"Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" considers one of life's most enduring questions. To find an answer, Hendrick Park follows a trail of evidence that uncovers arguments for the existence of God in the characteristics of the natural world, in the moral and religious experiences of people's lives, and in the knowledge contained in divine revelation.

Presented in three parts corresponding to the types of evidence, this exploration draws upon the work of a variety of scientists, philosophers, and theologians. In addition, narratives of Park's personal encounters with the actions of God in his own life provide illustrations that amplify the conclusions expressed by authorities in the various fields of thought.

If you believe in God, but wonder about the reasons for faith that reside in the natural world, human experience, and divine revelation, then "Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" will help to strengthen the foundations of your faith. By asking this one big question-does God exist-you may find yourself asking and then seeking answers to other deep questions about your ultimate destiny with God. "Does God Exist? Yes, Here Is the Evidence" will serve as your guide along the way.

In The Cross in the Visual Culture of Late Antique Egypt Gillian Spalding-Stracey brings the design of crosses in monastic and ecclesiastical settings to the fore. Visual representations of the Holy Cross are often so ubiquitous in Christian art that they are often overlooked as artistic devices themselves. This volume offers an exploration of the variety of designs and associated imagery by which the Cross was expressed across the Egyptian landscape in late antiquity. A survey of locations and images leads to an analysis of artistic influences, possible symbolism, variance across time and place and the contextual use of the motif. Gillian Spalding-Stracey provides the reader with an art-historical perspective of the socio-cultural situation in Egypt at the time.

"Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque" examines the iconographic inventions in Magdalene imagery and the contextual factors that shaped her representation in visual art from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Unique to other saints in the medieval lexicon, images of Mary Magdalene were altered over time to satisfy the changing needs of her patrons as well as her audience. By shedding light on the relationship between the Magdalene and her patrons, both corporate and private, as well as the religious institutions and regions where her imagery is found, this anthology reveals the flexibility of the Magdalene s character in art and, in essence, the reinvention of her iconography from one generation to the next.

In Applied Emblems in the Cathedral of Lugo, Carme Lopez Calderon explores the emblematic programme found in the Chapel of Nuestra Senora de los Ojos Grandes (Galicia, Spain), consisting of fifty-eight emblems painted c. 1735. Making use of a wide range of printed sources, the author delves into the meaning of each emblem and provides an all-encompassing interpretation of this cycle, which can rightly be described as the richest and most complete programme of Marian applied emblematics in the Iberian Peninsula.

Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? focuses on the significance of the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and its accompanying imagery in eighteenth-century New Spain. Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank considers paintings, prints, devotional texts, and archival sources within the Mexican context alongside issues and debates occurring in Europe to situate the New Spanish cult within local and global developments. She examines the iconography of these religious images and frames them within broader socio-political and religious discourses related to the Eucharist, the sun, the Jesuits, scientific and anatomical ideas, and mysticism. Images of the Heart helped to champion the cult's validity as it was attacked by religious reformers.

The first comprehensive study in English of the Japanese hell figure Datsueba explores her evolution since her eleventh-century emergence as a terrifying old woman who strips the clothes of the dead in the afterworld. Drawing widely on literature, art, and worship practices, the author reveals how the creative utilization of Datsueba's key attributes-including a marker of borders, a keeper of cloth, and an elderly woman-transformed her into a guardian of the human journey through life and death and shaped a figure that is diverse and multifaceted, yet also strikingly recognizable across the centuries.

SEX IN ART: POROGRAPHY AND PLEASURE IN THE HISTORY OF ART

A comprehensive and detailed survey of erotic art from ancient times to the modern era.

All of the major erotic artists of the Western tradition are analyzed (Egon Schiele, Hans Bellmer, Thomas Rowlandson, Pablo Picasso, Titian, Jean Baptiste Dominique Ingres, Felicien Rops, Leonardo da Vinci, Edgar Degas, and Eric Gill).

Other chapters include erotica in ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt, Oriental erotic art (Taoist and Tantric art from China, Japan and India), gender and eroticism in Renaissance art, and the sensuality of sculpture. Each chapter contains illustrations. A discussion of the complex relationship between art and pornography provides the central critical axis for this challenging book. Each of the major views on erotica and porn are examined, from each political persuasion and argument. There are also chapters on censorship, on feminism, and the relation of erotic art to erotic literature.

There are individual sections on many of the key erotic artists, such as Michelangelo Buonaroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Eric Gill, Gustave Moreau, the Surrealists, Jasper Johns, Constantin Brancusi, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimt.

Fully illustrated. This new edition contains many new illustrations (some of which are rare), an updated and revised text, a new introduction and bibliography.

ISBN 9781861713933. 464 pages. www.crmoon.com

This is the first study in any language to trace the emergence of the art historical interest in icon painting in the nineteenth century with its evident impact on the course of Russian modernism in the twentieth century. Given the surge in popularity of the Russian avant-garde, a book devoted to the gradual awareness of the artistic value of icons and their effect on Russian aesthetics is timely. The discoveries, the false starts, the incompetence, the interaction of dilettantes and academics, the meddling of tsars and church officials, all make for a fascinating tale of growing cultural awarenss. It is a story that prepares the ground for the explosioin of Russian cultural creativity and acceptability in the early twentieth century.