1st Edition

Exploring Aniconism

Edited By Mikael Aktor, Milette Gaifman Copyright 2020
180 Pages
by Routledge

180 Pages
by Routledge

180 Pages
by Routledge

This book explores the phenomenon of aniconism—the denotation of the presence of gods, saints, or spiritual forces using non-figural visual markers that do not resemble these supranatural entities. The contributors show how various types of aniconism differ in how they mediate divine presence and relate to other modes of representation. Aniconism is rarely absolute; each aniconic form needs... Read more

1. Aniconism: definitions, examples and comparative perspectives

Milette Gaifman

2. Aniconism and the origins of palaeoart

Robert G. Bednarik

3. The real presence of Osiris: iconic, semi-iconic and aniconic ritual representations of an Egyptian god

Jørgen Podemann Sørensen

4. Aniconic propaganda in the Hebrew Bible, or: the possible birth of religious seriousness

Hans J. L. Jensen

5. Aniconism in the first centuries of Christianity

Robin M. Jensen

6. The royal veil: early Islamic figural art and the Bilderverbot reconsidered

Nadia Ali

7. Stone-agency: sense, sight and magical efficacy in traditions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Jay Johnston

8. Siva’s multiplicity of presence in aniconic and iconic form

Richard H. Davis

9. Drawing out the iconic in the aniconic: worship of neem trees and Govardhan stones in Northern India

David L. Haberman

10. The Hindu pañcayatanapuja in the aniconism spectrum

Mikael Aktor

Biography

Mikael Aktor is an Associate Professor in Studies of Religions at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. His publications include Object of Worship in South Asian Religions (with Knuth Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold, 2015). His other research area is the study of ancient and medieval Hindu law.



Milette Gaifman is an Associate Professor in Classics and History of Arts at Yale University, New Haven, USA. Her publications include Aniconism in Greek Antiquity (2012), The Art of Libation in Classical Athens (2018), and ‘The Embodied Object in Classical Art’, a special issue of Art History (co-edited with Verity Platt and Michael Squire, 2018).