Description

At the present time, as in the past, biblical texts are represented in pictures. Not only in churches, chapels and monasteries but also in the public domain one can find new paintings, sculptures and leaded glass windows that refer to biblical texts. In this research, six pictures are analysed that refer to the story of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kgs 19:1-18. The research question is: Which aspects of biblical spirituality are brought out in these pictures? This present study contributes to a theorization of this domain of research, within the scientific field of spirituality. The pictures of Elijah provide the concept of biblical spirituality with shape and colour. The six items, leaded glass windows, sculptures and paintings, in this research offer concrete and varied forms of biblical spirituality. They represent Elijah's experience of divine presence in their own, characteristic manners. The pictures appear to differ in the manner in which a divine space is opened up. To differing degrees beholders of the pictures are introduced into the space of a divine presence, and guided towards a perspective change similar to the one that Elijah undergoes. Anne-Marie Bos demonstrates the relational features of biblical spirituality; how biblical spirituality arises in the very act of looking or reading. The theoretic reflections and the case studies both contribute to a progressive comprehension of (biblical) spirituality.