The Bishop of one of the richest dioceses in the world (London), Richard Chartres is passionately concerned with preaching the Christian Gospel. For Chartres wisdom is a way of being in the world, respectful of other human beings, taking life, not for granted, but with thanksgiving to its Author. Having set out his basic theme in the first chapter, Bishop Chartres invites the reader to join him through the Church's year. At every turn he addresses the human condition of modern men and women and opens our eyes to endless possibilities in living the Gospel.
The signs of the zodiac paired with the labours of the months are common in medieval art. Countless variations appear in sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass and other media. A clear understanding of the oddities of two particular variations at Chartres Cathedral has long been elusive and problematic. The variation in the Royal Portal and another in the Zodiac Window are peculiar for two reasons. First, the sculptures are bi-directional in their calendrical sequencing with a disconnected placement of Gemini and Pisces. Second, the otherwise conventional calendrical sequence in the window transposes the placement of the May/Gemini pair with the April/Taurus pair. Considering that the sculpture and the glass both have an anomalous treatment of Gemini, this redundancy may be approached as a deliberate design decision made with the intention of conveying specific deeper meaning that would otherwise not have been possible. The hypothesis is that it may be understood as a visual metaphor intended to designate a biblically estimated duration of the Old Testament period.
Most people never think of it this way. Nevertheless, the Labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral is an unsurpassed marvel of medieval message engineering. Even the modern experts at NASA who designed the famous Voyager record cover could not do much better. Legault's close comparison of the medieval with the modern will leave your head spinning in admiration for the unsurpassed technological achievements of the priestly teachers of medieval Chartres. From a distance of some 800 years ago, they speak to us yet, through the floor slabs of their magnificent gothic monument.
A range of distinguished contributors from the media, journalism, the arts, politics and the church speak candidly and engagingly about their understanding and experience of faith, its impact on them and their work, and its place in public life. In one of her last public engagements before her death, PD James recalls how influential the language of Anglicanism was in shaping her as a writer. Jon Snow, a former cathedral chorister, reveals what goes through your mind when interviewing tyrants. Douglas Hurd reflects on the sometimes conflicted experience of faith in the public arena. John Simpson discloses what keeps you going when reporting on war from the front line. Rowan Williams gives a flavour of the sheer number of polarized opinions that an Archbishop of Canterbury has to try to manage at any one time. These and other well-known figures offer fascinating insights into living in the public eye as a person of faith. All royalties from the sale of this book will be given to the Winchester Cathedral Appeal.
When a young chambermaid is found dead, bitten by a cobra concealed in the bed of notorious libertine Armand de Périgord, Inspector Jean-Paul Gautier is certain that she was not the intended victim. The charismatic de Périgord is very wealthy and has never married, and some very salacious stories circulate regarding his many affairs. Could the cobra have been planted by a jealous husband or a jilted lover? When Gautier is put in touch with the widowed Catriona Becker to tutor him in English, he soon discovers that she has fallen victim to a ruthless blackmailer. The tale she tells him provides another insight into the shady activities of de Périgord and Gautier is soon facing more than one case of blackmail . . . and murder.
In the late 1600s and early 1700s, the French established forts, such as Fort de Chartres, in the midaMississippi Valley, as well as villages, such as River des Peres and Mine la Motte. Ste. Genevieve was founded in the late 1740s when French Canadians settled on the rich soil of the floodplain. They built homes, cultivated crops (including corn and cotton), and mined the rich veins of lead and the bluffs for stone. The great flood of 1785, referred to by early residents as laannA(c)e des grandes eaux, swept away the tiny village, and the mighty Mississippi River reclaimed its riverbed, forcing residents to move their village several miles farther west to higher ground. Today much of the early French culture remains in the numerous 18th- and 19th-century Creole houses that line the ancient streets. Germans began to arrive in the early 1800s and left their mark using the abundant clay and limestone for brick buildings and limestone houses. Ste. Genevieve is dotted with landmarks: the famous Bolduc House, the apost-in-the-grounda Amoureux House, the Felix VallA(c) House, and many other historic and architectural treasures.
The “aged queen of French cathedrals,” Victor Hugo called Notre-Dame. And ancient it was – nearly 700 years had passed since the Bishop Maurice de Sully decided that Paris needed a cathedral worthy of France’s capital. “Every face, every stone of the venerable monument,” Hugo continued, “is a page not only of the history of the country but also of the history of science and art.” Here, National Book Award Winner Richard Winston tells the dramatic story of the building of the great cathedral and the history that was made there – from the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the crowning of Napoleon to Charles de Gaulle’s celebration of the liberation of Paris from the Nazis.
