The Book of Kells and Its Influence on the State of Arizona - Research Paper Example

The Book of Kells Being veritably artistic masterwork of Western calligraphy, the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript which contains the four Gospels of the New Testament in Latin delineated from the Vulgate text in concert with several prefatory texts including canon tables. Written on calf vellum in insular majuscule, the ornamentation of the book conflates traditional Christian iconography and represents the superlative insular illumination which excels other Gospel books in prodigality and ramification.1 After looking at the art, most people think of it being not a work of man but a “work of angels”.2 The text is accentuated by the abstract decoration and images of humans, animals and plants with an intent to glorify Jesus’ life and message and direct the reader to his attributes and symbols. It contains full pages of extraneous decoration for the canon tables; symbols and text of the evangelists Matthew (the Man), Mark (the Lion), Luke (the Calf) and John (the Eagle); the opening words of the Gospels; the Virgin and Child; a portrait of Christ, and complex narrative scenes such as the earliest to survive in gospel manuscripts which corresponds the arrest of Christ and his temptation by the Devil. The word Christ has been abbreviated with letters Chi Rho in medieval manuscripts and Chi Rho page is the most famous page in medieval art which introduces Matthew’s account of the nascence. However, the book is not a full copy of the Vulgate and contains a number of variations from the Vulgate and also some uncorrected errors. It is assumed that around 30 folios of the text had been lost in the medieval and early modern periods and some pages are deteriorated.3 According to experts, the handwriting differs throughout the text therefore the artwork seemed to have produced by at least three different artists.4 Today the manuscript contains 340 folios with 330 by 250mm dimensions, and scriptures are written with a range of pigments including yellow, red, green, purple and black. The manuscript is believed to have created by Celtic monks in year 800, but the date and origin of the book has been a controversial issue. The widely accepted belief is that the text creation might have started at Iona from where it was brought to Abbey of Kells, when Vikings invaded the island of Iona, where the artwork might have been continued to be undertaken. The text was revered at Kells as a souvenir of Saint Columba throughout the medieval periods. The Book of Kells is the considered to be one of the finest manuscripts and described as “the chief treasure of the Western world”. The Annals of Ulster record stealth of the book in year 1006 and that it discovered again after many years, stripped off its ornate gold. Around 1653, the Book of Kells was sent to Dublin, Ireland for safety concerns and after few years it was brought to Trinity College, Dublin where it has been on display in library over there. The text has been bound in four volumes, since 1953, of which two volumes can commonly be seen in library, one opened to display a major decorated page, and the other to show two pages of script.5 A quote of Sir Edward Sullivan demonstrates the concept of how mind-bending the artwork of The Book of Kells: "The finest draftsmen of the entire world have tried to recreate the Chi-Rho page, and have failed." Anyone in today's modern world could not recreate it as it takes an ineffable artist working in the Middle Ages to create something.6 However, in 1951, the first facsimile of the Book of Kells was produced by a Swiss publisher, Urs Graf Verlag Bern, in black-and-white photographs and color reproductions as well. Second facsimile in full color was produced in 1974 by photographers Thames and Hudson in Dublin, and included all the full-page detailed illustrations and also an ornamentation representative section in the manuscript. In the 1980s, Faksimile-Verlag Luzern produced with permission from Trinity College, Dublin more than 1400 copies of the first color reproduction of the manuscript in its integrality. For years, limited editions of facsimiles have been produced and added to rare books collections of different universities of the world.7 History of Religions Contemporary world religions have been constituted throughout Eurasia during the Middle Ages by: Christianization of the Western world; Buddhist missions to East Asia; the decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent; and the spread of Islam throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa and parts of Europe and India. The idea of religion is believed to be first developed in Europe under the determination of Christianity.8 The history of Christianity refers to the Christian religion, its enthusiasts and the Church with its various appellations, from the first century to the present.9 The spread of Christianity to Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, Australia and the Philippines was an outcome of establishment of European colonies during the 15th to 19th centuries. The role of the Catholic Church in Western culture has been elaborately entwined with the history and formation of Western society as it has been an important root of schooling, medical care and other social services in many countries all over the world, and intemperately