Although scholars employ pictorial material in biblical exegesis, the question of how images from the Ancient Near East can contribute to a better understanding of the Bible has been left unanswered. This is the first monograph to outline a historical method for iconographic exegesis. The methodological study includes both responses to important theoretical questions such as What is an image? and What is culture? and an interdisciplinary exploration of issues of history, art history, archaeology and cultural anthropology. The three-stage method proposed is embedded in hermeneutical and exegetical reflections. The application of iconographical exegesis to the interpretation of metaphors is also considered. In demonstrating the method and its application, Izaak J. de Hulster focuses on Third Isaiah and develops three iconographical exegetical studies on yad in Isaiah 56:5, light in Isaiah 60 and grape processing in Isaiah 63.
Fruit of the Vine: A Biblical Spirituality of Wine is designed to help the reader grow in spirituality through reflecting on biblical vineyard stores, wine making, and wine as a metaphor for life. A spirituality of wine--categorized as a spirit--connects the spirit in wine to the universal spirit all share. Wine appeals to all five senses. Its bouquet can be smelled; its complexity, often compared to fruit, can be tasted; its shades of red, designating its body, can be seen as it clings to or quickly runs down the inside of a glass. One can hear the pop as the cork leaves the bottle's neck and the gurgle of the wine leaving the bottle as it is poured into a glass. Wine is a major sign of transformation in the process of growth from blossom, sunlight, and water to grapes, which are in turn broken apart, integrated into a whole, and fermented into alcohol. While the wine is aged, it undergoes even more transformation. People are transformed when they share this already multiple-times-transformed beverage. The vineyard and all it produces can reveal the divine if a person but opens his or her eyes to see.
A stunning book on one of Europe's top win-producing countries. Foot Trodden is a book for everyone who loves a good story, wine, Portugal or modern social history--and for anyone who wants to dig deeper into Portuguese culture and the Portuguese soul.
The initial focus of Ancient Greek Agriculture is firmly on the art of agriculture proper, the tools and the technique, the plants cultivated and the animals reared. Thereafter, Isager and Skydsgaard focus on the position of agriculture in the society of gods and men in the Greek city-states . The arguments of Ancient Greek Agriculture are strengthened by the book's close adherence to contemporary Greek sources, literary as well as archaeological, avoiding the use of later as well as Roman material.
This book is a comprehensive study of visual humour in ancient Greece, with special emphasis on works created in Athens and Boeotia. Alexandre G. Mitchell brings an interdisciplinary approach to this topic, combining theories and methods of art history, archaeology and classics with the anthropology of humour, and thereby establishing new ways of looking at art and visual humour in particular. Understanding what visual humour was to the ancients and how it functioned as a tool of social cohesion is only one facet of this study. Mitchell also focuses on the social truths that his study of humour unveils: democracy and freedom of expression; politics and religion; Greek vases and trends in fashion; market-driven production; proper and improper behaviour; popular versus elite culture; carnival in situ; and the place of women, foreigners, workers and labourers within the Greek city. Richly illustrated with more than 140 drawings and photographs, this study amply documents the comic representations that formed an important part of ancient Greek visual language from the sixth to the fourth centuries BC.