Encountering other religious traditions

John Muir

Saint Dulce of the Poor, first female Brazilian canonized (13 October 2019)

Fred Rogers

 

Encountering other religious traditions, sometimes embracing, sometimes changing, sometimes misunderstanding, sometimes attacking:

Recently, i read a Jewish writer upset with A Christmas Carol.  One of his gripes was Ebenezer Scrooge was an anti-semitic creation, because he was a greedy miser with an obvious Jewish name. He was neither a student of Dickens, or waspish naming practices. Dickens is famous for odd named characters. There were many people named after, even, obscure Old Testament figures. There are many Baptist, and some other churches named Ebenezer. Ebenezer in the Old Testament is a place, and a stone. Uriah Heep, Josiah Bounderby, Rev. Melchisedech Howler, Elijah Pogram, Soloman Daisy, Soloman Gills, Soloman Pross, Solomon Pell, and Zephaniah Scadde are all Dickensian. The one Jewish character that is usually the one singled out is Fagin.

I have read/heard many Evangelical/Baptists twist Catholic terminology. Scholarship is not really their thing; nuance and metaphor is not their strong point. Sometimes it is deliberate intention to evangelise by attacking straw men. 

Recently i have seen a few of Kelly Latimore's icons. A couple have really inflamed conservative Catholics. Of such people, their politics outweigh Christianity. They were incensed firstly over the Holy Family being portrayed as Meso-Americans, their Lord Trump and his policies were being attacked. The one that made them explode was Mama 2020. George Floyd and a black mother were in a pieta scene. He had enough background to realise Jesus is in everyone, so why wasn't an icon of Derek Chauvin as a prisoner was made.

Latimore's father was a Baptist preacher. Kelly studied art and religion in college. For a time, he was a member of an Episcopal monastic group, Common Friars, in Athens Ohio. Someone there asked him if he ever did an icon. And so it began. He takes commissions. He has icons in Episcopal churches in Pomeroy, and Gallipolis.

Some of his icons are of traditional subjects, painted in typical style. Some have natural background scenes, and are of twentieth century subjects. He finds complaints about the style coming from Russia, and Ukraine, and elsewhere. He has done icons of writers, singers, environmentalists, peace activists, and civil rights figures. Many of these have not been canonised, and are outside of religious groups that recognise saints. Perhaps, these are saints for Latimore; but certainly not for others.

Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister, and surprisingly, a Republican. Mister Rogers has upset conservatives, and some of them are upset that Latimore made an icon. Rogers went to Congress to support funding for Public Broadcasting, a bug-a-boo for Republicans. Most of all, they hate Rogers for his genuine empathy. He held the feelings of children in high regard. Rogers wanted children happy, well adjusted, and gentle.

 

spoila

 

five of the ten columns from First National, chandeliers visible

To quarry, shape, and transport stone is cumbersome and expensive. Buildings can fall to ruin (spoil), or end not being wanted. Now there is a fashion to reuse by calling something recycled, or re-purposed. Before it was practicality, or celebration. Some former buildings were built with good materials, some of it great stuff. Why destroy it completely? Sometimes the successor finds it convenient, and other times symbolically significant. Here is some glorious object that survived, and now we can have it here in this. In Christian antiquity, or other similar antiquity, the stone columns of a pagan temple could be used in church architecture. The same was done for secular buildings.

During the Hooverian Depression that extended into the 1930s there was a monetary deflation in prices, and a desperation to sell. Those who could buy benefited in their purchases. One canny buyer was Fr. Michael Leahy of St. James Lakewood. Of all the churches in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, St. James has the highest insured value. Inside there is much polished, colored stone. Some of the interior marble columns are spoila from (presumably) the Roman empire.

First National teller cage lamp lights Stations of the Cross

Another builder of an "extravagant parish church" was Fr. John Mary Powers of St. Ann Cleveland Heights. He did not have to travel to the old country, but to downtown Cleveland, and then New York City. It is a question of how serendipitous this was. I read, that he went to buy a used desk; and the spoila snowballed. Now he would be called a master of "repurposing".

one of two bronze balconies from First National

In architecture, throughout history, the most valued buildings reflected what the age valued. In mediaeval Europe it was soaring stone cathedrals. In pre-Roosevelt America it was banks. Many banks were bought, or merged with other banks. Many banks failed, and went bankrupt outside of the Hooverian Depression. Fr. Powers bought brass light fixtures, stone, and ornamentation from soon to be demolished downtown Cleveland banks (First National 1925, Central National 1949). Items were sold and liquidated from other sources also; from a Hanna mansion in Bratenahl—good woodwork, a fancy rug from the Midland Building Cleveland, and so on. Marble came from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York City (1950) after Powers heard on a radio programme that it would soon be razed; bricks came from the nearby Cleveland old Murray Hill school. Vault doors were salvaged from the junk yard that held Central National's detritus. He wheeled and dealed other stuff that was not destined to be part of his church.

