Looking at painting and sculpture from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries, this provocative work focuses on the symbolism of the female breast to open a dazzling interpretive view of Western European history over four centuries. Margaret R. Miles finds that while in 1350 the Virgin's bare breast represented nourishment and loving care―God's provision for the Christian―by 1750, artistic representations of the breast were either erotic or medical. The breast had lost its meaning as a religious symbol. But how did the breast, and nakedness more generally, lose the ability to represent human bodies as site and symbol of religious subjectivity and commitment? To explore this phenomenon, Miles engages in a wide-ranging investigation of the social, cultural, and religious circumstances within which a religious symbol came to be thoroughly "mastered" by erotic and medical meanings. What emerges is a nuanced understanding of the location of power in early modern Western Europe, of how the lives of women changed over this period, of how art reveals and helps to construct religious meaning, and of how modern Christianity's attitude toward bodies was shaped.

A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350–1750

Arts & Photography

Miles, Margaret R.

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Plotinus on Body and Beauty: Society, Philosophy, and Religion in Third-Century Rome

Miles brings Plotinus' thought alive for the twenty-first century by relating it to present day concerns.

History

Europe

Wiley/Blackwell

Miles brings Plotinus' thought alive for the twenty-first century by relating it to present day concerns.

Margaret Miles here explores Christianity's understandings of the human body in the past and presents new concepts for the future. An enlightening investigation into how the body has been perceived through the ages, Fullness of Life offers surprising conclusions that historic Christian authors from Ignatius of Antioch to Thomas Aquinas, far from viewing the body in a negative way, have been overwhelmingly affirmative. Providing the basis for a greater appreciation of the human body as the focus of life and salvation, this unique work sheds a new light on what it means to be fully alive and fully human in the Christian tradition.

Fullness of Life: Historical Foundations for a New Asceticism

Religion & Spirituality

Westminster John Knox Pr

Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness & Religious Meaning in the Christian West

Vintage

IMAGE AS INSIGHT: Visual Understanding In Western Christianity and Secular Culture

Argues that histories of Christianity should analyze religious artwork as well as texts, discusses attitudes towards religious images, and examines the portrayal of women

Image As Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture

Beacon Pr

Argues that histories of Christianity should analyze religious artwork as well as texts, discusses attitudes towards religious images, and examines the portrayal of women

Explores what popular films of the 1980s and 1990s say about religion and the values by which we live

Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies

Explores Christian attitudes about the naked female body from the fourth century to the present, examining the powerful influence of the Adam and Eve story, important works of art and literature, and male perspectives on the female body since early Christian times

Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West

A survey of historical manuals on meditation and devotion analyzes the tenets of the manuals for their applicability to today's Christians

Practicing Christianity: Critical Perspectives for an Embodied Spirituality

Crossroad Pub. Co

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Miles, Margaret R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Miles, Margaret R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Miles, Margaret R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350–1750

Plotinus on Body and Beauty: Society, Philosophy, and Religion in Third-Century Rome

Plotinus on Body and Beauty: Society, Philosophy, and Religion in Third-Century Rome

Fullness of Life: Historical Foundations for a New Asceticism

Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness & Religious Meaning in the Christian West

Image As Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture

IMAGE AS INSIGHT: Visual Understanding In Western Christianity and Secular Culture

Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies

Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West

Practicing Christianity: Critical Perspectives for an Embodied Spirituality