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Blindfolded

Blindfolded In a monograph-length contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium on contextualism, the journal's editor decontextualizes and then recontextualizes the medieval iconographic trope of Ecclesia and Synagoga in an effort to make plausible a news story about Pope Francis that received little coverage in the press. During 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate, Francis paid a surprise visit to a new statue in the United States, “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time” by Joshua Koffman, as a sign of his endorsement of its radical reconsideration of a trope long associated with anti-Jewish sentiment in the Catholic Church. This article, which begins with a detailed analysis of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's essay on the Nostra Aetate treatise De Iudaeis, deals primarily with twelfth- and thirteenth-century uses of the iconography. Special attention is paid to the Anagogical Window of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and to the Ecclesia, Synagoga, and King Solomon statues on the south facade of Strasbourg Cathedral, in both of which is found previously overlooked evidence of philo-Semitic, rather than anti-Semitic, thinking on the part of the designers. The article concludes that contextualist scholars of medieval art have found what they expected to find and ignored contrary indications. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Common Knowledge Duke University Press

Blindfolded

Perl, Jeffrey M.
Common Knowledge , Volume 28 (1) – Jan 1, 2022
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77 pages

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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by Duke University Press
ISSN
0961-754X
eISSN
1538-4578
DOI
10.1215/0961754x-9713591
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In a monograph-length contribution to the Common Knowledge symposium on contextualism, the journal's editor decontextualizes and then recontextualizes the medieval iconographic trope of Ecclesia and Synagoga in an effort to make plausible a news story about Pope Francis that received little coverage in the press. During 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the Vatican II declaration Nostra Aetate, Francis paid a surprise visit to a new statue in the United States, “Synagoga and Ecclesia in Our Time” by Joshua Koffman, as a sign of his endorsement of its radical reconsideration of a trope long associated with anti-Jewish sentiment in the Catholic Church. This article, which begins with a detailed analysis of Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's essay on the Nostra Aetate treatise De Iudaeis, deals primarily with twelfth- and thirteenth-century uses of the iconography. Special attention is paid to the Anagogical Window of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and to the Ecclesia, Synagoga, and King Solomon statues on the south facade of Strasbourg Cathedral, in both of which is found previously overlooked evidence of philo-Semitic, rather than anti-Semitic, thinking on the part of the designers. The article concludes that contextualist scholars of medieval art have found what they expected to find and ignored contrary indications.