Pontiac’s War: Its Causes, Course, and Consequence, 1763-1765 is a compelling retelling of one of the most pivotal points in American colonial history, in which the Native peoples staged one of the most successful campaigns in three centuries of European contact. With his balanced analysis of the organization and execution of this important conflict, Middleton sheds light on the military movement that forced the British imperial forces to reinstate diplomacy to retain their authority over the region. Spotlighting the Native American perspective, Pontiac’s War presents a careful, engaging account of how very close to success those Native American forces truly came.
In Holy Tears, Holy Blood, Richard D. E. Burton continues his investigation of Catholic France from Revolution to Liberation. From his focus in Blood in the City on public demonstrations of the cultural power of Catholicism, he now turns to more private rituals, those codes of conduct that shaped the interior lives of French Catholic women and determined their artistic and social presentation. "Here there is rather less blood, and considerably more weeping," Burton says. In portraits of eleven women, including Simone Weil and Sainte Thèrése, he traces the lasting power of particular expressions of suffering and sacrifice. How, Burton asks, does a rapidly modernizing society accommodate the cultural-historical legacy of religious belief, in particular the extreme conservative beliefs of ultramontane Catholicism? Burton pays particular attention to the doctrine of "vicarious suffering," whereby an individual suffers for the redemption of others, and to certain extreme forms of religious experience including stigmatization, self-starvation, visions, and apparitions.
This substantive yet easy-to-use guide to selected French gothic churches and cathedrals provides profiles of fourteen important religious buildings. They are located in different parts of France, were constructed at different times and in different styles, and include both well-known and less well-known churches and cathedrals. They range from the tiny church of Saint Maclou in Rouenperhaps the best example of flamboyant designto the worlds most visited Gothic cathedral, Notre Dame in Paris. A second section of the book considers what a Gothic cathedral is as well as their medieval setting and the many architectural, artistic, and spiritual elements that comprise a Gothic cathedral. The guide is lavishly illustrated with photos and helpful images to help the readers derive the maximum benefit and pleasure from their Gothic church and cathedral visits.
The social and political meaning of lordship in western France in the tenth and eleventh centuries is the focus of this study. It analyses the development and features of lordship as it was practised and experienced in Maine and the surrounding regions of France, emphasizing the social logic of lordship (why it worked as it did, and how it was socially justifiable and even necessary) and the role of honour and charisma in shaping lordship relationships. The vision and chronology of tenth- and eleventh-century lordship on offer here departs from the model of "feudal mutation", and emphasizes two major themes - the centrality of intangible, charismatic elements of honor, prestige and acclamation, and the lack of foundation for any notion of "feudal transformation": while acknowledging changes in the geography of power across the tenth and eleventh centuries, the argument insists that the practicalities of the practice of lordship remained essentially the same between 890 and 1160. RICHARD E. BARTON is assistant Professor of History, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
C. S. Lewis was a man of many talents: a literary critic, a Medieval and Renaissance scholar, a stimulating lecturer, a prolific writer, a perceptive critic of Western civilization, and the author of highly acclaimed children's books. But he is perhaps best known as the "unorthodox defender of orthodoxy," the most popular and influential Christian apologist of his time. His literary skill, his brilliant and wide-ranging mind, and his multi-layered imagination made him a master of communication and gave him insight into what should be communicated. This study of his work inquires what it is about his faith, his view of the world, and his apologetic methods that strikes such a responsive chord in the hearts of unchurched people; and it shows how he made the old ideas of traditional Christianity "glimmer and glow with simplicity and attractiveness." Lewis took up his apologetic pen because he felt that most theologians are talking jargon. "Any fool can write learned language," he said. "The vernacular is the real test. If you can't turn your faith into it, then either you don't understand it or you don't believe it." His books are unusual because he believed that "reason is the organ of truth; imagination is the organ of meaning." In the infernal correspondence of Screwtape, the haunting myths of his trilogy of space fiction, and the allegories of the Narnia books, he tries to bring the reader suddenly face to face with transcendental values and existential questions. Richard Cunningham evaluates the different kinds of literature Lewis uses as apologetic instruments, studies the devices and techniques of debate he employs to communicate his faith to unbelievers, and deduces some pertinent principles to help others define and understand the Christian faith.
This landmark book surveys the breadth of artist Newman's career, from his founding role in the New York School in the 1940s to his key influence on both minimalism and conceptual art in the 1960s. 3 8-page gatefolds. Over 300 illustrations.
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