{"product_id":"eating-beauty-the-eucharist-and-the-spiritual-arts-of-the-middle-ages-paperback-softback-9781501704345","title":"Eating Beauty; The Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages (Paperback \/ softback) 9781501704345","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eEating Beauty\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eThe Eucharist and the Spiritual Arts of the Middle Ages\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAnn W. Astell (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781501704345\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 9 February 2016\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e312 pages, 12 halftones, 1 chart\/graph - 13 Halftones, black and white\u003cbr\u003e23.5 x 15.5 x 2.2 cm, 0.907 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book, as deeply felt as it is researched, is no less broad in the range of its intellectual sympathies, which embrace the histories of literature, spirituality, and art as well as aesthetics.\u003c\/p\u003e (Speculum) \u003cp\u003eWith this delicious book, four Christian 'ways' of eating the Beautiful or Sacred come to life. Ann Astell, whose in-depth writing on medieval figures has introduced many to the richness of the medieval exegetical and liturgical world, adds a 'theological-aesthetic' dimension to this work. Uniting spiritual and physical senses that modern interpreters anachronistically divide, Astell invites us to a feast of medieval sensory language that dwells in scriptural interpretation as it performs its spirituality in eucharistic participation.\u003c\/p\u003e (Journal of Religion) \u003cp\u003eEducational and enlightening. Eleven full-color palettes accompany the tome, adding to the richness of the story. \u003ci\u003eEating Beauty\u003c\/i\u003e was a journey I enjoyed.\u003c\/p\u003e - John L. Francis (The Artistic Theologian)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty that is both seen (with the eyes of faith) and eaten, on the other, intrigues me and inspires this book. One cannot ask theo-aesthetic questions about the Eucharist without engaging fundamental questions about the relationship between beauty, art (broadly defined), and eating.\"—from \u003ci\u003eEating Beauty\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn a remarkable book that is at once learned, startlingly original, and highly personal, Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the phrase \"eating beauty.\" \u003c\/b\u003eThe phrase evokes the destruction of beauty, the devouring mouth of the grave, the mouth of hell. To eat beauty is to destroy it. Yet in the case of the Eucharist the person of faith who eats the Host is transformed into beauty itself, literally incorporated into Christ. In this sense, Astell explains, the Eucharist was \"productive of an entire 'way' of life, a virtuous life-form, an artwork, with Christ himself as the principal artist.\" The Eucharist established for the people of the Middle Ages distinctive schools of sanctity—Cistercian, Franciscan, Dominican, and Ignatian—whose members were united by the eucharistic sacrament that they received. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReading the lives of the saints not primarily as historical documents but as iconic expressions of original artworks fashioned by the eucharistic Christ, Astell puts the \"faceless\" Host in a dynamic relationship with these icons. With the advent of each new spirituality, the Christian idea of beauty expanded to include, first, the marred beauty of the saint and, finally, that of the church torn by division—an anti-aesthetic beauty embracing process, suffering, deformity, and disappearance, as well as the radiant lightness of the resurrected body. This astonishing work of intellectual and religious history is illustrated with telling artistic examples ranging from medieval manuscript illuminations to sculptures by Michelangelo and paintings by Salvador Dalí. Astell puts the lives of medieval saints in conversation with modern philosophers as disparate as Simone Weil and G. W. F. Hegel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52744285716760,"sku":"9781501704345","price":33.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/eating-beauty-the-eucharist-and-the-spiritual-arts-of-the-middle-ages-paperback-softback-9781501704345","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}