Trained as an archaeologist and art historian and being a practising painter, Professor Galavaris has been able to relate diverse disciplines in his work, as shown by the wide range of his numerous publications. He moves from the early history of the eucharistic bread in the Orthodox Church, the dramatic impact of the Liturgy on illuminated Byzantine manuscripts, to the role of the icon in: the life of the Church, the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and the European painting of the 20th century. He is a leading authority on the study of the relationship between worship, Liturgy and art. Whether it is the cult of the Byzantine Emperor or the Eucharistic Liturgy, manifested in numismatics, illuminated manuscripts, icons, church lights (candles and oil lamps) - all witnesses of the creative forces of the Byzantine artist - Galavaris' interests are symbols, forms and their meaning. He investigates their contribution to worship, to the visual shaping of the Liturgy and how they reveal the freedom and the mission of the artist in realizing the Unseen in everyday life. The 31 studies in the present volume, published over 40 years (5 of them appear in English for the first time) are brought together with an introduction, annotations and an index. The volume contributes essentially to our knowledge of the spirituality of the Eastern Church.

Miracles happen today. Do you want to increase your faith? Read about miracles. True stories of God's faithfulness, love, and power are woven together with art, poetry and scripture into a tapestry made of the colors of the rainbow that demonstrate the many aspects of faith. A woman finds herself in a car accident on a lonely Nevada highway gazing at her two daughters sprawled on the road. She screams in terror for help. Someone places a white gold cross in the palm of her hand. This changes everything. "A White Gold Cross," one of the true stories found in "Faith Colors, Encounters with God in Living Faith," explores the power of faith in God to transform the outcome of a terrible crisis. This story is found in the section called White Faith, the kind of faith that strengthens the inner heart to persevere. A son prays in earnest while the emergency team from the fire station try to revive his father. After the paramedics give up and permission is granted to stop CPR, the father miraculously begins to breathe on his own. But will he survive long enough to take care of his unfinished business? This story is found under Blue Faith, the kind of faith that looks up from a dark pit to find hope. These testimonies and others, including some of the author's own experiences, are grouped into the colors of the rainbow to highlight important aspects of faith. Poems and prophetic art, intensifying the impact of the messages, are found throughout the book. Each color section concludes with a prayer to draw the reader's heart closer to God. Scriptures and colorful prophetic pictures featured in this book highlight significant attributes of faith that are bound to spark hope in God and His promises found in the Bible.

Symbols of the Christian Faith is an illustrated guide to the major visual symbols used by the Christian church throughout history. These stylized illustrations, designed by artist Alva William Steffler, are intended to provide usable, up-to-date resources for contemporary church worship and Christian education. Throughout church history symbols have been used to aid worship and to communicate difficult spiritual ideas. Steffler here collects these symbols, from early Christian catacomb art to the present, offering fresh graphic interpretations of old visual forms. The accompanying text notes the biblical sources for the various symbols and traces their use in church tradition and their links to Greco-Roman culture. Extensive glossaries and indexes round out the book. Broadly inclusive and sensitive to the perspectives of every church tradition, this volume will be an invaluable resource for churches using Christian art as well as for general readers curious about the meaning of common Christian symbols.

An examination of the symbols of worship, tracing their origins, what they have meant through the ages, and whether their meaning is clear for Christians today.

This colorful book looks both beyond the church building and deep within it to find symbols relevant to Judeo-Christianity.

How is it that in America the image of Jesus Christ has been used both to justify the atrocities of white supremacy and to inspire the righteousness of civil rights crusades? In The Color of Christ, Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey weave a tapestry of American dreams and visions--from witch hunts to web pages, Harlem to Hollywood, slave cabins to South Park, Mormon revelations to Indian reservations--to show how Americans remade the Son of God visually time and again into a sacred symbol of their greatest aspirations, deepest terrors, and mightiest strivings for racial power and justice. The Color of Christ uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.

Mainly Based on THE SADHANAMALA and Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals

This volume is the first to offer a comparative analysis of religion in militaries worldwide.

'Extraordinary. An intellectual feast as well as a visual one' Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes The world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book reveals. Each chapter immerses the reader in a single colour, drawing together stories from the histories of art and humanity to illuminate the meanings it has been given over the eras and around the globe. Showing how artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, explorers and inventors have both shaped and been shaped by these wonderfully myriad meanings, James Fox reveals how, through colour, we can better understand their cultures, as well as our own. Each colour offers a fresh perspective on a different epoch, and together they form a vivid, exhilarating history of the world. 'We have projected our hopes, anxieties and obsessions onto colour for thousands of years,' Fox writes. 'The history of colour, therefore, is also a history of humanity.'