Optical and Acoustic Aura in the Medieval Image: The Golden Retable of the Pentecost at Stavelot

Abstract

View related articlesView Crossmark data Citing articles: 3 View citing articles optical and acoustic aura in the medieval image: the golden retable of the pentecost at stavelot bissera v. pentcheva stanford university, usa Material Religion volume 16, issue 1, pp. 9-40 This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Enlightening religion: Light and darkness in religious knowledge and knowledge about religion

“…One fruitful (but still quite underdeveloped) line of inquiry that invites precisely this sort of rethinking of the relationship of religion and light focuses on the actual uses of lightbearing technologies-from mirrors and candles to electricity-and material practices of manipulating light, as they unfold on the ground among particular groups of actors engaged in religious practice. Elsewhere, we have begun to redress this gap in the literature by introducing new research that explores some of the varying material conditions of illumination and light projection as deployed in the contexts of ritual performance, church architecture, and missionary work, among other sites of religious activity, both historically and in the present day (Meyer and Stolow 2020; Kessler and Lenk 2020;Pentcheva 2020;Rakow 2020;Verrips 2020). This issue of Critical Research on Religion further elaborates how the topic of light matters for the study of religion, focusing especially on questions of the ways the language of light operates as a mode of theological imagination and cosmological speculation, as well as exploring how light and darkness figure within diverse practices such as healing, mystical contemplation, and prayer.…”

“…In the Catholic theology of light explored by Daniel P erez-Zapico, God is taken to be the source of all light in the universe. The Church has a long history of deploying illumination technologies such as candles, oil lamps, and stained glass to induce experiences of light in Catholic ritual and sacred space for believers (Pentcheva 2020;Verrips 2020). P erez-Zapico examines the history of Catholic debates over the legitimacy and role of electrical illumination in churches in Spain over the course of the late nineteenth-and early twentieth-centuries (cf.…”

“…Focusing on debates within Islam, Lange and Abuali refer only in passing to alternative theologies of light in other religious traditions, such as Manichaeism, Judaism, and Christianity. But their approach offers an instructive entry point for future comparative research addressing the wide range of views about divine illumination, including, for instance, its elaboration in the history of Christianity (e.g., Pérez-Zapico 2021; Pentcheva 2020; Rakow 2020; Verrips 2020).…”

Electric light and the visualization of Catholic power in Spain during the Restoration Era (1874–1931)

“…Rejections and negotiations around electric light occurred in distinct scenarios (both urban and domestic) and even turning electricity into a commodity was anything but straightforward (Bazerman 2002;Kline 2003;Otter 2008, 173-214;Gooday 2008;Harrison Moore and Gooday 2016;Sayer 2017). 1 Therefore, a closer examination of how electric light evolved in religious scenarios will contribute to this literature by stressing the cultural impact of religious practices and beliefs in technology, which granted specific qualities and attributes to light and light-bearing technologies (Apelian 2012;Meyer and Stolow 2020;Pentcheva 2020). Additionally, this theme provides a fruitful complementary approach to re-analyzing the dynamics of electrification by showing the contested visions of electrical modernity and the evolving meanings and possibilities of electrical technologies, including the variegated cultures of electric light use.…”