|
Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Animals & society
|
Buy Now
In the Eye of the Animal - Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,934
Discovery Miles 19 340
You Save: R137
(7%)
|
|
|
In the Eye of the Animal - Zoological Imagination in Ancient Christianity (Hardcover)
Series: Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
Early Christian theology posited a strict division between animals
and humans. Nevertheless, animal figures abound in early Christian
literature and art-from Augustine's renowned "wonder at the agility
of the mosquito on the wing," to vivid exegeses of the six days of
creation detailed in Genesis-and when they appear, the distinctions
between human and animal are often dissolved. How, asks Patricia
Cox Miller, does one account for the stunning zoological
imagination found in a wide variety of genres of ancient Christian
texts? In the Eye of the Animal complicates the role of animals in
early Christian thought by showing how textual and artistic images
and interpretive procedures actually celebrated a continuum of
human and animal life. Synthesizing early Christian studies,
contemporary philosophy, animal studies, ethology, and modern
poetry, Miller identifies two contradictory strands in early
Christian thinking about animals. The dominant thread viewed the
body and soul of the human being as dominical, or the crowning
achievement of creation; animals, with their defective souls,
related to humans only as reminders of the brutish physical form.
However, the second strand relied upon the idea of a continuum of
animal life, which enabled comparisons between animals and humans.
This second tendency, explains Miller, arises particularly in early
Christian literature in which ascetic identity, the body, and
ethics intersect. She explores the tension between these modes by
tracing the image of the animal in early Christian literature, from
the ethical animal behavior on display in Basil of Caesarea's
Hexaemeron and the anonymous Physiologus, to the role of animals in
articulating erotic desire, and from the idyllic intimacy of monks
and animals in literature of desert ascetism to early Christian art
that envisions paradise through human-animal symbiosis.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(2)
(1)
