In De Adminisratione, Suger gives an account of his work on the Abbey Church of St. Denis. He records his tireless efforts to improve the church and creates a strong emphasis on his art and the materials used to craft his art. Suger looks to draw attention to the lavish artwork he uses to adorn the Church for a very specific reason. While the materials are to be marveled at, it is the craftsmanship and labour that make these materials inspire the divinity within the individual. It is Suger's plight to spread faith and the following of his church through art. He must deliberate how to communicate unshakable faith in his artform. In this essay I will argue that Suger uses art as the physical manifestation of faith and the divine within. Art …show more content…
This ties to my thesis because it is Suger's plight to inspire faith, and adding on to the church for the sake of utility to necessitate a larger following reveals the intentions of his art. Suger planned to move poeple to God in large numbers through art. In many ways his work on the church was an effort to make the church more comfortable for the individual and the following on a mass scale. Suger remarks: “I found myself, under the inspiration of divine will and because of that inadequacy which we often saw and felt in feast days....” (Suger, p. 146). This thought of adequacy in comfort reveals that appearing accommodating held the same importance as inspiring faith. Once faith of the masses had been acquired they must provide a place for each saved soul within the church. It must be inclusive and comfortable. Some changes that had been added on for the sake of comfort rather than art and were justifiable because the former state of the church “had been detrimental to health for a long time on account of the coldness of the marble and the copper and had caused great hardship to those who constantly attended service in church” (Suger, p.148). Even the changes that appear indulgent and superfluous could be justified with Suger's purpose of art. Faith must be kept comfortable in his
Faith is an important aspect in everybody. It helps us see God, and believe in him. Our faith is always tested when there is a hard theological decision to make or somebody else trying to break your bold with God. The movie Field of Dreams, is a great example of how staying true to your faith can sometimes be hard.
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
In Paul Tillich’s 1957 work Dynamics of Faith, he mentions that there are six major components of faith. These six components of faith describe the Franciscan perspective of “faith”. According to Tillich, the first component of faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned”. The second component of faith is that it is supposed to be at the center of all of our personal lives and everything that we do throughout our own individual lives. The third component of faith is that we should have an awareness for “infinite” things such as God himself. The fourth component of faith is that we need to understand that faith can act as fear, fascination, or both of these qualities at the same time. The fifth component of faith is that doubt is a major product that will always exist with faith. The last component of faith is that we need a community in order to have a “language of faith”.
Tillich defines faith. Dynamics of Faith opens with the most important quote of the entire book: “Faith is the state of being ultimately concerned” (1). Being faithful means being constantly fully concerned with a proper ultimate concern. Tillich defines an ultimate concern as something that “demands the total surrender of him who accepts this claim, and it promises total fulfillment even if all other claims have to be subjected to it or rejected in its name” (1-2). Tillich warns that not all ultimate concerns are equal and that one can only be fully faithful through the pursuit of a proper ultimate concern (i.e. the infinite). Tillich contrasts this with the common mistake many in society today make of using success (or something like it) as one’s ultimate concern. While success serves as an ideal ultimate concern in that it can easily command one fully, it is not a way to achieve faith because no one will ever find true fulfillment through the pursuit of success due to its finite nature (Tillich 3-4). Tillich highlights the point that faith must be a conscious act, a choice. This is because, while faith has an emotional component, “emotion does not produce faith” (Tillich 8). Another major component of Tillich’s faith definition is authentic faith’s direction towards the infinite. Faith is motivated by the finite subject’s drive to reach the infinite object of his or her ultimate concern (Tillich
The Basilica of St. Denis contributed to the rise of the Catholic Church, for it provided a physical representation of the “Holy Jerusalem”, for many people to see. By viewing this representation of heaven, many people reestablished their faith into the church and longed for salvation, so that they can be accepted into the “spiritual heaven” after their death. This desperate attempt to gain salvation caused individuals to devote themselves to the church, which brought the Catholic Church leverage, power, and wealth.
From the Catholic observation point, the Church presents two parts: One representing its divine nature as the untarnished body of Christ, and one direc...
Abbot Suger explicitly shows his adoration of fanciful ornament and illustrates quite vividly how this equates to his devotion to God: “Thus sometimes when, because of my delight in the beauty of the house of God, the multicolor loveliness of the gems has called me away from external cares, and worthy meditation, transporting me from material to immaterial things, has persuaded me to examine the diversity of holy virtues, then I seem to see myself existing on some level, as it were, beyond our earthly one, neither completely in the slime of earth nor completely in the purity of heaven. By the gift of God I can be transported in an anagogical manner from this inferior level to that superior one.”
The church and the Christians who run and attend it do not suffer on a material or temporal level, but rather dwell in “spiritual misery” as Spener calls it. This misery stems from what he calls the “defects” in the different levels of the church, among the groups of the civil authorities, the clergy, and the laity. In regards to the civil authorities, they appear to have forgotten that they can use what authority and power that they have to advance God’s kingdom. Spener even boldly proclaims that few members of the civil authorities actually know what Christianity is if one is to base that claim on their behavior. Perhaps the most shocking statement that he makes is that maybe even those who live under the rule of someone who follows a false religion are better off than the Christians who live under the rule of “nominal”
... in the church so much that they were willing to devote their whole lives to it. Whilst this period did see a rise in the influence of the church, this reflected a need for people to find some comfort against the hardships of disease, wars and the chaos from government collapsing.
How a person lives their life in regards to the ultimate concern makes it their idol. Ultimate concern demands total surrender by the person and promises total fulfillment even if all other claims have to be subjected to it or rejected in its name (Morrison, 2011).Tillich had much to say on the subject of “faith.” He developed his apologetics to provide a convincing argument for faith in God by saying that faith differs from common understanding. Tillich stated, “There is hardly a word in the religious language. Both theoretical and popular, which is subject to more misunderstandings, distortions, and questionable definitions than the word faith” (Morrison, 2011).Tillich stated in his argument that although faith can change; losing one’s faith is illogical.
is prevented from this drastic step only by a faith which teaches him that God
The role of faith has been debated among many theologians, scientists, and philosophers. It has been greatly discussed and depicted throughout history as whether faith is logical when it comes to religion or whether faith is completely absurd. In this essay, I will focus on the role of faith through the lenses of Christian philosophers Sorean Kierkegaard and Paul Tillich. Faith plays an important role in Kierkegaard and Tillich theology; I will critically examine their depiction of faith and compare and contrast their passages. Kiergarrd view of faith is that it is completely absurd where as Ti
There are many studies about the history of churches and how many people pictured and tried to understand the church. Avery Dulles author of, “Models of the Church” was first published in 1974 revealing the missions in the church as models, in the terms of the Institution model, Communion model, Sacrament model, Herald model and the Servant model. All of the models are pretty crucial to the church but there are two that most stood out for me to talk about for the importance and unimportance of understanding the church. In this essay I will be summarizing the Herald and Sacrament models and why the Herald model is most important for understanding the church, and why the Sacrament model is the least important for understanding the church.
A prime example of this is the reconstruction and redecoration of the Cathedral at Saint Denis under Abbott Suger. Suger, whom is credited with many of the concepts associated with Gothic architecture and design, envisioned a cathedral whose grandiose embellishments were equivalent to the praise he bestowed upon the God. These designs have truly stood the test of time. Originally conceived to handle the large amounts of traffic during pilgrimages. Many of these 11th century Gothic cathedrals still stand today and still welcome thousands of loyal pilgrims each
Paul tells us to “fight the good fight of faith” (Tim. 6:12). We must not hold on to unbelief. When we give ourselve...