influenced the development of religion, culture, Western art, politics and philosophy through almost 2000 years of the history of the western world.10 Particularly, the cultural influence of the Catholic Church upon western society has been immense and played a role in ceasing practices such as human sacrifice, slavery, polygamy and infanticide.11 Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-1st century originating from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ which is narrated in the New Testament of the Vulgate and that is one of the fundamentals of Western Civilization and inspiration for numerous Western artworks.12 The recognition for splendor and impressiveness of Western art is given to Catholic Church by several historians who refer to the Church's coherent confrontation to Byzantine iconoclasm which is a movement opposed to pictorial illustrations establishing structures of the divine befitting worship. Catholic Church significantly contributed to refinement and support of individual artists, as well as development of the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles of art and architecture.13 According to a British art historian, Kenneth Clark, Western Europe's first "great age of civilization" began around the year 1000 and monumental churches and duomos were built and decorated with sculptures, hangings, mosaics and artworks.14 History of American Religion and Culture The religious history of the United States starts with more than a century before the former British colonies became the United States of America, settling by men and women who left Europe in face of European religious persecution for holding strong religious beliefs and resisted to compromise tempestuously.15 Spanish explorers first introduced the Catholicism to America with the conciliating of Maryland in 1634. Nonetheless, Catholics constituted less than 1% of the white population of the states, at the time of the American Revolution. 16 Religiously, the Catholics were characterized by discipline; personalism; and ritualism focusing on daily prayers, Sunday Mass, and contemplation of two dozen holy days.17 The First Great Awakening in the American colonies proved to bring religious exuberance among Protestants that swept the American colonies in the 17th century. Strong preaching profoundly affected listeners, who had already been church members, with a feeling of personal guilt and redemption by Christ. 18 People entangled in their religion passionately, instead of degage listening to intellectual preaching. Their rituals, piousness, and self cognizance altered by The First Great Awakening. Religion, playing major role in the American Revolution, offered a moral sanction for confrontation to the British giving confidence to the Americans that revolution was vindicated. Victory over the British stimulated future optimism and Americans’ millennia expectation which is a conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years. In the beginning of 18th century, the Second Great Awakening, exerting a heavy impact on American religious history, initiated which centered on the unchurched and sought to inculcate in them a deep sensation of personal salvation. In 1860, evangelicalism emerged as sort of national church or national religion and was the grand fascinating motif of American religious life.19 The Third Great Awakening provided strong sense social and religious activism in American history from the late 1850s to the 20th century and affected sanctimonious Protestant denominations. It acted on the basis of postmillennial theology regarding Second Coming of Christ.20 Rapid development of the Protestant mainline churches, escaping from their frontier commencements and getting centered in towns and cities, was taking place with increase in numbers, wealth and educational levels. Intellects and writers urged a powerful Christianity, systematically outreaching to the unchurched in America and all over the world and many others started to build colleges and universities to educate the next generation. Christian Science instructs that the reality of God abnegates the reality of the material world, sin, sickness and death. Disciples often reject traditional medical treatments for having miraculous healing within the church.21 European immigrants especially from Ireland, Germany, Poland, and Italy had been the main source of Roman Catholics in the United States. The Irish controlled and ruled the Church by supplying a number of bishops, college presidents and lay leaders, and supporting the transalpine status preferring the authority of the Catholic pope.22 According to the American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2008, it was estimated that approximately 11.9% of the total population was identified with Irish ancestry and 1.2% of Americans reported more distinctively Scotch-Irish ancestry. According to the Dictionary of American History, over 75 percent of Irishmen who in the 1600s were Catholic, whereas, 100,000 more Irish Catholics came to America in the 1700s. The colonists coming from the Irish province of Ulster referred as the Scotch-Irish. The posterities of Scotch-Irish colonists had a great influence on the subsequent civilization of the United States.23 The Scotch-Irish settled in the southern America and Carolina piedmont and became the primary ethnical group therein, and