perhaps the most out of the ordinary object, clock from First National

Fr. Powers was the first pastor of St. Ann's beginning in 1915. He was to stay there for fifty one years. Often the first church of a parish was a temporary one. St. Ann's was to have a multi-building campus. The final building, that did become built, became the new church. It was delayed for many years. In the United States, the presiding bishop has too much power. The bishop from 1921 to 1945, later archbishop, Joseph Schrembs did not like Fr. Powers. Powers submitted architectural drawings to Schrembs more than once, and was denied each time. The bishop did not like extravagant parish churches, and the plans looked like they were for a bank. A new bishop initially rejected plans too. On the second attempt, the new bishop was told it would be a revisioned Greek temple. In the long in between time, between beginning collecting and beginning building, the basement of the old church was filled with more, and more items. The new church was finished in 1952.

Saint Ann. Cleveland Heights.

 

Warner Studio 'building' that was used as Gotham Police Headquarters, and as courthouses, banks, and other buildings. Perhaps a church in some film?

madness of Macbeth

Well, i was waiting to see this as soon it was announced that Washington was playing Macbeth. The film was delayed for at least a year. No one is mentioning the cultural appropriation here. An actor can be cast in any role. Washington gives glances as he did in August Wilson's Fences, where he played Troy Maxson. With Shakespeare, one can watch the same play in different productions and be satisfied. In this one, it is early when Macbeth is insane. The ambition causes the madness, and murder follows. When Macbeth sits on the throne, he is mad.

Filming in black and white was good, the visuals were surprising and well done. There is fog, strong light, shadows, and dark, and the sound of a light's pull chain. The director can shade the story when doing a play. The author often does not give much more than words, a naked text. Choices are made in presentation, and different presentations can be well done. The castle is beyond huge (but void of ornamentation), as large as any in a silent movie spectacular. Some scenes the travel within are as in Citizen Kane. The pillars of the castle imitate the trees in the forest, and vice versa. Birnam Wood grows its trees in straight ranks, which match the columns of men carrying boughs. The leaves fall without wind until Macbeth opens the window, and then sits again on the throne and waits. When he stands and walks, the columns and the trees are in the same hall. 

Ross appears again and again, he does not narrate, but he is a catalyst to action and as a witness to the action. The Macbeths are around sixty in this version. Why would their murderous jealousy be directed at Banquo (who is prophesised never to be king)?

There is no cauldron. The three witches were played by one actress, and they would turn into corbies (ravens). Corbies scavenge human carrion. Magpies, rooks, and ravens are all corvids. Here, the Ghost of Banquo is one. At the very end, a flight of these birds end the movie. There is that odd poetic word for a collective of these birds—murder.

Macbeth is Shakespeare's shortest play, and this movie finishes the story in about 100 minutes, and they come quick. When a movie flows in viewing, that one is surprised it's already over, it is a good movie.

2022 Miscellany #1

 

Scranton Flats, Cuyahoga River

Columbus Metropark Bison Herd, Battelle Darby Creek 

West 28th & Lorain Avenue, Cleveland

which one is not like the others? went to Westlake Clague Park, no pin tail

now they have one too, WPA bascule bridge background

always good to see a non-standard mail box

Concerning the use of personnel

Concerning the use of personnel by the Cleveland football team, the players are well compensated by pay--good.  Playing an injured player is stupid. It increases the injury of the player, and possibly decreases his career. There are healthier players in the interim, who could prove, at least, adequate.

In regards to the quarterback, a healthy Keenum is a good quarterback, better than an injured Mayfield. Cleveland's management caused game defeats by playing an injured quarterback.

This i expand to all management that deals with physical (and some other) work. Some workers are valued above others, and will be given preference beyond equity, and beyond what circumstances allow, and consequential efficacy of results be damned. And/but, once management sours on a person, management will create situations for the worker to fail, and if said worker manages to succeed, he will still be belittled. When management decides to get rid of someone, they go about it methodically and without scruple. Management denies all of its machinations throughout.

After the Pittsburgh loss last week, it was quickly announced that Mayfield would have surgery. I heard on the teevee, that the Pittsburgh game might be the last time Mayfield will wear a Browns uniform.

I have no idea who will be the #1 quarterback next year.

Janus