KMT 2018 nr 3 Download PDF

A paradise garden as the topos of happiness in Christian cultural communication

Cite: , Rajski ogród jako topos szczęścia w chrześcijańskiej komunikacji kulturowej, "Kultura - Media - Teologia", 2018( 34) nr 3, s. 28-61.

DOI: 10.21697/kmt.34.7

The garden is an important element of cultural communication. In the history of culture, it appears almost simultaneously with the agrarian civilization. In cultural communication, the most important component of it is the evocation of happiness and pleasure (hortus voluptatis). Nevertheless, the symbolism of mystery resulting from the closed (fenced) character of space (hortus conclusus) is important. In Christian communication, the garden drew its original religious meaning from the Book of Genesis (Eden), but in Christian (and earlier Jewish) apocalyptic, it was identified with the eschatological reality (heavenly paradise). As such, he played an important role in the monastic complexes and in theology and iconography as a symbol of Mary illustrating her virtues. The article focuses on the Christian connotations of the garden as the topos of happiness on different levels: philosophical (garden paradise and concept of happiness), spiritual (garden in monastic life), symbolic (virtue of Mary), artistic (garden in the literary output of Symeon Polocki, the first Russian humanist).

About authors

Ks. dr Norbert Mojżyn

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