Preliminary Material -- List of Figures -- Series Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Open City and the Politics of the Everyday -- The Sydney Front and Grotesque Realism -- Jenny Kemp's Landscapes of the Psyche -- The Aboriginal Protesters Confront the Postdramatic Text -- An International Perspective on the Postdramatic Theatre Text -- (Trans)forming the Lexicon of “Theatre” in Australia -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.
At first glance the Markan transfiguration scene (Mk. 9:2-8) is all about light, sound and spectacle. Commentators see revealed in this scene a sparkling vision of God's glory-the light that banishes the shadow of incomprehension and by which the hidden truth of the Gospel finally becomes clear. But have commentators been blinded by their dazzling evaluations of Mark's theology? For, despite all the splendor and sparkle, the Markan transfiguration remains a difficult scene to interpret. Transfigured asks what would be seen if one were to squint past the sun-like glory that dominates this vision. Wilson focuses on the problematic elements, the gaps and inconsistencies of the scene, and re-evaluates them in order to re-read the transfiguration from an altered perspective. The theoretical work of Jacques Derrida, particularly his notion of "otherness," which draws together and realigns the reader (subject), the reading (method), and what is read (text), will be central to the orientation of this re-reading. Ultimately, the transfiguration story can be seen ably to accommodate readings that challenge traditionally prescribed metaphysical structures and presuppositions. In the end, the application of Derridean theory issues its own challenges to traditional scholarship in such a way that the approach to the Markan transfiguration and the theology one inevitably brings to it, require a certain amount of reformulation.
The biblical story of Jesus' Transfiguration on a high mountain bristles with meanings germane to present-day concerns and spiritual longings. Together with its later artistic representations, this episode from the synoptic gospels seizes the imagination as an icon of mystical hope, beauty, and possibility. What might such an iconic episode, long honored liturgically in the Eastern church, disclose not only about Jesus, but also about the prospect of seeing our human nature transformed? And as interpreted by Christian tradition since the patristic era, what might it tell us about the worth of envisioning not just a conservation or preservation of natural resources but a transfiguration of all creation, and about how this feast of beauty could re-energize current discussions of Christianity's relation to environmental attitudes and policy? Such questions are addressed in this book through an original blend of personal reflection with commentary on relevant theological and scriptural texts, literary works, music, and art.
In Six Stages on the Spiritual Path, we learn about spirituality and its stages as well as how spirituality helps to reduce our suffering and create more love. Writings from ancient to contemporary mystics across the world provide us with practical and spiritual wisdom that will make our lives happier and more loving. In the first stage on the mystic way, children experience awe and wonder, but they do not realize that this is a spiritual experience. While all indigenous people recognize awe as a mystical experience, only some adults and most artists do. When parents and religious leaders teach children about God, they cause their spiritual growth to flourish or to become stunted at an elementary school level. Awakening is an experience of the Divine that helps us realize that the Sacred Spirit is within us and loves us. Awakening produces love for our neighbors and ourselves. Then love nurtures more awakenings. Illumination and union are deeper mystical experiences that the Holy One is not only within all of us and all of creation, but also that we are within the ONE. Illumination creates more love for all people and all the universe.
“The evil that men do” has been chronicled for thousands of years on the European stage, and perhaps nowhere else is human fear of our own evil more detailed than in its personifications in theater. In Stages of Evil, Robert Lima explores the sociohistorical implications of Christian and pagan representations of evil and the theatrical creativity that occultism has engendered. By examining examples of alchemy, astronomy, demonology, exorcism, fairies, vampires, witchcraft, hauntings, and voodoo in prominent plays, Stages of Evil explores American and European perceptions of occultism from medieval times to the modern age.
Light and Glory offers an engaging comparison of the teachings of seven thirteenth-century theologians -- three Franciscans and four Dominicans -- on the subject of the transfiguration of Christ.
Peter Anthony explores how visionary elements in Luke's Gospel had a particular influence on early interpretation of the Transfiguration, by examining the rich hermeneutical traditions that emerged - particularly in the Latin West - as the Transfiguration was first depicted visually in art. Anthony begins by comparing the visual and visionary culture of antiquity with that of the present, and their differing interpretations of the Transfiguration. He then examines the Transfiguration texts in the synoptic gospels and their interpretation in modern scholarship, and the reception of the Transfiguration in 2 Peter, the Apocalypse of Peter and the Acts of Peter, Tertullian and Origen. Proceeding to look at interpretations found in the Greek East and the Latin West, Anthony finally discusses the earliest visual depictions of the Transfiguration from the sixth century onward, drawn from a wealth of different art forms. Anthony concludes that early commentators' and artists' understanding of how we see and visualise, and therefore, how the Transfiguration was apprehended, is closer to that of the writers of the New Testament than many modern interpreters' is.
