Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: Cultivating a Sacramental Imagination in an Age of Pornography

by Elizabeth T. Groppe

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 2020

Overview

In an era in which the internet has made pornography readily accessible, Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart offers a theological critique of pornography and retrieves from the Christian tradition an alternative visual culture. This visual culture is constituted by both the character of the images we behold and the manner in which we see. Contributors include psychologists William M. Struthers and Jill Manning, who address the neurological effects of pornography and its influences on personal, familial, and social life. Their professional analysis is complemented by the testimony of a young man in recovery from pornography addiction. In an exposition of Christian visual culture, Orthodox iconographer Randi Sider-Rose describes the spiritual discipline of icon writing, Danielle M. Peters, S.T.D., surveys the iconography and art of Marian traditions, and art historian Dianne Phillips elucidates the meaning of divine desire as evident in Catholic visual culture of the late medieval and early modern periods. Catholic theologians Ann W. Astell, Nathaniel Peters, Boyd Taylor Coolman, and Nicolas Ogle discuss specific practices and dimensions of the Catholic tradition that can contribute to the cultivation of sacramental vision, and David W. Fagerberg, Kimberly Hope Belcher, Jennifer Newsome Martin, and John C. Cavadini offer reflections on sacramental imagination and the healing of vision.

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart is a work of scholarship composed with pastoral care and concern, and it will be serviceable to both classroom teachers and pastoral ministers. A special feature of the book is an inset of seventy-two full-color plates featuring both classic and contemporary works of Christian iconography and art. The essays and images invite readers to behold in beauty the truth that we are created by the triune God not for sexual objectification but with a sacramental vocation to deification through Christ and the Holy Spirit of love.

Key Features

• Offers a theological critique of pornography
• Retrieves from the Christian tradition an alternative visual culture
• Follows the publication of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' November 2015 statement "Create in Me a Clean Heart: A Pastoral Response to Pornography"

Contents

Introduction: "Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart" (Eph 1:18) - Elizabeth T. Groppe

• Visual Cultures and the Sacramental Imagination - Elizabeth T. Groppe

Part 1. An Age of Pornography

• The Influence of Pornography on Women - Jill Manning
• The Effects of Pornography on Men: A Neurological Perspective - William M. Struthers and Kyler Mulhauser

Part 2. The Visual Culture of Christianity

• Learning to See: The Sacralized Vision of Byzantine Iconography - Randi Sider-Rose
• A Transformative Encounter: A Historical and Theological Reflection on the Contribution of Marian Imagery to the Capacity for Sacramental Vision - Danielle M. Peters
• The Visual Culture of Catholicism - Dianne Phillips

Part 3. The Sacramental Imagination

• "Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart" and the Sacramental Imagination - David W. Fagerberg
• Sacramental Exposure - Kimberly Hope Belcher

Part 4. Cultivating a Sacramental Imagination in an Age of Pornography

• Memory, the Sacrament of Marriage, and the Song of Songs - Ann W. Astel
• Vision, Memory, and the Eucharist's Reformation of the Mind - Nathaniel Peters
• Sensus Christi: A Liturgico-Sacramental Therapy for a Pornographic Sensibility - Boyd Taylor Coolman
• The Corporal Works of Mercy and the Sacramental Imagination - Nicholas Ogle

Part 5. The Healing of Vision

• "Neither Do I Condemn You" (Jn 8:11): Seeing with the Eyes of Christ - Jonah
• Beauty as Paradigm for Resistance: Against the Pornographic Age - Jennifer Newsome Martin
• The Price of Pleasure and the Power of Love Crucified: The Perversion of Manhood and the Healing Power of the Anastasis - John C. Cavadini

Praise for Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

The contributors to this volume highlight how widespread the effects of pornography are and why this is of concern to those of the Catholic faith as well as discussing resources – mainly visual – within the tradition that provide a way of understanding the world.

Jason King, author of Faith with Benefits: Hookup Culture on Catholic Campuses

In this rich and thoughtful volume, the contributors insist that pornography is not identified by nakedness, eros, or even the affirmation of sexual desire. All of these belong to Catholic visual culture. What marks pornography in our world, they consistently say, is its association with damage that falls disproportionately on the most vulnerable. The analysis of this damage and its opposite is as surprising as it is sophisticated--Janelle Monáe’s videos are evidence for one contributor of the sacramental imagination at work--and add up to a volume that is subtle, engaging, and humane. The book is a pleasure to read and an important contribution to understanding both pornography and our present visual moment.

Natalie Carnes, author of Image and Presence: A Christological Reflection on Iconoclasm and Iconophilia

Too often, pornography is treated by Catholic thought simply as a moral infraction. The problem is lust, and we move on. But this remarkably rich volume provides a far better diagnosis of pornography as a crisis of visual culture, one that requires a counterculture formed by a sacramental imagination of beauty. In delicate but direct treatments from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, Groppe and her colleagues not only help us understand how pornography works, but how seeing the world is a fundamental task for Christians that, in a sense, precedes and shapes moral analysis. A rare work that is essential for both scholars and pastoral workers that opens up hope in the face of a massive problem!

David Cloutier, The Catholic University of America

Product Details

• Title: Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart: Cultivating a Sacramental Imagination in an Age of Pornography
• Author: Elizabeth T. Groppe
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Print Publication Date: 2020
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 360
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church › Doctrines; Pornography › Religious aspects--Christianity
• Resource ID: LLS:SNGYSHGPRNGRPHY
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-08-27T22:58:34Z