Posts by Fr. Silouan Justiniano
Iconography: Towards Future Seminary Curriculum Development
Editorial Note: The following paper was presented at the academic theological conference, The Orthodox Christian Seminary in the 21st Century, held Saturday, September 16, during the 75th Anniversary of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, which took place at Jordanville, NY, September 15-17, 2023.[i] **** Trinity!! Higher than any being, any divinity, any goodness! Guide of…
Continue reading »Icon, Religion—Abstraction: Joseph Masheck with Joachim Pissarro & Fr. Silouan Justiniano
…I looked at Russian icon painting with new eyes, that is to say, I “acquired eyes” for the abstract element in this kind of painting. –Wassily Kandinsky[i] For better or for worse the traditional icon painting revival is indebted to modernism, in particular its development of abstraction. Although, as a traditional liturgical art,…
Continue reading »On Manners and Mannerisms: Thoughts on Style…Part II
Participation Vs. Mannerism As mentioned earlier, I take stylization as a neutral, unavoidable trait of painting at large and in fact of all made things. Any embodied articulation of meaning possesses a style. Style is a visual rhetoric of sorts. But not all rhetoric has the same power. The goal should be to “…move, in…
Continue reading »On Manners and Mannerisms: Thoughts on Style…Part I
Editorial note: The following letter/article, which will be posted in two parts, is a response to a friend’s question concerning the problem of style in icon painting, in particular as it relates to one of my icons of Ss. John the Theologian and Prochoros. **** The style is the man himself. – Compte de…
Continue reading »Icon Painting as Participation: Interview with Cornelia Tsakiridou…Part II
In Tradition and Transformation…Gadamer’s “horizon” helped me think in terms of a “communion of icons” (koinonia eikonon) or to think of icons as living these interpenetrating lives across time. Think, for example, of all the variants of the King of Glory/Akra Tapeinosis since the type first appeared in the 12th century. Each one carries…
Continue reading »Icon Painting as Participation: Interview with Cornelia Tsakiridou…Pt. I
Editorial Note: It was in 2014 that I first came across the work of Cornelia A. Tsakiridou, a year after the publication of her major contribution to the current discourse on icon painting, Icons in Time, Persons in Eternity (Ashgate, 2013). It was quite an unexpected treasure to find at the time. Challenging indeed—breaking the…
Continue reading »Orthodox Arts Festival 2022 Opening on September 17
This year’s ORTHODOX ARTS FESTIVAL 2022 will take place online from September 17th to October 17th of 2022. The Festival is considered to be the World’s biggest Online International Festival of Orthodox Christian Artists. The Festival will be the first to integrate High-Quality 3D technology on its numerous Virtual Reality Galleries (they are the…
Continue reading »Review of “Festal Icons: History and Meaning” by Aidan Hart
In Aidan Hart’s new book, Festal Icons: History and Meaning, we find a major contribution to the current icon revival, one which will be hard to surpass for many years to come. It is an impressive volume, not only in its size and bulk — measuring 11 in. x 9 in., weighing 5.17 lbs.,…
Continue reading »Institute of Sacred Arts hosts academic round-table on “Tradition and Innovation in the Arts of the Orthodox Church”
The Institute of Sacred Arts (ISA) at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (SVS) is currently privileged to have Dr. George Kordis as its inaugural artist in residence for the Spring of this academic year. On Thursday, March 17, a group of distinguished scholars gathered around him at St. Vladimir’s Seminary for an academic round-table…
Continue reading »Poetry as Theology: Reflections on Ephrem the Syrian and Richard Wilbur
Introduction Blessed is He who has appeared to our human race under so many metaphors![i] Asked to reflect on the relationship between poetry and theology, I always reach for the above lines of Ephrem the Syrian’s. In some respects, all my thoughts on this matter are circular, starting from and returning to the…
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