The Edinburgh Companion to the Bible and the Arts
Description:... Presents original and authoritative assessments of the changing relationship between the Bible and the arts In this unique Companion, 35 scholars, from world-famous to just beginning, explore the role of the Bible in art and of artistic motifs in the Bible. The specially commissioned chapters demonstrate that just as the arts have portrayed biblical stories in a variety of ways and media over the centuries, so what we call 'the' Bible is not actually a single entity but has been composed of fiercely contested translations of texts in many languages, whose selection has depended historically on a variety of cultural pressures, theological, social, and, not least, aesthetic. Divided into three sections, Inspiration and Theory, Art and Architecture, and Literature, this generously illustrated collection includes a wide spectrum of thoughtful essays on aesthetic interpretations of specific biblical books; of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles as a whole; the transmission of biblical texts; and various bindings and illustrations of Bibles - in response to pressures as diverse as Islamic craftsmanship and the English Reformation. In addition, it examines biblical influences on poetry, painting, church architecture, decoration and stained glass; and on poetry, hymns, novels, plays and fantasy literature from the earliest days of the Christian era to the present. Stephen Prickett is Regius Professor Emeritus of English, at the University of Glasgow and honorary Professor of English at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He has published one novel, nine monographs, seven edited volumes, and over ninety articles on Romanticism, Victorian Studies and literature and theology. Front cover image: 'Mary Reading' French Book of Hours, Manuscript (c) The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Back cover image: The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed With the Sun, c. 1805, William Blake. Cover design: [EUP logo] www.euppublishing.com
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