Not Etched in Stone: Essays on Ritual Memory, Soul, and Society

by Marie A. Conn (Editor), Thérèse McGuire (Editor), Marie Conn (Contribution by), Margie Thompson (Contribution by), Barbara Lonnquist (Contribution by)

Overview

The essays presented by Professors Marie A. Conn and Thérèse McGuire examine stone and water as vehicles of ritual memory through the lenses of various disciplines. In seven concise yet revealing chapters, the authors examine instances throughout history and unbound by geography of stone and water as real or abstract objects that shape our lives, possibly without our notice.

Chapters topics include:
·Water as a vehicle for ritual memory from the earliest days of human history to the present-day.
·An investigation of the aesthetic principles of the Middle Ages up to the Gothic styles of cathedrals in North America.
·Julian of Norwich, the famous cloistress, walled in by stone in comparison to Etty Hillesum, a WWII-era mystic, whose small desk used to write her revealing diaries became her stone cloister cell.
·The Irish, water, and stone in Finnegan's Wake.
·Warming the "stone heart" of a child pummeled by the foster care system.
·The lack of clean water that contributes to wide-spread disease.
·Group behavior and the eventualities of war through stone-like, (uncooperative and hardened) psychological states.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761837022
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	05/30/2007
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.08(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

Marie A. Conn is Professor of Religious Studies at Chestnut Hill College.
Thérèse McGuire, SSJ, is Professor of Art at Chestnut Hill College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 "From the Rock Came Living Water: Stone and Water as Vehicles of Ritual Memory"
Chapter 3 "Light on Sacred Stone"
Chapter 4 "Stone of Norwich, Ashes of Aushcwitz: Julian of Norwich and Etty Hillesum Finding Wisdom by Praying Life Experience"
Chapter 5 "The Water That Shattered Stone"
Chapter 6 "Warming the Stone Heart of a Child in Foster Care"
Chapter 7 "Remembering the Children: Changing Trends in Child and Infant Death Rates and in Memorialization"
Chapter 8 "As Unyielding as Stone: Group Behavior and the Question of War"
Part 9 Index