The Florence Baptistry or Battistero di San Giovanni (Baptistry of St. John) in Florence (Tuscany), Italy.

 

Videos of the series are now available! Part 1, Part 2

 

Join us for a four-week exploration of the flourishing of faith and art in Renaissance Florence. The tensions between politics and religion in Renaissance Italy were always a boiling caldron—perhaps moreso than modern America. Come and learn about the culture, politics, art, literature and theology of Renaissance Florence with our own Jeff Vamos (fresh from his sabbatical studies in Florence) and Professor Karlfried Froehlich (retired PTS professor of Church History).

The story of Renaissance Florence can still enrich the heart, mind and soul.

The class will meet from 11:30am-12:30pm in the Lounge.

Class Schedule:

September 23: Introduction: The Beginnings of the Renaissance in Florence. Please visit the class page for additional materials.

September 30: Florence’s Greatest Son: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)—Against the backdrop of political and religious struggles in Italy, Dante wrote The Divine Comedy, an allegorical account of the soul’s journey toward God. This literary masterwork describes Dante’s passage through Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso). Daily Dante http://dailydante.com/ is a collaborative blog, written by a motley band of Dantophiles living in the Princeton, NJ area. We began during Lent of 2010, when we adopted blogging as a Lenten discipline: a canto a day (excepting Sundays, which technically do not count as Lent), that conveniently allowed us to finish more or less just before Easter. We have completed Inferno, and Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

October 7: Art, Culture and the Church in Renaissance Florence—Although it was a republic, Renaissance Florence was dominated by powerful families, especially the Medici. The flourishing of art, architecture and literary culture was to a large extent due to their active encouragement and patronage in the framework of the Roman Church’s faith and life.

October 14: Biblical Art in Renaissance Florence: Ghiberti’s Doors—Among the great Renaissance artists of Florence, Lorenzo Ghiberti holds a place of honor. His bronze doors for the magnificent Baptistery are incomparably beautiful treasures. Behind the artist’s treatment of Old and New Testament scenes we will discern a very imaginative and a very sophisticated theology.

What do you think of the course? Leave your comments, questions & thoughts in the “Speak Your Mind” section below.