Divine Presence in Spain and Western Europe 1500–1960
Visions, Religious Images and Photographs

William A. Christian Jr., is an independent scholar who lives in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain.

This study addresses the relation of people to divine beings in contemporary and historical communities, as exemplified in three strands. One is a long tradition of visions of mysterious wayfarers in rural Spain who bring otherworldly news and help, including recent examples. Another treats the seeming vivification of religious images—statues, paintings, engravings, and photographs apparently exuding blood, sweat and tears in Spanish homes and churches  in the early modern period and the revival of the phenomenon throughout Europe in the twentieth century.  Of special interest is the third strand of the book: the transposition of medieval and early modern representations of the relations between humans and the divine into the modern art of photography. Christian presents a pictorial examination of the phenomenon with a large number of religious images, commercial postcards and family photographs from the first half of past century Europe.

Contents

Table of Contents List of Figures Preface Chapter 1. Toribia del Val and the Mysterious Wayfarer of Casas de Benítez Chapter 2. Images as Beings: Blood, Sweat, and Tears Chapter 3. Presence, Absence and the Supernatural in Postcard and Family Photographs, Europe 1895-1920 Endnotes Bibliography Index

2012
328 pages, ca. 170 black-and-white illustrations
ISBN 978-615-5053-37-5 paperback $24.95 / €21.95 / £18.99

Fifth volume in the Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lecture Series. Other volumes in the series:

Vol.1. Measuring Time, Making History
Vol.2. Emotion and Devotion - The Meaning of Mary in Medieval Religious Cultures
Vol.3. Friendship and Love, Ethics and Politics - Studies in Mediaeval and Early Modern History
Vol.4 Emotions in History – Lost and Found