their posterities were in the forefront of westward migration through Virginia into Tennessee and Kentucky, and from there into Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. By the 19th century, the descendants of the Scotch-Irish lost their recognition and identification with Ireland through intermarriage with colonists of German and English ancestry.24 Irish Catholics focused on a few med-sized cities to be highly visible. An Irish-born John England became the first Catholic bishop in the primarily Protestant city of Charleston in 1820. During the 18th century, England opposed the Catholic minority against Protestant preconceptions. Religion had been crucial to the Irish American identity in United States, and continued to play a major role in their colonies.25 Today, Irish Americans are both Catholic and Protestant, while these archetypical representations are especially well cognized.26 Irish Americans have conduced U.S. culture in an extensive variety of fields that are the religion, fine and performing artworks, literature, politics, film and sports.27 Impact of the Book of Kells on American and Southwest American Culture The term Southwest primitively adverted to a major subregion of the American South and today it refer to Southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico, along with all or parts of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Texas, and Oklahoma, may or may not be regarded as a region in their own right, as contradictory to a broadly separated by an historic and ethnic fault-line interpreting separate Southwests. The Catholic Church has the most prominent and highest number of disciples in Arizona. According to the RCMS report, the three largest denominations in Arizona are Catholic, Evangelicals and Mainline Protestant, as of the year 2000. The Book of Kells is said to be among the most renowned art in the world along with the David and the Mona Lisa. Although, the book is famous for being exquisitely decorated, it has not been survived for centuries as a mere decoration or for educational purpose, but it is such a masterpiece of art that has sacramental purpose.28 Created by Celtic (European people who spoke Celtic languages) monks around the eighth century, the Book of Kells was primitively designed to promote Christianity. The Celtics wanted to promote their religion to the Pagans so by using artistic Pagan symbols, the monks were able to make the Pagans to read the manuscript because of its beautiful ornamentation and that had been relevant to their culture. The Christians used art as a trick (to communicate to those who were illiterate and not able to read the text) to convince the Pagan tribes to believe that Christianity was the true religion to live by. Today, the Book of Kells is considered a staple of Irish culture, and one of its most illustrious artworks.29 The importance of the subject of the Book of Kells to Christians can be realized as the art in the book illustrates several important scenes from the Vulgate and they are in fact not just icons and portraits of men as spiritual doorways to the divine, but of the very Son of God and the founders of the religion with whom god had counseled.30 The religion has been essential for a believer and this creates intense impact on the culture and lifestyles of religious communities. The Book of Kells has been given crucial and significant consideration, being sacred to Christians as the topic of the book represents core subject of Christianity. It has created strong impact in all over United States and Southwest States of America such as Arizona because of greater ratio of Christians living there. All in all, The Book of Kells illustrates the Subject matter in visual representations which produces vivid effect on the minds of art-loving people. Works Cited Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People, (1972). The standard history Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America (1988). online edition "Book of Kells" Trinity College, Dublin. 6 Oct 2009. Web 14 Nov 2011. From: Chadwick, Owen. A History of Christianity. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2005. 15 Nov 2011. From: < http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-christianity/oclc/71322526&referer=brief_results> Dolan, Jay P. In Search of an American Catholicism: A History of Religion and Culture in Tension (2003) Fitzgerald, Timothy. Discourse on Civility and Barbarity: A Critical History of Religion and Related Categories. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Web 15 Nov 2011. From: < http://www.worldcat.org/title/discourse-on-civility-and-barbarity-a-critical-history-of-religion-and-related-categories/oclc/81860629&referer=brief_results> Gaustad, Edwin S. "The Theological Effects of the Great Awakening in New England," The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 40, No. 4. (Mar., 1954), pp. 681–706. Kidd, Thomas S. The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America (2007), pp.412 Leyburn, James G. The Scotch-Irish: A Social History. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. Print. 15 Nov 2011. From: Orlandis, Jose?. A Short History of the Catholic Church. Blackrock, County Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1993. Web 15 Nov 2011. From: Woods Jr, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2005. Print. Read More