Image and Incarnation

The doctrine of the Incarnation was wellspring and catalyst for theories of images verbal, material, and spiritual. Section I, "e;Representing the Mystery of the Incarnation"e;, takes up questions about the representability of the mystery. Section II, "e;Imago Dei and the Incarnate Word"e;, investigates how Christ's status as the image of God was seen to license images material and spiritual. Section III, "e;Literary Figurations of the Incarnation"e;, considers the verbal production of images contemplating the divine and human nature of Christ. Section IV, "e;Tranformative Analogies of Matter and Spirit"e;, delves into ways that material properties and processes, in their effects on the beholder, were analogized to Christ's hypostasis. Section V, "e;Visualizing the Flesh of Christ"e;, considers the relation between the Incarnation and the Passion.