Books by Richard (Professor of Theology Viladesau

This volume traces how theologies and the arts of the Baroque period stressed the "pathos" of Christ's death on the cross as the means of salvation, and invited believers to an emotional response that binds them to Christ's saving act.

This is a sequel to Richard Viladesau's well-received study, The Beauty of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts from the Catacombs to the Eve of the Renaissance (2006). It continues his project of presenting theological history by using art as both an independant religious or theological 'text' and as a means of understanding the cultural context for academic theology.

Seeking to understand the beauty of the cross as it developed in theology and art from the early Christian era through the Middle Ages, the author argues that art and symbolism functioned as an alternative strand of theological expression-sometimes parallel to, sometimes interwoven with, and sometimes in tension with formal theological reflection.