Day 6. September 13, 2006
Movement 1. Dei Filius
Lecture 3. Dei Filius: The Jesus of the Catholic World (Part 2)
Jesus and Mary both served as models of perfect sacrifice in the medieval Catholic Church. But their representation in art evolved. In early Christianity, Jesus was often depicted in parabolic fashion, e.g., a fish, the vine. But in the West as the medieval period unfolded Jesus increasingly was portrayed as 'Christ in Glory.' In the Eastern Church, which split with the West in the 11th century partly over issues surrounding icons of Jesus and the saints, icons continued to be accepted and venerated as direct representations of the divine. By 1500 the Roman Catholic Church had unified Europe for 1,000 years with a common religious faith and church organization, with a shared language and cosmos, and with its political influence. Corruption set in at the top and bottom of the church hierarchy, but the invention of the printing press made possible permanent reform and helped set in motion the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. The Jesus of the Protestant Reformation departed dramatically from the human and suffering Jesus of the Catholic Cosmos.