Christian Images and Allegorical Hermeneutics
Author: YANG Daosheng, Professor, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology
Abstract:
Each Religion has its own unique iconology expressing diverse and abundant messages. This paper discusses the close relationship between Christian images and allegorical hermeneutics through the detailed interpretion of a miniature “tree of life and death” by Bertold Furtmeyer. The author tries to present and compare two kinds of Christian image: 1) the narrative image, which expresses Christian doctrine through telling a story, and which corresponds to literary hermeneutics; 2) the symbolic image, which gives the image a special theological meaning based on allegorical hermeneutics, and which forms a particular Christian theology of the image. The reflection on Christian image and its theological function not only can help us understand the theology of image formulated in Middle Ages, but also the “Pictorial Turn” in the 20th century promoted by many great thinkers such as Foucault, Derrida, Lacan, etc. Most importantly, it helps us understand image itself.
Keywords:
Narrative image, Symbolic image, allegorical hermeneutics, typology, theology of image
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