecture's first and most important responsibility is in fostering religious experience, not aesthetic experience. In this thesis, a firm wedge is driven between the two phenomena of religious and aesthetic experience. It is not suggested that there should be no appeal to the viewer's aesthetic sensibilities; rather, the aesthetic experience should be a secondary concern to the church builder. ; This dissertation develops the concept of "iconographic significance" to explain the qualities of the religious art object that encourage profound religious experience. The iconographic significance of the religious art object is for the instruction of the worshipper; it provides him or her with a model of or image of the divine. This model or image is intended to be a model for earthly living. The worshipper is meant to transform his or her world to be like that of the heavenly order. For example, Gothic cathedrals presented an image of the "heavenly Jerusalem", that humanity might emulate the heavenly company of the celestial city. The church building was a symbolic formula for the intellectual, moral, and mystical instruction of the worshipping community. ; This thesis analyzes the religious intentions of Abbot Suger in the building of the first Gothic structure, the Abbey of St. Denis. Also considered is the socio-historical context which made Suger's intentions normative for the development of twelfth and thirteenth century Ile-de-France cathedrals. ; This thesis advocates that contemporary church architecture should be, like its Gothic antecedents, built with the primary intention of fostering religious experience. The works of two twentieth century churchmen, Ralph Adams Cram and Bishop Charles E. Bennison, and the socio-historical contexts which made their works normative, are analyzed because of intentions to instruct the laity in holy living through the vehicle of church architecture. ; Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-09, Section: A, page: 2814. ; Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University, 1982. |
| URI: | https://www.amad.org/jspui/handle/123456789/76618 |
| Other Identifier: | https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A8190/datastream/TN/view/THE%20FUNCTION%20OF%20THE%20AESTHETIC%20IN%20RELIGIOUS%20EXPERIENCE%3A%20A%20COMPARISON,%20MEDIEVAL%20AND%20MODERN.jpg http://ezproxy.fau.edu http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/40579 |
| AMAD ID: | 568989 |
| Appears in Collections: | BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) General history of Europe |
