Gesture in Byzantium

Phenomenology of Gesture Between Heidegger and Flusser

“…Here, we can include as well the emblematic gestures of particular communities and subcultures, such as hip-hop gestural stylistics, gestures of heavy metal fans, or the gestures of football team supporters, etc. Moreover, gesture and gesticulation also differ on the historical scale, because it is very possible that a perfectly intelligible gesture in the ancient or medieval world (or even more recently, three centuries ago) would be completely incomprehensible to us, even if historians may attempt skillful reconstructions of the significance of gestures effective in a given epoch and in a specified geographical area (Brubaker, 2009; Depreux, 2009; Walter, 2009), as well as tracing the evolution of the meanings of a gesture from one epoch to another (Bremmer & Roodenburg, 1991; Schmitt, 1990).…”

Saint Anselm of Canterbury and Charismatic Authority

“…He was the guest of honour in monastic houses and the residences of the aristocracy in Normandy, England, and beyond ( [12], I. xxii, pp. [39][40]. He talked with everyone, great and small, and even set aside time to talk to a mere youth of about nineteen (Eadmer), who would later become his biographer ( [12], I. xxix, pp.…”

“…One of the paradoxes of medieval monasticism, especially relating to new or reformed monastic orders, was that the very espousal of Apostolic poverty attracted wealth in the form of pious donation ( [12], I. xxii, pp. [39][40]. Patrons recognised that this purer form of monasticism was preferred as more efficacious for the soul's welfare.…”

“…Whether Anselm was asleep or not, his followers and those who found themselves faced with this sleeping monk in court, evidently noticed this singular display and were presumably disconcerted by it (cf. [40], pp. 51-55).…”

“…Why, without doubt the untameable fury of the bull will drag the sheep, which should produce wool and milk and lambs, this way and that through the thorns and the briars; and the bull, if it do not shake itself of the yoke altogether, will so tear the sheep that the sheep, unable to furnish any of these good things, will be of no use either to itself or Anselm continued the metaphor to explain that the Church in England was a plough and that it should be pulled along by two equally matched oxen, namely the king and the archbishop of Canterbury, the one drawing the plough along by his human justice and sovereignty, the other by divine doctrine and authority ( [4], pp. [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. What Anselm feared was that the young king's 'untameable fury' would eventually destroy the feeble old sheep ( [2], p. 36).…”