The Sensuous in the Counter-Reformation Church

This book examines the promotion of the sensuous as part of religious experience in the Roman Catholic Church of the early modern period. During the Counter-Reformation, every aspect of religious and devotional practice was reviewed, including the role of art and architecture, and the invocation of the five senses to incite devotion became a hotly contested topic. The Protestants condemned the material cult of veneration of relics and images, rejecting the importance of emotion and the senses and instead promoting the power of reason in receiving the Word of God. After much debate, the Church concluded that the senses are necessary to appreciate the sublime, and that they derive from the Holy Spirit. As part of its attempt to win back the faithful, the Church embraced the sensuous and promoted the use of images, relics, liturgy, processions, music, and theater as important parts of religious experience.

Author: Marcia B. Hall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 07/22/2013
Pages: 356
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.40lbs
Size: 10.20h x 7.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781107013230

About the Author
Cooper, Tracy E.: - Tracy E. Cooper is Professor of Art History at Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is the author of Renaissance, and her book, Palladio's Venice: Architecture and Society in a Renaissance Republic, received the Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Prize from the Renaissance Society of America as well as a Special Mention for the Premio Salimbeni. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships including, most recently, ones from the Renaissance Society of America and the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.Hall, Marcia B.: - Marcia B. Hall is Professor of Italian Renaissance Art History and Director of Graduate Studies at Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She is the author and editor of several books, including The Sacred Image in the Age of Art: Titian, Tintoretto, Barocci, El Greco, Caravaggio; After Raphael; and Renovation and Counter Reformation: Vasari and Duke Cosimo in Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce, 1564-77.