The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church, by Margaret Visser
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The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church, by Margaret Visser
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This enthralling study of the church of St. Agnes Outside the Walls brings to vivid life the stories, rituals, and architectural meaning contained within this seventeen-hundred-year-old building In The Geometry of Love, acclaimed author Margaret Visser, the preeminent “anthropologist of everyday life,” takes on the living history of the ancient church of St. Agnes. Examining every facet of the building, from windows to catacombs, Visser takes readers on a mesmerizing tour of the old church, covering its social, political, religious, and architectural history. In so doing, she illuminates not only the church’s evolution but also its religious legacy in our modern lives. Written as an antidote to the usual dry and traditional studies of European churches, The Geometry of Love is infused with Visser’s unmatched warmth and wit, celebrating the remarkable ways that one building can reveal so much about our history and ourselves.
The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church, by Margaret Visser - Amazon Sales Rank: #710771 in eBooks
- Published on: 2015-06-23
- Released on: 2015-06-23
- Format: Kindle eBook
The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church, by Margaret Visser From Publishers Weekly Visser, described as "an anthropologist of everyday life," has written an enthralling, absorbing and exquisitely researched study of what she calls an "ordinary church." For her subject matter she chose a small but ancient Christian church dedicated to St. Agnes that sits half-buried outside the walls of Rome. Tired of endless tours through world churches in which guides provide lists of facts about dates and architects, Visser aims to bring one small church alive by exploring the stories, meanings and rituals built into each piece of the building. Using the physical layout of the church as the structure for her book, the author takes each staircase, window, fresco, catacomb and chapel as an entryway to fascinating details of mythology, history, early Christian theology, Roman culture and contemporary practice. Visser brings an obvious love and respect for her subject matter and demonstrates remarkable depth in her knowledge of the church's milieu from details on the origins of the halo in religious art, to the techniques of mosaic building, to the historical development of virgin-hero myths. In some ways the author is an archeologist as much as an anthropologist: she digs through layers of history to reveal the depth and breadth of one small building, and peels back layers of meaning in the words and images that adorn it. For the reader, this is rich and thoughtful armchair traveling of the best kind.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal Spiritual traveler and author Visser (Rituals of Dinner) takes readers on an extended interior conversation as she explores Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, a smallish Roman church dedicated to the fourth-century martyr Saint Agnes. Sort of an anthropology of the commonplace, the work spans art and architecture, medieval theology, myth and symbolism, history, and Catholic doctrine, as the author travels from the threshold of Sant'Agnese through its sanctuary and below to the crypt and tomb of the saint. Not so much about the church itself, Visser's insights are intended to evoke internal discovery within each reader, "like finding one's way to the center of a labyrinth." The result is a sort of well-researched guidebook for "reading" symbolic places. Visser's thoughtful perspective gives license to those who find transcendence and majestyDsecular or religiousDin spiritual architecture. Recommended for general religion and art history collections.DSandra Collins, Duquesne Univ. Lib., PA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From The New Yorker The church on which Visser trains her curious, shrewd, and affectionate attention is Sant'Agnese Fuori le Mura, which stands outside the walls of Rome. Dedicated to St. Agnes, who was martyred in 305 A.D., at the age of twelve, and built over a shrine containing her bones, the building has been in constant use for more than thirteen hundred years. Theology, etymology, mythology, art history, and necrology are just a few of the subjects the author addresses. Reading the church building itself as a text, she renders its language of marble and mosaic into a splendid narrative whose subject is how an architectural space "can both express and recall epiphany." Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker
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Most helpful customer reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful. Beautiful, yes -- but limited by a lousy format By Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod, author of the Seven Day Manuscript Machine and Writing the Bible for Kids Visser's spectacular language surpasses even her previous efforts, as she delves here into the majesty of faith and the intricate worship spaces we build. She sheds the usual anthropologist's garb of objectivity, admitting from the start that she is passionate about her subject, and the work is stronger for it.However, I eventually got annoyed that there were no illustrations provided to help the reader along (it may be just the Canadian edition that suffers from this tragic flaw). As visual as her language is, this book proves the maxim that a picture is worth 1000 words. Those thousand words can be as beautiful as they like, but sometimes, dummies like me need a picture as well.Reading about the spectacular details of St Agnes' church, I got more and more frustrated. Visser presents each column, each section of ceiling and floor, each mosaic tile, with such loving detail that I needed to examine them -- but lacking the plane fare to Rome, that's a nearly-impossible dream. Flipping from her descriptions of columns to the front cover hoping to catch a glimpse of them was eventually too much for me, and I returned this book to the library unfinished (this almost never happens).A book of this quality deserves glossy, full-colour illustrations. Without the multimedia assist, you're going to find this book to be dry and tough going, even if you've enjoyed Visser's work in past. But still... I've recently discovered that Visser has her own website with many small images from the church ...Perhaps I'll print out the pictures from the website and curl up with this book again at some point. Her language is so lovely, it may be worth another shot.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful. geometry in architecture, history and faith By karl b. Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura Church stands just outside the old walled city of Rome, built, at its lowest levels, into the catacombs which surrounded the city. It is dedicated to a 4th Century Saint, a 12 year old slain for her refusal to marry the son of a Roman Prefect. Built in the 7th Century and continuously modified, it incorporates the layers of aesthetic, cultural, theological influences of the centuries, organically revealing Rome's tumultuous history. It is galvanized, though, by the reverence for this child martyr by its artisans. Visser's study is an exploration of the physical manifestation of the mysteries of faith. Like the church itself the book is more than the sum of its parts. The author searches for context and meaning, through the ecclesiastical history behind each of the church's major components-- nave, narthex, altar, tomb--. The author's descriptions convey the pageantry and the sometimes violent drama of the little church succinctly. Difficult to categorize, it is an in-depth look at how the church's schema reflected the attitudes of its congregants. Visser presents a spiritual anthropology measured in the church's marble, masonry and frescoes. She synthesizes the form and symbolism of its architecture. The book is filled with anecdotes of the inspiration Sant'Agnese has had on the faithful, vividly exposing its human dimensions. This intensively researched, rigorously constructed book is a fascinating read, be your interest historical, religious or artistic.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. A quintessential read! By Rebecca Brown The relatively simple Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura just outside the walls of Rome comes under the scrutiny of history, theology, anthropology & folklore to illuminate its physical & spiritual architecture.Margaret Visser guides us through this organic aged basilica, from its apse to its nave, its catacombs to its campanile, she opens our eyes to its symbolism, its layers of religious expression, the Christian fascination with lambs & virgins, the meaning of martyrdom & the provenance of relics.Effortlessly, this tranquil & earnest author moves us back through the ages to reveal, like the ancient stones she walks past, the erstwhile Roman attitudes toward our mortal remains & then through Christianity's infancy, in all its forms & purposes.Part archaeology, part love story, part poetry & part tourist guide, The Geometry of Love is a quintessential read & I fell in love with columns all over again!A superb example of writing about what you know - this author bequeaths us a unique & enfolding account of the why, where, who, when & what of a charming house of worship.
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