The sacred desert
Subtitle: religion, literature, art, and culture
By: David Jasper
Publisher: Blackwell Pub.
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 208
ISBN-13: 9781405119740; 9781405119757
Subjects: Religieuze aspecten; Deserts; Woestijnen; Literaire thema's; Spiritual life; Culturele aspecten; Christianity
Description: "The Sacred Desert is an original work, which reflects on the role of the desert in theology, history, literature, art and film." "Engaging with figures as diverse as Jesus, the early Christian Desert Fathers, William Blake, T.E. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Georgia O'Keeffe, Wim Wenders, and Jim Crace, author David Jasper explores deserts as real places, as interior spaces, and as they feature in numerous texts. He makes connections across millennia of desert texts, meditating on the mystical, religious, and theological meanings that emerge." "Underlying these interdisciplinary wanderings in the wasteland is the author's quest for a new form of religious thought and language. This work stretches from the Bible - perhaps still the greatest of our desert texts - through to contemporary experiences of the desert. It is a work of theology, and a journey through the history of religion."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-199) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: meeting points; title: The Bible, Schoenberg, and Heidegger; title: The desert fathers : wanderings and miracles; title: Time and memory, wind and space : the desert and mysticism; title: Mysticism and modernity : Thomas Merton meets Don Cupitt; title: The literature of the desert, I : travellers and poets; title: The literature of the desert, II : novelists; title: Artists : Georgia O'Keeffe, Bill Viola, and American abstract expressionism; title: Films of the desert : Pier Paolo Pasolini, Wim Wenders, and Claire Denis; title: Desert theology and total presence : the poets William Blake and Yves Bonnefoy meet Hegel and Tom Altizer; title: Conclusion: meeting point.