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The grief of God : images of the suffering Jesus in late medieval England

Author: Ellen M Ross
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
Graphic portrayals of the suffering Jesus Christ pervade late medieval English art, literature, drama, and theology. These images have been interpreted as signs of a new emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. To others they indicate a fascination with a terrifying God of vengeance and a morbid obsession with death. In The Grief of God, however, Ellen Ross offers a different understanding of the purpose of this imagery
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Details

Named Person: Jesus Christ; Jésus-Christ; Jesus Christ
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Ellen M Ross
ISBN: 019510451X 9780195104516
OCLC Number: 34354945
Description: xiii, 200 p., 39 p. of plates : ill. ; 25 cm.
Contents: 1. The Dynamics of Divine Appeal: The Suffering Jesus in the Literature of Spiritual Guidance. Sermons and Spiritual Guidance Literature. Imitation of Jesus Christ in the Lives of Individual Believers: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Spiritual Anguish --
2. The Aesthetics of Suffering: Figuring the Crucified Jesus in Manuscripts and Wall Paintings. Psalters, Missals, and Books of Hours. Wall Paintings --
3. Dramas of Divine Compassion: The Figure of the Wounded Jesus and the Rhetoric of Appeal in the Mystery Plays. Testimony to the Immensity of Divine Love. Response to the Immensity of Divine Love --
4. Body, Power, and Mimesis: Holy Women as Purveyors of Divine Presence. Women's Bodies as Inscriptions of Divine Love: Margaret of Antioch and Katherine of Alexandria. An Athlete of the Passion of Christ: Elizabeth of Spalbeek. The Body as Parable of Divine Sorrow: Margery Kempe.
Responsibility: Ellen M. Ross.
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Abstract:

Graphic portrayals of the suffering Jesus Christ pervade late medieval English art, literature, drama, and theology. These images have been interpreted as signs of a new emphasis on the humanity of Jesus. To others they indicate a fascination with a terrifying God of vengeance and a morbid obsession with death. In The Grief of God, however, Ellen Ross offers a different understanding of the purpose of this imagery and its meaning to the people of the time.

Analyzing a wide range of textual and pictorial evidence, the author finds that the bleeding flesh of the wounded Savior manifests divine presence; in the intensified corporeality of the suffering Jesus whose flesh not only condemns, but also nurtures, heals, and feeds, believers meet a trinitarian God of mercy.

Ross explores the rhetoric of transformation common to English medieval artistic, literary, and devotional sources. The extravagant depictions of pain and anguish, the author shows, constitute an urgent appeal to respond to Jesus' expression of love. She also explains how the inscribing of Christ's pain on the bodies of believers at times erased the boundaries between human and divine so that holy persons, and in particular, holy women, participated in the transformative power of Christ.

This interdisciplinary study of sermon literature, manuscript illuminations and church wall paintings, drama, hagiographic narratives, and spiritual treatises illuminates the religious sensibilities, practices, and beliefs that constellate around the late medieval fascination with the bleeding body of the suffering Jesus Christ.

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