Religious Art

BL An exploration of the role of early medieval religious art in its historical context, focusing on England from the reign of Alfred the Great to the aftermath of the Norman conquest. Tenth and eleventh century society expressed itself extensively through visual means, and the surviving material provides a rich body of evidence for the religious culture of the time. Combining visual and documentary evidence, The Role of Art in the Late Anglo-Saxon Church sheds new light on a wide range of magnificent art works and their functions, and offers fresh perspectives on the ecclesiastical history and beliefs of late Anglo Saxon England, with important implications for the study of early medieval civilization in general.

In this interdisciplinary inquiry, John Clifford Holt seeks to uncover how Buddhism was understood and expressed during the waning years of indigenous political power in Asia's oldest continuing Buddhist culture. Holt focusses on King Kirti Sri Rajasinha and how, despite powerful and persistent Dutch colonial threats and a deeply suspicious Kandyan Buddhist Sinhalese aristocracy, he successfully revived Sinhalese Theravada Buddhism. As Holt demonstrates, Kirti Sri succeeded in formulating his vision of an orthodox Buddhism in a number of ways: through the patronage of monastic sanha and re-establishing traditional lines of ordination, translating the Pali suttas into Sinhala, sponsoring public Buddhist religious rites, and refurbishing almost all Buddhist temples in the Kandyan culture region. The ultimate aim of Holt's study is to describe and interpret Kirti Sri's articulation of a normative Buddhist world, the essentials of which remain normative for many Buddhists in the Kandyan region of Sri Lanka today. Scholars and students will find The Religious World of Kirti Sri is an indispensable resource for the understanding of orthodox Buddhism at this important historical juncture, as well as the present day.

Does the discipline of art history encourage the idea of the nonartistic Jew? Covering the last two centuries, "The Nation without Art illuminates the ways in which theorists, critics, and artists have sought to subvert, overcome, or work within the paradigm of the nonartistic Jew.

'The variety of subjects is awesome, as is the sustained iconography of their symbols and emblems. A work of major importance.' - Choice