In-visibility : Reflections Upon Visibility and Transcendence in Theology, Philosophy and the Arts

The content of the book reconsiders the relation between visibility and transcendence. The focus is especially on the contribution to this issue from the theological tradition in protestant Europe between the 16th and the 21st Centuries. In the book a thematically broad field is covered embracing more than five centuries and a plurality of methods drawn from theology, philosophy, and the history and theory of art.The book is divided into five sub-themes: In the first and more fundamental part, 'The phenomenology of in-visibility', questions underlying the other four themes are sought defined or narrowed down. Here the modes of appearing/revealing or hiding of phenomena are reflected. In the second section of the book dealing with 'Language as a mode of revealing and hiding' the specific role of verbal expressions understood in a very broad sense is at the core: What is the fundamental understanding and use of language, when speaking of the ineffable? The third section about 'Human existence between visibility and invisibility' focuses on theological anthropology: its features and norms. The ambiguity of anthropological categories such as faith, rationality, imagination, memory and emotion play a prominent role in this context.Thefourth section concerning 'The manifestation of a 'beyond' in the arts' investigates transcendence in the arts. What are the theological discourses behind the religious uses of the different artistic media (i.e. images, music, liturgical inventory, architecture)? Finally in the fifth section concerning 'Visible community and invisible transcendence' one finds contributions working with the idea of 'vicarious representation'. Contents Introduction Phenomenology of In-visibility Arne Grøn • Phenomenology of In-visibility Jonna Bornemark • Visibility and Invisibility in a Phenomenological Trisection of Experience Gavin Flood • Becoming Invisible and the Formal Indication of the Religious Life Language as a Mode of Revealing and Hiding George Pattison • Language and the Revelation of Silence. Reflections on Mystical Theology Iben Damgaard • “Look, there he stands – the god. Where? There. Can you not see him?” Poetic Refigurations of Christ in Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky Therese B. Solten • Hymn and Ending. The Scope of the Eyes of Faith in Grundtvig’s Hymn “Velkommen igien Guds engle smaa” Christine Helmer • To Refer or Not to Refer, That is the Question Human Existence between Visibility and Invisibility Antti Raunio • Inner and Outer Man in Luther’s Thought Anna Vind • Hoc est, tua iusticia non est visibilis, non est sensibilis. Glaube und christliches Leben bei Luther – mit einem kurzen Ausblick auf die lutherische Tradition in Dänemark Pierre Bühler • Homo absconditus und homo revelatus. Un-sichtbarkeit als Herausforderung für die theologische Anthropologie Claudia Welz • Imago Dei – A Self-Concealing Image The Manifestation of a ‘Beyond’ in the Arts: Images Olivier Boulnois • Beyond Image: Reading, Meditating, Venerating – Three Uses of Image. Luther and the Middle Ages Johann Anselm Steiger • Christus, Mensch, Bilder. Zur intermedialen Hermeneutik des Bildes bei Martin Luther und seinen barocken Erben Dietrich Korsch • Verborgenheit macht sichtbar. Ein Gedanke zur Ikonologie im Anschluss an Martin Luther Svein Aage Christoffersen • Homo invisibilis The Manifestation of a ‘Beyond’ in the Arts: Music, Liturgical Inventory and Architecture Sven Rune Havsteen • Moments of an Aesthetics of the Invisible: The sermo humilis Nils Holger Petersen • The Notion of an Imaginary Space in Music: Interpreting Mozart’s Requiem in Liturgical, Denominational, and Secular Contexts Konrad Küster • Wann spielt die Orgel im Gottesdienst? Liturgische Beobachtungen zwischen Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit Martin Wangsgaard Jürgensen • The Properties of Style. Allusions to the Invisible in 19th-Century Church Art and Architecture Visible Community and Invisible Transcendence Heinrich Assel • „Im innersten Heiligtum der göttlichen Wahrheit ... erblickt so der Mensch nichts andres als ein Antlitz gleich dem eigenen“ (Franz Rosenzweig). Gottes Angesicht sehen Carl Axel Aurelius • We See, While We Are Hearing Hans-Peter Großhans • The Divine Mystery Becoming Visible in Human Communities Harald Hegstad • Invisible Church? An Ecclesiological Idea Reconsidered Karina Juhl Kande • Die unsichtbare Kirche. Eine Hauptspur in der Ekklesiologie Dietrich Bonhoeffers? Kirsten Busch Nielsen • Last but not least – Church, Community and tà éschata. Reconsidering the Relation between Ecclesiology and Eschatology Contributors