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- Title
The Iconostasis and Darśan in Orthodox Christianity and Mahāyāna Buddhism.
- Authors
Shin, Junhyoung Michael
- Abstract
This essay discusses how Orthodox Christianity and Mahāyāna Buddhism understood the acts of both seeing and being seen by the divine, and how such ideas affected the making and use of icons in these two religious traditions. I focus on the visual culture of the Byzantine and Russian Orthodox churches between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, and that of the East Asian Pure Land and Esoteric schools between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, respectively. I interpret the function of the iconostasis as an enduring remnant of the Jewish veil used to obstruct God's vision. Here, Jacques Lacan's concepts of the gaze and the screen provide a thought-provoking rationale. In turn, I investigate the mandala and icon in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, in which both seeing and being seen by the divine were deemed spiritual blessings granted by the divine being. This thematic comparison brings to light the less discussed aspects of Christian and Buddhist visual experiences.
- Subjects
ORTHODOX Christianity; BUDDHISM; EAST Asian Americans; RUSSIAN Orthodox Church; LACAN, Jacques, 1901-1981
- Publication
Religion & the Arts, 2020, Vol 24, Issue 1/2, p38
- ISSN
1079-9265
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/15685292-02401001