Journal

Common Knowledge – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2022

References

  • Introduction
    Abelson, Joshua Sperling, Harry Simone, Maurice Levertoff, Paul P.
  • Our Days
    Armantrout, Rae
  • Gnade und Berufung ohne Reue: Anmerkungen zum Traktat ‘De Iudaeis.’
  • Grace and Vocation without Remorse: Comments on the Treatise De Iudaeis
    Healy, Nicholas J.Jr.
  • Hugh and Richard of Saint-Victor
  • The Attitude of St. Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews
    Berger, David
  • Apology
    Burr, David
  • Letter 19 (AD 1127) to Suger, Abbot of S. Denis
    Gasquet, Francis Aidan
  • Letter to Eastern France and Bavaria promoting the Second Crusade, 1146. Primary Texts on History of Relations
  • Saint-Denis: The Anagogical and Moses Windows
    Bloch, Howard
  • Alternative Modes of Thought
    Burke, Peter
  • The Presence of Objects: Medieval Anti-Judaism in Modern Germany
    Bynum, Caroline Walker
  • Vatican II and the Jews
    Cartus, F. E.
  • Pseudo-Dionysius in the Twelfth Century Latin West
    Colter, Dale
  • The Infancy of Christ Window from the Abbey of St.-Denis: A Reconsideration of Its Design and Iconography
    Cothren, Michael W.
  • The Matter of Others: Menstrual Blood and Uncontrolled Semen in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalists’ Polemic against Christians, ‘Bad’ Jews, and Muslims
    Cuffel, Alexandra Smith, Katherine Allen Wells, Scott
  • The Power of Morphological Thinking
    Dyson, Freeman
  • Tradition and the Individual Talent
    Eliot, T. S.
  • A Jewish View of the Christian God: Some Cautionary and Hopeful Remarks
    Ellenson, David Frymer-Kensky, Tikva et al
  • Abbot Suger and the Temple in Jerusalem: A New Interpretation of the Sacred Environment in the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis
    Frank, Jacqueline Clark, William Anderson, Christy
  • The Unifications of the Emotive Sefirot
  • L'Abbaye de Saint-Denis et les Juifs sous l'abbatiat de Suger
    Graboïs, Aryeh
  • Pope Francis Makes Surprise Stop to Bless Statue of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue
  • Isis Has No Veils,
    Hadot, Pierre Chase, Michael
  • Retired Pope Benedict Accused of Anti-Semitism after Article on Christians and Jews
    Heneghan, Tom
  • Regulating Women's Fashion
    Hughes, Diane Owen Kapisch-Zuber, Christiane
  • Defining Kabbalah: The Kabbalah of the Divine Names
    Idel, Moshe Herrera, Robert A.
  • On Some Forms of Order in Kabbalah
    Idel, Moshe
  • Two Prostitutes as Mothers: Midrash and Aggadah
    Kadari, Tamar
  • Making Sense of the Formula of Chalcedon: The Cappadocians and Aristotle in Leontius of Byzantium's Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos
    Krausmüller, Dirk
  • ‘Fair and Friendly, Sweet and Beautiful’: Hopes for Jewish Conversion in Synagoga's Song of Songs Imagery
    Monroe, Elizabeth Merback, Mitchell
  • Inscriptions about Jesus on Islam's Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
  • Commentary upon the ‘Liber de Rebus in Administratione Sua Gestis’
    Panofsky, Erwin
  • Postel, Guillaume
    Silverman, Godfrey Edmond Berenbaum, Michael Skolnik, Fred
  • The Last Oral Torah? Division of the Torah into ‘Aliyot
    Stulberg, Ephraim
  • Suger's Miracles, Branner's Bourges: Reflections on ‘Gothic Architecture’ as Medieval Modernism
    Trachtenberg, Marvin
  • The Old Testament Image and the Rise of Crusader Culture in France
    Weiss, Daniel H. Weiss, Mahoney, Lisa
  • Who Is a Beautiful Maiden without Eyes? The Metamorphosis of a Zohar Midrashic Image from a Christian Allegory to a Kabbalistic Metaphor
    Weiss, Tzahi
  • Samson's Touch and a Thin Red Line: Reading the Bodies of Saints and Jews in Bury St Edmunds
    Widner, Michael
  • This Strange Speech
    Wood, Christopher S. Hess, Daniel Eser, Tomas
  • Suger, Theology, and the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition
    Zinn, Grover A. Gerson, Paula Lieber
  • Introduction
    Abelson, Joshua Sperling, Harry Simone, Maurice Levertoff, Paul P.
  • Our Days
    Armantrout, Rae
  • Gnade und Berufung ohne Reue: Anmerkungen zum Traktat ‘De Iudaeis.’
  • Grace and Vocation without Remorse: Comments on the Treatise De Iudaeis
    Healy, Nicholas J.Jr.
  • Hugh and Richard of Saint-Victor
  • The Attitude of St. Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews
    Berger, David
  • Apology
    Burr, David
  • Letter 19 (AD 1127) to Suger, Abbot of S. Denis
    Gasquet, Francis Aidan
  • Letter to Eastern France and Bavaria promoting the Second Crusade, 1146. Primary Texts on History of Relations
  • Saint-Denis: The Anagogical and Moses Windows
    Bloch, Howard
  • Alternative Modes of Thought
    Burke, Peter
  • The Presence of Objects: Medieval Anti-Judaism in Modern Germany
    Bynum, Caroline Walker
  • Vatican II and the Jews
    Cartus, F. E.
  • Pseudo-Dionysius in the Twelfth Century Latin West
    Colter, Dale
  • The Infancy of Christ Window from the Abbey of St.-Denis: A Reconsideration of Its Design and Iconography
    Cothren, Michael W.
  • The Matter of Others: Menstrual Blood and Uncontrolled Semen in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalists’ Polemic against Christians, ‘Bad’ Jews, and Muslims
    Cuffel, Alexandra Smith, Katherine Allen Wells, Scott
  • The Power of Morphological Thinking
    Dyson, Freeman
  • Tradition and the Individual Talent
    Eliot, T. S.
  • A Jewish View of the Christian God: Some Cautionary and Hopeful Remarks
    Ellenson, David Frymer-Kensky, Tikva et al
  • Abbot Suger and the Temple in Jerusalem: A New Interpretation of the Sacred Environment in the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis
    Frank, Jacqueline Clark, William Anderson, Christy
  • The Unifications of the Emotive Sefirot
  • L'Abbaye de Saint-Denis et les Juifs sous l'abbatiat de Suger
    Graboïs, Aryeh
  • Pope Francis Makes Surprise Stop to Bless Statue of Catholic-Jewish Dialogue
  • Isis Has No Veils,
    Hadot, Pierre Chase, Michael
  • Retired Pope Benedict Accused of Anti-Semitism after Article on Christians and Jews
    Heneghan, Tom
  • Regulating Women's Fashion
    Hughes, Diane Owen Kapisch-Zuber, Christiane
  • Defining Kabbalah: The Kabbalah of the Divine Names
    Idel, Moshe Herrera, Robert A.
  • On Some Forms of Order in Kabbalah
    Idel, Moshe
  • Two Prostitutes as Mothers: Midrash and Aggadah
    Kadari, Tamar
  • Making Sense of the Formula of Chalcedon: The Cappadocians and Aristotle in Leontius of Byzantium's Contra Nestorianos et Eutychianos
    Krausmüller, Dirk
  • ‘Fair and Friendly, Sweet and Beautiful’: Hopes for Jewish Conversion in Synagoga's Song of Songs Imagery
    Monroe, Elizabeth Merback, Mitchell
  • Inscriptions about Jesus on Islam's Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
  • Commentary upon the ‘Liber de Rebus in Administratione Sua Gestis’
    Panofsky, Erwin
  • Postel, Guillaume
    Silverman, Godfrey Edmond Berenbaum, Michael Skolnik, Fred
  • The Last Oral Torah? Division of the Torah into ‘Aliyot
    Stulberg, Ephraim
  • Suger's Miracles, Branner's Bourges: Reflections on ‘Gothic Architecture’ as Medieval Modernism
    Trachtenberg, Marvin
  • The Old Testament Image and the Rise of Crusader Culture in France
    Weiss, Daniel H. Weiss, Mahoney, Lisa
  • Who Is a Beautiful Maiden without Eyes? The Metamorphosis of a Zohar Midrashic Image from a Christian Allegory to a Kabbalistic Metaphor
    Weiss, Tzahi
  • Samson's Touch and a Thin Red Line: Reading the Bodies of Saints and Jews in Bury St Edmunds
    Widner, Michael
  • This Strange Speech
    Wood, Christopher S. Hess, Daniel Eser, Tomas
  • Suger, Theology, and the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition
    Zinn, Grover A. Gerson, Paula Lieber