The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story - Rilegato

Trexler, Richard C.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691011265 ISBN 13: 9780691011264

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 1997

Riassunto

Matthew's Gospel reveals little about the three wealthy visitors said to have presented gifts to the infant Jesus. Yet hundreds of generations of Christians have embellished that image of the Three Kings or Magi for a myriad of social and political as well as spiritual purposes. Here Richard Trexler closely examines how this story has been interpreted and used throughout the centuries. Biblically, the Journey of the Magi presents a positive image of worldly power, depicting the faithful in progress toward their God and conveying the importance of the gift-giving laity as legitimators of their deity. With this in mind, Trexler explains in particular how Western societies have molded the story to describe and augment their own power--before the infant God and among themselves.

The author demonstrates how the magi as a group functioned in Christian society. For example, magi plays, processions, and images taught people how to pray and behave in reverential contexts; they featured monarchs and heads of republics who enacted the roles of the magi to legitimate their rule; and they constrained native Americans to fall in line behind the magi to instill in them loyalty toward the European world order. However, Trexler also shows these philosopher-kings as competitive among each other, as were groups of different ages, races, and genders in society at large. Originally modeled on representations of the Roman triumphs, the magi have reached the present day as street children wearing crowns of cardboard, proving again the universality of the image for constructing, reinforcing, and even challenging a social hierarchy.

Originally published in 1997.

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Recensione:

"Richard Trexler's exhaustive study of the Magi through the centuries is a sociological exploration of the diverse functions that the Magi perform in many different cultural worlds. Painstakingly, he has followed up a host of references to the Magi in art and literature, plays and folk traditions, from the early Church through Constantine to the Middle Ages and the early modern period. . . "--Theology

Contenuti:

	List of Illustrations
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction	3
Ch. 1	The Star Arrives	9
Ch. 2	The True Light Shines in the Darkness	44
Ch. 3	The Pageant of the "Two" Kings	76
Ch. 4	El Dorado	124
Ch. 5	The Ancien Regime of the Magi	158
Ch. 6	Return by Another Way	187
	Conclusion	206
	Notes	211
	Bibliography	255
	Index	271

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0691011265
• ISBN 13: 9780691011264
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 277