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{"id":17210,"date":"2015-04-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2015-04-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T00:00:00","slug":"mystic-ark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/mystic-ark\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystic Ark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

Conrad Rudolph\u2019s\u00a0The Mystic Ark<\/a> is the product of impressive scholarship. Its focus is on the image of the mystic ark, a complex cosmic portrait showing \u201cthe Majesty\u201d (looking like Jesus) enthroned, flanked by angels, holding a large disk, inscribed with a square turned sideways like a diamond. Inside the square is a diagram of Noah\u2019s ark seen from above. Within the ark diagram the artist has depicted the six days of creation, a map of the world, the ages of human history leading to the eschaton, and, well, lots more. The image contains everything, and then some. Everything (object, color, shape, posture, sequence) means something; indeed, every item on the image means many, many things.<\/p>\n

A partial quotation of Rudolph\u2019s opening description captures the complexity of the piece: \u201cThe Ark is fixed in a \u00a0traditional macrocosm\/microcosm consisting of the three zones of earth, air, and ether. . . . The earth, with which the Ark is coterminous, is given as a world map in the form of an ellipsoid (vesica piscis<\/em>) with \u2018regions, mountains, rivers, cities, and towns\u2019 . . . Its basic color is specified as green, and it is oriented with the east at the top. The air contains a quaternary harmony with the ages of a human being, the four elements, the seasons, the cardinal directions, and the four qualities, all surrounded by the twelve winds. . . . And the ether includes the Twelve Months and the Signs of the Zodiac, with the circumference marked off into 360 degrees. A Majesty embraces this cosmos, sitting enthroned and holding a scroll in his right hand and a scepter in his left. With the scroll, he welcomes the saved while, with the scepter, he condemns the damned, both of these objects being directed toward specific parts of the world. On either side of the Majesty stand two seraphim with wings in a complex, symbolic arrangement. On either side of his head, the nine choirs of angels are arranged in a radically smaller scale, gazing into his face\u201d (3).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rudolph believes this image actually existed, was planned or made by Hugh of St. Victor. But the actual image had to be reconstructed (available\u00a0here<\/a>) from the Ark Lectures that Hugh delivered 1125-1130.<\/p>\n

Rudolph\u2019s book chases down every dimension of the image: Iconographical and textual commentary on the ark of Noah; the imagery of the church as the ark of salvation; the mystical dimension of the ark as an \u201cArk of Wisdom\u201d; the ark as an image of the stages of ascent to God. In an appendix, he provides a translation of Hugh\u2019s lectures with detailed commentary. He places the ark lectures in their original twelfth-century context, and sees in the lectures and the image a polemic against the rationalizing trajectory of theology represented by Peter Abelard. Hugh\u2019s lectures represent a \u201cmiddle-ground worldview,\u201d between the misplaced attention given to creation,s secular learning, and reason that was becoming popular but also rejecting the rejection of secular learning and reason that had been part of the \u201cold theology\u201d (358-9).<\/p>\n

With this beautifully produced volume, Rudolph has not only provided the most detailed analysis of Hugh\u2019s lectures and the image we are likely to get, but provides an exemplum <\/em>of the medieval world-picture that will be difficult to surpass. Rudolph teaches us to read the ark. And, if we learn to read the ark, we\u2019ll be learning to be medieval.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"