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O Noble Heart - O Edel Herz: Fraktur and Spirituality in Pennsylvania German Folk Art
This is a book about Pennsylvania Dutch art and the spiritual meanings behind it.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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May 20, 2014
Kisses
Edel Herz (95) thinks fraktur more attractive without all the blood and death, that "reformation themes of Christ as king" (Heart,59) were supplanted by a "cult of wounds and blood" (Yoder, Picture-Bible, 57). Frederick Weiser calls it a "preoccupation with death and religious themes" (Fraktur, I, xxvii). But the Blood was a New Testament certainty, "through faith in his blood" (Rom 2.25). As John Skelton wrote, “Where the sank royall is, Crystes blode so rede, (Poetical Works of Skelton and Donne, see note), prominent in medieval and pietistic Europe, seventeenth century Donne and after (See Louis Martz, The Meditative Tradition), fraktur viewed with European Catholic icons is also one with English metaphysical poets, Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Traherne and later Smart, who plead the personal heart of Jesus identical to Pennsylvania. Consider Henry Vaughan's, "Dedication," Some drops of Thy all-quick'ning blood / Fell on my heart," and the astonishing lines of Crashaw,
They have left thee naked, Lord, O that they had!
This garment too I wish they had deny'd.
Thee with thy self they have too richly clad;
Opening the purple wardrobe in thy side.
O never could there be garment too good
For thee to wear, but this of thine own Blood.
(see Note below)
These people addressed their love letters to Jesus (Bird 87). It became the scandal of Pietism, the "sweet personal Christ of the Pietists" and their "tender endearments." Jesus was "mein Freund," "unashamedly casual" (86). This same "freund," translated both beloved and friend [see the fraktur of 1770 by Daniel Schuhmacher (Stoudt, Sunbonnets and Shoofly Pies, 151, copied from Song of Songs 2.10-12], freund folk famously invoked with the first line of Song (Canticles), to be "kissed with the kisses of his mouth." No wonder their hearts flowed. In sensing him more judge than friend Bird shows how far they flee from him who sometime did them seek. (from Thomas Wyatt, contemporary of Skelton). As the Cambridge Modern History (V) says:
"They tried to rekindle the fire of holy emotion and by the spirit of self-sacrifice and austere self-immolation to restore the mystical union of the soul with God... adopting the language of the Canticles in describing the union of the soul with the Divine Bridegroom...they express a sensuous delight in dwelling on Christ's sufferings and the agonies of the Cross. This "...irreverent tone of familiarity with the Deity which so frequently characterizes pietistic poetry..." is a comment on the "spiritual exhaustion" of spiritual life in Germany at its lowest ebb.
This continues at //pennsylvaniafathers.blogspot.com/2010...
Edel Herz (95) thinks fraktur more attractive without all the blood and death, that "reformation themes of Christ as king" (Heart,59) were supplanted by a "cult of wounds and blood" (Yoder, Picture-Bible, 57). Frederick Weiser calls it a "preoccupation with death and religious themes" (Fraktur, I, xxvii). But the Blood was a New Testament certainty, "through faith in his blood" (Rom 2.25). As John Skelton wrote, “Where the sank royall is, Crystes blode so rede, (Poetical Works of Skelton and Donne, see note), prominent in medieval and pietistic Europe, seventeenth century Donne and after (See Louis Martz, The Meditative Tradition), fraktur viewed with European Catholic icons is also one with English metaphysical poets, Herbert, Vaughan, Crashaw, Traherne and later Smart, who plead the personal heart of Jesus identical to Pennsylvania. Consider Henry Vaughan's, "Dedication," Some drops of Thy all-quick'ning blood / Fell on my heart," and the astonishing lines of Crashaw,
They have left thee naked, Lord, O that they had!
This garment too I wish they had deny'd.
Thee with thy self they have too richly clad;
Opening the purple wardrobe in thy side.
O never could there be garment too good
For thee to wear, but this of thine own Blood.
(see Note below)
These people addressed their love letters to Jesus (Bird 87). It became the scandal of Pietism, the "sweet personal Christ of the Pietists" and their "tender endearments." Jesus was "mein Freund," "unashamedly casual" (86). This same "freund," translated both beloved and friend [see the fraktur of 1770 by Daniel Schuhmacher (Stoudt, Sunbonnets and Shoofly Pies, 151, copied from Song of Songs 2.10-12], freund folk famously invoked with the first line of Song (Canticles), to be "kissed with the kisses of his mouth." No wonder their hearts flowed. In sensing him more judge than friend Bird shows how far they flee from him who sometime did them seek. (from Thomas Wyatt, contemporary of Skelton). As the Cambridge Modern History (V) says:
"They tried to rekindle the fire of holy emotion and by the spirit of self-sacrifice and austere self-immolation to restore the mystical union of the soul with God... adopting the language of the Canticles in describing the union of the soul with the Divine Bridegroom...they express a sensuous delight in dwelling on Christ's sufferings and the agonies of the Cross. This "...irreverent tone of familiarity with the Deity which so frequently characterizes pietistic poetry..." is a comment on the "spiritual exhaustion" of spiritual life in Germany at its lowest ebb.
This continues at //pennsylvaniafathers.blogspot.com/2010...
Displaying 1 of 1 review