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Page 210

 

Symbolism, Ecclesiastical THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 210

animals appear, now figuring in wild combat and again grouped in restful pose. These are found especially in Germany in many situations. Possibly in many cases the explanation is to be sought in warning against demonic powers, assaults, and sins; occasionally the decorative motive is evident; again possibly, though not probably, irony is present.

4. Byzantine Art; Byzantine art was not nearly so rich in its forms and figures as the artistic symbolism of the West, the naturally conservative tendencies of the East revealing themselves here and permitting little that was creative. In this its literature differed, employing symbols, allegories, personification, and types freely. While the West employed the human form in this region, the East remained true to its traditions in the employment mainly of animal and plant forms. The image controversy (see IMAGES AND IMAGE WORSHIP, II.) had its effects in this direction, so that the Physiologus myth had a far narrower influence upon art. Anthropomorphic symbolism was less potent in its effects. Of course the East had its own favorite symbols. Thus in the pictures of the last judgment there appears the crowned king of hell riding a sort of griffin. It had also the " Etimasia," a throne upon which rested cross, lamb, and book-representing Christ; while the empty throne stood for the majesty of God, in which the early Christian abhorrence of figuring God as a person is seen. Byzantine art remained closer to the earlier personification, as when the shepherd lad David, playing the harp, gives the key to the melody, behind a pillar in the distance the Oread Echo takes up the tone, while in the foreground the half-naked mountain-god listens. Similarly David appears as the royal singer, by his side the female forms Sophia and Prophecy and above his head the Holy Spirit as inspirer in the form of a dove.

In France, Germany, and England the Roman Catholic Church is endeavoring at present to come again into full accord with the symbolic feeling of the Middle Ages, while Italy and Spain seem to linger in the rear. There are attempts at creation, seen especially in the use of the " Heart of Jesus " and " Heart of Mary." The Protestant churches are also showing an awakening interest in symbols and their use in religious art. See ANIMALS; and

PARAMENTA. (VICTOR SCHULTZE.)

IV. Apologetics of Symbolism from the Roman Catholic Standpoint: A certain amount of symbolism is necessary in all religions, pagan, Christian, Roman Catholic, or Protestant. In all ages and places the inward feeling of devotion must be accompanied by an outward manifesta-

i.Symbol- tion of it. All religious actions are. ism In- from their very nature symbolical and evitable. figurative. The Muasulman in his de votions must take off his shoes and kneel on his carpetfacing toward Mecca. These are symbolical acts. Even the Quaker must keep on his hat and sit in a bare room in silence, to show by these symbols his vain attempt to disregard symbols. A fortiori, the Roman Catholic, whose re ligion is based on a sacramental system, is surround ed on all sides by symbolism, in architecture, art, and music, all contributing to the elaborate ritual

of his public worship in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, which sanctifies and applies symbolism in the highest and widest sense. The study of Roman Catholic ceremonies might be called the science of liturgical esthetics.

It may be said that a symbol is synonymous with a sacrament, inasmuch as they are both signs,

something which stands for something 2. Funds- else; something exterior, visible, which mental signifies and usually conceals some-

Analogy. thing interior, invisible. For instance,

life, per se, in itself-vegetative, sensitive, or rational-is never really seen; it is perceived only by its effects in exterior signs and symbols which that life informs, through which it works. The best illustration of the symbolism or sacramentality of the universe is found in man himself, a microcosm, as he is called, a " sum and compendium of the universe." His body, composed of all the sensitive, vegetative, and mineral elements found in the world outside him, is the sacramental symbol of the rational soul by which it is informed; the outward and visible sign of the real invisible ego within. And man thus constituted, himself a kind of sacrament, in a world which is by its nature universally sacramental, must of necessity lead a sacramental life, both in the order of nature and of grace, i.e., because in the order of nature therefore in the order of grace; for grace does not destroy nature, on the contrary, it presupposes and perfects it; nature is the raw material for grace to work upon. Revealed religion is above natural theology, but never opposed to it. A religion purely spiritual, without the outward sign of the interior grace, would be for angels (pure spirits), not for men-at least according to Roman Catholic doctrine. Indeed, Christ himself became a sacrament, for~he became man. The incarnation is the sacrament of sacraments; his humanity was the sign, the symbol of his divinity. As a teacher of men he was a symbolist, for he spoke in parables. The sacramental idea is coextensive with the Roman Catholic Church, and is the basis of ecclesiastical symbolism with all it implies, not only of the seven sacraments themselves, but of the elaborate Roman Catholic ceremonial and ritual. Every Roman Catholic theologian who admits a divinely instituted sacramental system is necessarily more or less of a symbolist. The reason for symbolism in the supernatural is, according to Thomas Aquinas, the same as that required in the natural order, viz., man is composed of body and soul. Truth, which is immaterial, must be presented to him by material signs. In the natural order ideas are expressed by words; thoughts arrive to us through the senses, not that the material sense contains the essence of the immaterial idea, but that it is its messenger, just as the wind carries winged seeds. " Sensation is our messenger to the intellect, our king." Similarly in the supernatural order grace is brought to men through the exterior form of sacraments and ceremonies.

Sacrament here is taken in the strict Roman Catholic, theological sense, as understood of the seven sacraments, to wit: it must be a sensible sign, it must be instituted by Christ, it must effect the grace it signifies. The matter-or material