French Literature Reviews - 2026
A. Dupront, The Image of Religion in the Christian West – Towards a Historical Iconology
History, Politics and Society
The Image of Religion in the Christian West – Towards a Historical Iconology
Alphonse Dupront
Mona Ozouf (Preface)
Publication date: 05/11/2015 Publisher: Gallimard (Editions) Series: Bibliothèque illustrée ISBN: 978-2-07-014818-9 EAN: 9782070148189 Format: Hardback No. of pages: 368 p.
How did the Christian West experience its commerce with the afterlife? To sustain this improbable exchange, and unlike Eastern Christians, the people of the West felt the need to resort to objects and images. They entrusted statues, stained glass, paintings, and prints with the task of proclaiming the glory of God. They allowed themselves the audacity and gave themselves the power to make the invisible visible.
They dared to represent God, to populate the heavens, and thus to furnish their anticipation of eternity. This was an immense challenge, and it is to this supreme creation of the human imagination that this essay on historical iconology is dedicated. Long-awaited, repeatedly interrupted by illness, left unfinished, but rescued by devoted hands, this book is finally published twenty-five years after the author's death.
Richly illustrated and illuminated by an inspired and scholarly commentary, it has the remarkable merit of reconnecting us with areas of our culture that are now deserted. Even better, it alters our perspective on a religious imagery that is familiar to us, yet has become enigmatic. Alphonse Dupront is that historian of collective psychology whose ambition, as Mona Ozouf recalls in her preface, was "to reintegrate into historical analysis the irrational undercurrents—all that which, as deep-seated impulses or paroxysmal states, teems beneath conscious life."
This major essay majestically crowns a body of work marked by the studies collected under the title Du Sacré (1987) and the four volumes of Mythe de croisade (1997).
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An article about this work can be read on nonfiction.fr:
Alphonse Dupront was a distinguished historian of collective psychology, known for integrating irrational undercurrents and deep-seated human impulses into historical analysis. This unfinished yet masterfully rescued essay builds upon his earlier contributions to the study of the sacred and the crusades. Prefaced by Mona Ozouf, the volume examines how Western Christians relied on statues, stained glass, and paintings to bridge the gap between earthly existence and the afterlife, daring to represent the divine and populate the heavens with imagery.
Richly illustrated and accompanied by scholarly commentary, the book serves as an essential resource for historians of religion, art historians, and scholars of cultural studies. It reconnects readers with deserted areas of European heritage and transforms our understanding of familiar yet enigmatic religious artifacts. The work will particularly appeal to those investigating the intersections of theology, visual culture, and the human imagination within the broad tradition of French historiography and historical iconology.
"Representing God: Alphonse Dupront's Perspective", by J. Senié.