Date of Award

4-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2024

Degree Name

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL)

Director

Kathryn Barush

Abstract

Throughout Church history, artists have created beautiful works of sacred art that attracted Christians to contemplate the Supreme Beauty who is God himself. Scripture has inspired visual artists to translate these revealed words of God into images that help to enter prayer. This study explores how the steps of lectio divina, a divine reading of scripture, can be applied to visio divina, a divine gazing on sacred art. To my knowledge, this study is the first attempt at an academic and systematic presentation of visio divina based on the traditional steps of lectio divina.

Although this visio divina can be done with many different works of sacred art we focus on how the sacred art of Fra Angelico (1390-1455) can be used as a map on a mental pilgrimage toward contemplation of God and imitation of his holiness. Fra Angelico is a fitting guide on this spiritual journey because of the beauty of his art that draws one into the ineffable beauty of the Christian mystery he strove to depict. As a priest in the Order of Preachers, Fra Angelico was a preacher who traveled often on the path of prayer and translated this contemplation into his paintings. I am interested in showing a historical continuity rather than rupture by finding similarities between how his art was used as an adjunct to meditation and worship in his own time (in a monastic context) and in today’s world. To understand Fra Angelico, we need to understand his context but to present the timeless beauty of the mysteries he depicted we need to make these truths accessible to men and women today. I will do so through an interdisciplinary approach that brings together iconography, theology, and ethnography.

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