THE PASSION OF THE IMAGE. Chapter 21

Pre print edition

1 ABSTRACT Volume 1 of the Trilogy of Alétheia – STANCE AGAINST EPISTEMICIDE – in the guise of a ‘Manifest,’ presents the topological modeling of the Synthesis Epistemology. It is a tentative rejoinder to the contemporary paradigmatic crisis, which impedes proactive and convergent understanding and knowledge. The text is accessible for download in this Academia at the following link: https://www.academia.edu/114867232/STANCE_AGAINST_EPISTEMICIDE. Volume 2 of the Trilogy of Alétheia – VALUE OF THE TRUTH – applied the synthesis topological model to clarify the epistemic mode of production of the Lore in SCIENCE and PHILOSOPHY. Discussion of the text is open in this Academia at the following link: https://www.academia.edu/s/52828b800b?source=link. This Trilogy’s Volume 3 – RELIGION AND ART: THE ULTIMATE EPISTEMIC RESILIENCY AND AGENCY – explores the compatibility of the paradigmatic model of Epistemology of Synthesis and its theoretical potentiality in the critical and crucial rescuing of resilient stands of the Lore – in the structural scopes of religious and artistic communicative acting and performing – from the memory of civilization. It intends to promote their re(funding) as a contribution to the harmonic convergence of the powers that sustain our species’ life journey. It aims, at least, to contribute to avoiding the skeptical withdrawal of Mankind’s Will off the road of communicative self-reflection – a humble and incipient call from the ashes of their tragic journeys, which claims for the flight of Phoenix that represents, in terms of this epistemic démarche, the ultimate value of Truth as promise and the agency of Love as redemption.

Painting, Sculpture and the Religious Dimension, 2003

2017

x journey. I am grateful for the whole Menikoff family for the quick friendship they have forged with my family in welcoming us to Mount Vernon Baptist Church. To our new church family at MVBC, thank you for the prayers and encouragement. Finally, there are those that no matter the effort put into research and writing, I know that without them this dissertation would have never begun or have been completed. The Sutherlands: Chuck, Janice, David, and Rhonda; thank you for the encouragement and prayers throughout this entire process. Particularly Janice, who made me promise that she be the first one to read this dissertation. I hope that it is an encouragement to you! Chip and Amy Rogers: for allowing my family and I to utilize your place on the beach for rest and relaxation while I completed the writing. Mom, tío and tía; thank you for your constant prayers. The Casas clan: Ann, Ellie, and Jonathan, I love you so much! My life would be truly incomplete without you. My dear Ann, my love, thank you for your perseverance, encouragement, prayers, and your love. And to my Lord Jesus Christ-Lord you know that in the end these words mean so little compared to your infinite glory, vast wisdom, and deep love. Thank you for saving me and for allowing me a small glimpse into your eternal truth.

Intersections, 2002

2022

Our lives are saturated with images. They exert an unparalleled power in contemporary culture. However, the power of images is in fact nothing new. Although texts are often the most important historical sources for academics, the image played an enormous role for those who actually lived in these past societies. Images communicated all manner of concepts and messages to a much wider audience than theological texts. Throughout history, images frequently depicted God, human beings, and their relationship in a manner that was meant to teach theology and inspire awe. Historically speaking, most people who have done theological reflection have done so in intimate conversation with the images seen in sacred spaces. This volume explores how images themselves are theology, how they influence sacred texts and theological concepts in a way that words cannot on their own. In part one, the book presents five essays investigating the ways in which images have shaped sacred and theological texts. In part two, the book offers five discussions of the sort of theological work that images can perform that words are unable to do. The volume concludes by outlining areas for future research and exploration based on the insights achieved among the chapters. The collection is, in its totality, a celebration of how central the image has been in shaping theology and how it should continue to do so.

1996

Manner matters: the way theology is expressed is integral to the message itself. In our single-minded attempts to articulately and comprehensively explain the intricacies of the content of the faith, we often overlook the issue of how this is being done. Do substance and form complement each other? This issue is not peripheral, but central to the theological task, for theology is first and foremost about incarnational truth.7 God is not simply an amorphous, disembodied word from beyond, but the Word made flesh. Because God chose this method to reveal himself, theology must follow suite and be enfleshed in a form suitable to its content. Theology is fides quaerens intellectum, conversionem et mutationem, for it seeks what God seeks: that all humanity “be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). The kind of understanding theology seeks is primarily about the movement and growth of relationship—the intermingling of the flesh and spirit, the seen and unseen, the human and divine. Thus, in both its substance and manner theology must often move beyond the cognitive to the creative, from scientific formulations to artistic forms.

The Passion of the Image. Chapter 20, 2025

If I may I would like to begin this chapter with a personal note. I fell in love with John’s Gospel when I was fifteen years old while being taught by the Cabra Dominicans. I immersed myself in the way he wrote, his spiritual insights into the mutual indwelling, his High Priestly Prayer. I was too young to think it through, but I felt it in my soul. The death of my parents when I was ten had plunged me into a new way of being and John’s openness to spiritual realities was magnetic for me. I was in awe of him, and understood on a level I could not articulate. At university I instinctively approached him from within his Semitic sources, not directly. Consequently, I spent decades in the monastic life working on the texts from which he drew and developed his Christology. Finally I am turning to the subject of The Word purely and directly. As I have approached the Johannine corpus through his spiritual heritage in the Hebrew and Aramaic texts, I leave aside what so many excellent exegetes have written on well worn themes in John, and try to unveil some of these Semitic relationships as I have done throughout Volume 4. I bring my years of Lectio Divina as much as my knowledge of the languages to this task. It is from within this history and respect for the Fourth Gospel, that I embark with deep joy, upon The Word, as John wrote of Him.