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October 15, 2006
Bible in Art
I hate this time of the semester - I'm choosing textbooks for next semester and suddenly getting more interested in that than this.
On the other hand, I'm teaching the first half of medieval for the first time in 2 years (it's a long story involving a leave and team-teaching for why I haven't lately). I haven't decided yet, but I did decide to look at the handouts I use for Bible Knowledge.
You see, I gave up long ago. None of them know anything about scripture. None of them will have learned anything about scripture since they got to college which would be useful for understanding the cultural deposit. Therefore I have to teach them - or stop and explain every other slide.
So my Art 270, Art of the First Christian Millennium, begins with a Bible Knowledge workbook. I've been doing and redoing this for a few iterations (including the semester in Rome) and it's getting pretty sophisticated. I sat down just now and flipped through my currently favored textbook and checked and am pleased with how closely the images they chose match my list of themes to cover.
Click on extended entry if you want my current list of what will get you through a pre-Renaissance art course.
Infancy – Annunciation
Infancy - Visitation
Infancy – Nativity
Infancy – Visit of the Shepherds, Magi
Infancy – Flight into Egypt
Infancy – Herod and the Innocents
Miracles – healing blind man
Miracles – Lepers
Miracles - Raising of Lazarus
Miracles – Woman with Flow of Blood
Mission – Feed my Sheep
Mission - John the Baptist
Mission – Mary & Martha
Mission - Parables - Shepherds
Mission - Parables - Vines
Mission - Peter & Keys
Mission – Storm on Sea of Galilee
Mission - Transfiguration
Mission - Whoever has done it unto the least of these…
Passion – Christ before Pilate
Passion – Crucifixion
Passion - Entry into Jerusalem
Passion – Garden of Gethsemane
Passion – Lamentation / Deposition
Post-Passion – Ascension
Post-Passion – Doubting Thomas
Post-Passion – Emmaus
Post-Passion – Harrowing of Hell
Post-Passion – Marys at tomb
Acts - descriptiosn of early Church (esp house space)
Acts – Peter and Tabitha (unusual choice)
Acts - Pentecost
Apocalypse – 144,000
Apocalypse – 4 Horsemen
Apocalypse – Devil bound
Apocalypse – Firey furnace
Apocalypse - Heaven – Elders on Thrones
Apocalypse – Matthew version – in the sky
Apocalypse – One Enthroned on Rainbow
Apocalypse – Woman Clothed with the Sun
Marian – Coronation
Marian – Dormition
Genesis - Adam & Eve
Genesis – Cain & Abel
Genesis – Noah
Genesis - Abraham – 3 Visitors, Sacrifice of Isaac
Genesis – Jacob & Esau
Genesis – Joseph
Exodus – Red Sea
Exodus – Bronze serpent*
Samuel – Choosing of David
Samuel – David & Goliath
Samuel – Jesse’s Dream / Tree of Jesse
Kings - Ark of the Covenant
Jonah – under gourd vine as well as Whale bit
Daniel – Susannah and the Elders
Psalms – David as composer
Psalm 1
Psalm 22/23
Psalm 43/44
Psalm 150
Posted by CrankyProfessor at October 15, 2006 8:11 PM
Comments
In the Frosh Seminar I work with, "Odyssey and Enlightenment," the class was analyzing one of my most favorite poems, "The Congo" by Vachel Lindsey. I had one pair go over references to Christianity in the work of verse and its role in contrast to the native paganism. This group had apperant problems in the analysis. One gal openly admitted that she knew little about Christianity even though from her prior statements she had posed as an informed critic of Trinitarianism and orthodox Christianity. The other Billy Smith student knew just as much. If the Elementary, Middle, and High Schools provide no help in addition to Parochial and Sunday School education then we are left with young adults ignorant of their Faith and even Heritage. Oh for the plight of the Uninformed and Misinformed!
Posted by: Hobart D7 at October 15, 2006 10:57 PM
Growing up in the southeast, I can attest to the fact that biblical knowledge is much more lacking here than in my homeland. Say what you will about the Baptists (I could say a lot) their Puritanical streak certainly puts an emphasis on Bible study. It's important, even for non-practitioners, in the sense that the rest of our culture is important. You wouldn't want to teach philosophy to someone who had never heard of Plato and you wouldn't want to teach art (history) to someone who had never heard of John the Baptist.
Posted by: D.Moore at October 16, 2006 10:26 AM
A couple of years ago I was teaching a course on the history of Christianity through to 450 AD as part of a first year undergrad course in Divinity. Admittedly, most of the students taking it come from other programmes, and are usually trying to better their grasp of Christian history and culture.
Still, as a preparatory to a discussion of Augustine's allegorisation of the Parable of the Good Samaritan, I asked if someone could recap the story for the class. There was one of those silences. When I asked for a show of hands, most of them had at least heard of the phrase "good samaritan." When I asked who knew the parable, about five in a class of 35 put up their hands. Scottish students tend to be a bit more bashful than their English and North American counterparts, but I suspect that this was still a pretty accurate reflection of the levels of awareness in the class.
Posted by: Nick at October 16, 2006 11:48 AM