461
counsel of the crickets and they gave it to him, and he did not hesitate to follow it”.
7
Today, it is estimated that there are over 2 billion Christians (some allege as many
as 2.4 billion) or nearly 30% of the human population. In the United States alone
there are an estimated 384,000 congregations (as of 2012).
8
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry
This rallying cry behind a true life, or an allegorical one, or both, challenges ecological ethics with all of the life-forms, one species in particular, and their own
individual lives, as implicated from the Biblical version of the Creation through to
the life of one Christ, and the astonishing longevity of the Bible’s many controversial parts. These elegant but controvertible details that build up into the thousands of
sculptural edifices—from Chartres to Liverpool Cathedral; from the Abbey of
Montecassino to Mount Athos; from St. Catherine’s Monastery to the Sumi Baptist
Church in Zunheboto, Nagaland (India), considered one of the largest churches in
Asia—all enshrine a goal that is, at its heart, an ecological pang.
Its nuances span the contradiction that sees human nature deeply conflicted over
sacrifice and the idea of salvation; the value of one living being against another; the
quintessence of compassion for someone who is real, in the hopes of resolving all
violence, to make it unreal. And the incorporation of those numerous landscapes of
desert asceticism, of the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13–23), lush Renaissance
geographies of darkness and light, pain and the surmounting of pain, of every paradise and post-paradise image. Of one man so persuasive and charismatic (Jesus) as
to transform landscapes, biodiversity, suffering, into the idea and then the ideal of
those things (Fig. 49.2).
There is Martin Schongauer’s “Crucifixion, From the Passion,” ca. 1470–1482.
9
The mesmerizing and most personal “Pietà” by Annibale Carracci (1599–1600),
and the earlier etching, as well as a second etching by his older brother Agostini
Carracci, ca. 1598. Or Rembrandt’s drypoint of 1653 depicting “The Three Crosses,”
with probable commentary borrowed from St. Luke’s and St. Matthew’s descriptions of “…darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour; and the sun was darkened. And the veil of the temple was rent in the midst”.
10
And then by common
7 ibid. pp. 398–400.
8 Christianity Today, “How Many Churches Does America Have? More Than Expected,” by
Rebecca Randall, September 14, 2017, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/september/
how-many-churches-in-america-us-nones-nondenominational.html, Accessed May 7, 2020.
9 See Jacob Rosenberg, Martin Schongauer – The Drawings, R. Piper & Co., Munchen, 1923, #8.
See also, “The Drawings of Martin Schongauer,” by Max Lehrs, The Burlington Magazine for
Connoisseurs, Vol. 44, No. 252 (Mar., 1924), pp. 133–134, 136. See in addition, le beau Martin –
Gravures Et Dessins De Martin Schongauer (vers 1450–1491), 13 septembre – 1er December
1991, Musée D’unterlinden, Colmar, 1991.
10 See Rembrandt As An Etcher – A Study of the Artist at Work, by Christopher White, 2
nd edition,
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1999, pp. 77–81.
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry
counsel of the crickets and they gave it to him, and he did not hesitate to follow it”.
7
Today, it is estimated that there are over 2 billion Christians (some allege as many
as 2.4 billion) or nearly 30% of the human population. In the United States alone
there are an estimated 384,000 congregations (as of 2012).
8
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry
This rallying cry behind a true life, or an allegorical one, or both, challenges ecological ethics with all of the life-forms, one species in particular, and their own
individual lives, as implicated from the Biblical version of the Creation through to
the life of one Christ, and the astonishing longevity of the Bible’s many controversial parts. These elegant but controvertible details that build up into the thousands of
sculptural edifices—from Chartres to Liverpool Cathedral; from the Abbey of
Montecassino to Mount Athos; from St. Catherine’s Monastery to the Sumi Baptist
Church in Zunheboto, Nagaland (India), considered one of the largest churches in
Asia—all enshrine a goal that is, at its heart, an ecological pang.
Its nuances span the contradiction that sees human nature deeply conflicted over
sacrifice and the idea of salvation; the value of one living being against another; the
quintessence of compassion for someone who is real, in the hopes of resolving all
violence, to make it unreal. And the incorporation of those numerous landscapes of
desert asceticism, of the flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13–23), lush Renaissance
geographies of darkness and light, pain and the surmounting of pain, of every paradise and post-paradise image. Of one man so persuasive and charismatic (Jesus) as
to transform landscapes, biodiversity, suffering, into the idea and then the ideal of
those things (Fig. 49.2).
There is Martin Schongauer’s “Crucifixion, From the Passion,” ca. 1470–1482.
9
The mesmerizing and most personal “Pietà” by Annibale Carracci (1599–1600),
and the earlier etching, as well as a second etching by his older brother Agostini
Carracci, ca. 1598. Or Rembrandt’s drypoint of 1653 depicting “The Three Crosses,”
with probable commentary borrowed from St. Luke’s and St. Matthew’s descriptions of “…darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour; and the sun was darkened. And the veil of the temple was rent in the midst”.
10
And then by common
7 ibid. pp. 398–400.
8 Christianity Today, “How Many Churches Does America Have? More Than Expected,” by
Rebecca Randall, September 14, 2017, https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/september/
how-many-churches-in-america-us-nones-nondenominational.html, Accessed May 7, 2020.
9 See Jacob Rosenberg, Martin Schongauer – The Drawings, R. Piper & Co., Munchen, 1923, #8.
See also, “The Drawings of Martin Schongauer,” by Max Lehrs, The Burlington Magazine for
Connoisseurs, Vol. 44, No. 252 (Mar., 1924), pp. 133–134, 136. See in addition, le beau Martin –
Gravures Et Dessins De Martin Schongauer (vers 1450–1491), 13 septembre – 1er December
1991, Musée D’unterlinden, Colmar, 1991.
10 See Rembrandt As An Etcher – A Study of the Artist at Work, by Christopher White, 2
nd edition,
Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1999, pp. 77–81.
49.2 Nuances of a Spiritual Rallying Cry