Read more
“No one has done more in this generation to demonstrate the centrality of images and visual practices in Christianity than David Morgan. Over many years, Morgan has taught us not only that the holy and the human have looked at each other through the centuries in the medium of images, but just what a complex religious practice it is to look. In The Forge of Vision he extends this analysis to the making of modern Christianity. Immensely learned and beautifully written and illustrated, this is a masterwork by a scholar absolutely at the top of his game.”—Robert Orsi, Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University
“David Morgan’s newest book focuses on the links between vision, modernity, and Christian thought and practice since the sixteenth century. Tracing how image and imagination contributed to the history and development of modern Catholicism and Protestantism, Morgan further considers how Christianity was an important model for ‘valorizing artistic creation’ and contributing to the ‘modern legacy of art as a spiritual force.’”—Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame
“The Forge of Vision makes apparent David Morgan’s remarkable grasp of Christian visuality in both its Protestant and Catholic modes. With a tenacity to match his insightfulness, he has made the imbrication of religion and image his distinct métier and reveals anew in these pages the vital importance of attending to the material interfaces of Christian devotion. His intellectual reach from Calvin and Ignatius through Kandinsky and Foucault—and much in-between—is exceptional.”—Leigh E. Schmidt, Washington University in St. Louis
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I. WORD AND IMAGE
1. The Shape of the Holy
2. The Visible Word
PART II. THE TRAFFIC OF IMAGES
3. Religion as Sacred Economy
4. The Agency of Words
5. Christianity and Nationhood
6. The Likeness of Jesus
7. Modern Art and Christianity
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
David Morgan is Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies. He is the author of The Embodied Eye: Religious Visual Culture and the Social Life of Feeling and The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice, and coeditor of the journal Material Religion.
Summary
Tells the history of Christianity from the sixteenth century by selecting the visual themes of faith that have profoundly influenced its development. This book examines a variety of Christian visual practices, ranging from the imagination, visions of nationhood, the likeness of Jesus, and the role of modern art as a spiritual quest.
Additional text
"David Morgan has been one of the most important pioneers in exploring the visual world of religion—particularly that of American Christianity—and The Forge of Vision might be regarded as summa Morganensis.... Challenging and provocative."
