The Reformed tradition, following Zwingli and especially Calvin, excluded images from the churches. Calvin rejected the sacred images of his day as idolatrous on the grounds that they were treated as making God present, that the necessary distinction between God and God’s material creation was not maintained, and because an image, which rightly was to be mimetic of visible reality, could not truthfully depict God. Calvin approved the Renaissance notion of visual art as mimetic and he understood that artists’ abilities were gifts of God and were to be used rightly. He also had a very keenly developed visual aesthetic sense in relation to nature as the “mirror” of God’s glory. However, the strong human tendency towards idolatry before images, he believed, meant that it was not expedient to place any pictures in the churches. Reinterpretation of key biblical passages, particularly the first and second commandments (Calvin’s numbering), together with changes in the understanding of what constitutes visual art, of the relationships between words and visual images, and of the processes of interpretation and reception not only of texts but of all perceived reality, lead to a re-thinking of the issues. The biblical narrative with its theological insights can be interpreted into a visual language and used by the church as complementary to, but never replacing, biblical preaching and teaching in words. Attention to the visual aesthetic dimensions of the worship space is important to allow for this space to function as an invitation and call to worship. Its form, colour, light and adorning may give aesthetic delight, which leads to praise and thanksgiving, or it may provoke other response which helps people prepare to offer worship to God. The world and its people depicted in visual art/image may inform the praying of the church and the visual representation of the church (the saints) may provide congregations with an awareness of the breadth of the church at worship in heaven and on earth. In the present diversity of views about visual art and the work of the artist there is freedom for the artist to re-think the question of vocation and artists may find new opportunities for understanding and exercising their vocation not only in secular art establishments and the community but also in relation to the worship of the church.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:59:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disercris.pdf: 2825028 bytes, checksum: ff4c7dbb13664157382c8eeb0d8aef4e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-11-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente pesquisa - inscrita como uma História do Tempo Presente - propôs uma reflexão crítica sobre as representações de gênero produzidas a partir das imagens sacras femininas e de como se inscrevem nos corpos das mulheres na contemporaneidade. Com o auxílio de referências teórico-metodológicos foucaultianos e outros suportes teóricos incorporados pela História Cultural, analisou-se, neste trabalho, as formas de atuação do poder exercido e difundido pela Igreja Católica sobre os usos e cuidados dos corpos das mulheres e a relação desses discursos com as práticas, através de depoimentos e entrevistas realizadas com 35 mulheres que freqüentam cotidianamente três igrejas católicas de Florianópolis. O uso da categoria gênero opera aqui, para que sejam analisados os percursos e experiências destas mulheres, desvendando imaginários femininos, identidades fronteiriças, sociais, políticas e culturais. O trabalho procurou problematizar como as mulheres que se autodenominam católicas redefinem valores religiosos e os relacionam a questões como sexualidade, corpo, participação feminina em diferentes dimensões sociais e políticas, forjando novas identidades e metamorfoses sobre a condição feminina na religião católica hoje. Procura-se, assim, evidenciar o caráter histórico, cultural, religioso do corpo produzido pelo discurso religioso católico, demarcando seu poder de criação, saberes, resistências, transformações, materialidade, efeitos, características binárias entre o sagrado e o profano, o permitido e o proibido. E, ainda, perceber nas histórias de fé e religiosidade das mulheres que freqüentam as igrejas, seus papéis, a diversidade de representações , permanências e mudanças na história do presente