What happens when one of Germany’s most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and the unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine – a Christianity that today’s Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastically.
With the open-minded curiosity of a non-believer – or rather a believer in another faith – Kermani engages with Christian art in its great richness and diversity. The result is an enchanting reflection which reinvests in Christianity both its spectacular beauty and its terror. Kermani struggles with the cross, falls in love at the sight of Mary, experiences the Orthodox Mass and appreciates the greatness of St Francis. He teaches us to see the questions of our present-day lives in the pictures of old masters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Rembrandt – not with lectures on art history or theology, but with an intelligent eye for the essential details and the underlying relations to seemingly remote worlds, to literature and to mystical Islam.
Kermani’s poetic school of seeing draws us in as we are carried along by his unique perspective on Christianity, rekindling our interest in great art at the same time. We are captivated by his unique and brilliant Islamic reading of the West.
Зміст
I. MOTHER AND SON 1
MOTHER 3
SON 8
MISSION 15
LOVE I 22
LOVE II 28
HUMILIATION 34
BEAUTY 40
CROSS 47
LAMENTATION 52
RESURRECTION 57
TRANSFORMATION 62
DEATH 78
GOD I 85
GOD II 93
II. WITNESS 101
CAIN 103
JOB 108
JUDITH 115
ELIZABETH 121
PETER 126
JEROME 132
URSULA I 138
URSULA II 142
BERNARD 149
FRANCIS 156
PETER NOLASCO 163
SIMONIDA 169
PAOLO DALL’OGLIO 174
III. INVOCATION 195
VOCATION 197
PRAYER 202
SACRIFICE 208
CHURCH 213
PLAY 220
KNOWLEDGE 226
TRADITION 235
LIGHT 249
LUST I 262
LUST II 267
RECESSIONAL 272
ART 280
FRIENDSHIP 288
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 306
BIBLIOGRAPHY 309
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS 317
Про автора
Navid Kermani is a writer and scholar who lives in Cologne, Germany. He has received numerous accolades for his literary and academic work, including the 2015 Peace Prize of the German Publishers’ Association, Germany’s most prestigious cultural award.