Historically, the use of the medium of stained glass in the Eastern Orthodox Church has been very little explored. One likely reason is the late discovery of stained glass and its flowering in the context of the church architecture of the Roman Catholic Church from the twelfth century in northern Europe, postdating the Great Schism[…..]
Section: In Words and Images
The Anthropology of Artificial Beings in Fiction
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Datalore” (1988), the android Data proves to have an evil twin, Lore, who tries to bring humanity under his power. Data, on the other hand, is represented as an intelligent, candid, idealized man, acting only altruistically, always striving to improve his humanity. At the end of the[…..]
Image, Mind, and the Pursuit of “Pure Prayer”
What place, if any, does the imagination have in the practice of prayer? The fourth-century theologian Evagrius of Pontus’s Chapters on Prayer addresses the importance of “imageless prayer” in two places. “When you pray” cautions Evagrius, “do not form images of the divine within yourself, nor allow your mind to be impressed with any form,[…..]