This text discusses the values and meaning of theological reflection on religious Otherness in the Christian tradition. The analysis opens with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), an event that in many of its documents emphasized the value of interreligious dialogue, mutual understanding and acceptance as well as commitment to the common good. The second chapter examines the new theological approaches of the Post-council. The teaching of the Second Vatican Council makes a fundamental basis, a starting point, a place that generated questions and new perspectives towards a Christian theology of religious pluralism. This was also indicated in the encyclical letter of Pope Francis Frattelli tutti (2020) to which the third chapter is dedicated. In it, the Pope speaks of the universal dimension of brotherly love and its openness to all. The encyclical as a starting point has the awareness of the universal human family since we all are children of one Creator. In this sense, universal brotherhood is not a goal to be achieved, but a starting point. Pope Francis calls for the rise towards brotherhood and social friendship illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan in the New Testament, pointing out that the attitude towards religious otherness has been present in the Christian tradition from its very beginning.
This text examines the possible meanings of the facade painted by Polidoro da Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze in Piazza Capranica in Rome. Considering some philological and hermeneutical questions still open, the essay highlights the links between the work and the topoi circulating in the cultural production in the pontificate of Leo X that support, more or less directly, the crusade promoted by the pope. To explain the iconographic choices of the artists, characterized by a clear anti-Ottoman connotation, some narrative schemes deriving from the tradition of eschatological thought and well documented in the textual network linked to the reign of Giovanni de' Medici are analyzed. These schemes thematize the Western victory over the Turkish enemy and the universal conversion to Christianity, considered as necessary precursors for the fulfillment of the prophecy enunciated in the Gospel of John (10, 16: "fiet unum ovile et unus pastor") and quoted in an inscription that stood out on the prospectus. The last part of the text is dedicated to the images of Polidoro and Maturino that were aimed at a very large audience. The levels of comprehensibility and semiotic efficiency are therefore discussed also in the light of the 'street' communication network, made up by professionals of 'popular' information such as errant preachers and storytellers, capable of disseminating the knowledge necessary to understand the sophisticated contents represented, creating proto-modern forms of public opinion available for war against the Islamic adversary.
The reflections presented here refer to the painting Martyrium of Saint Paraskevi by Michail Damaskinos, dated 1605 and kept at the Kanellopuolos Museum in Athens. In the midst of a vibrant crowd created in a clear mannerist matrix, the figure of the saint stands out as a perfect icon. Her hieratic face against the two-dimensional halo creates an interruption, and opens a metahistorical and metaphysical gash: she is a "dissimilar figure" which, as Dionysius the Areopagite says "much more than those for homogeneity of nature, lifts our minds up", and raises questions. In the first part of the text, an attempt is made to contextualize the painting by placing it in relation to the production of the madonneri workshops on Crete, and producing the relative artistic historiography. As a subject of a great critical debate on stylistic "hybridism", on the division between 'Greek' and 'Latin' manner, this work needs to be looked at in a different way, shifting the judgment from the merely 'artistic' level towards a more complex hermeneutics, which takes into account the ontological status of the image itself. In fact, the form does not disregard the content, and this dialectic, entirely internal to the icon, is all the more interesting as it is consubstantial with the radically antinomian character of the Christian faith in the Incarnation. In the central part, the text focuses on the different dimensions in which the Christian sacred image is projected from its origins: iconoclasm, the search for orthodoxy and the continuous reflections of the fathers and theologians are born from the intrinsic theophanic and transfiguring power of art. This is the link that leads to the questioning of the apophatic act, of retraction, of the author and of his own personality. The reference to the theoretical writings of important modern artists, and the comparison with mystical literature, enable us to understand how obedience to the traditional corpus becomes for the author a real investiture, the responsibility of guaranteeing the epiphanic value of art: it makes itself invisible so that the Invisible becomes visible. This ambiguous role, between norm and freedom, creation and subtraction, also challenge the contemporaneity which generates the last part of this essay.
This paper is an analysis of the engraving made by Petrus Firens for the cover page of Historia de las Guerras Civiles de Granada (Gines Perez de Hita, Paris, 1606?). The artwork makes use of a particular iconography, portraying a battle against Islam as a Gigantomachy in which references to texts by Virgil are employed to link the victories of Philip II over Islam to the victories of Roman Emperors. What makes this edition particularly noteworthy is its publication in France by a Spanish spy in the service of the French king which leads us to reconsider its political purpose.
The following paper draws attention to certain images in medieval documents that, despite their minor artistic value, may be seen as records of the social standing of different minorities living in the environment from which a particular document originates. The aim of this text is to contribute to the sparsely researched neutral and positive depictions of the Other in medieval art and point to some oversights made in the past. It will be stressed that certain depictions of the religious Other found in medieval secular documents may be seen as positive or at least neutral from the religious point of view, while also highlighting the issue of theological beliefs not necessarily playing a central role when it comes to decorating legal documents. This particular approach is especially significant when considering the fact that the studies that do exist concentrate largely on the pejorative aspects of such representations. The underlying theme of this text is thus the discussion of whether thinking of anti-Semitism is in fact justifiable in the case of ornamentation of written objects with secular contents. It is not a profound analysis of a single unit, but rather a presentation of the pertinent examples found in the extensive charter corpus published thus far at monasterium.net. Special attention is given to three documents issued in Speyer in the middle of the 14th century, which show Jewish faces stemming from the initial letters. The existence of the Jewish community in Speyer is well attested to in archival sources and it represents one of the most important Jewish settlements on the Rhine. This makes the three charters especially instructive examples when discussing the depictions of the religious Other in secular documents and the span of their possible meanings.
