The Alcuin Club’s collections are normally
rich and highly rewarding reading, but not on this occasion.
I am sorry to say that if I was allowed
just one word for this book I would have to go for “rambling”. It does includes an interesting miscellany of
reflections on various artworks but I would have to agree with Nicholas
Cranfield’s review in the Church Times and say that the application of a strong
editorial hand would have been of great benefit to both Christopher Irvine and the
reader.
For example when he mentions Constantinople
he feels the need to tell us this is now Istanbul and lies on the Bosphorus -
one doubts that many readers who pick up this work would actually be ignorant
of these facts, but even if they were, these facts appear to me to be entirely
irrelevant to the substance of the point at hand.
While I would agree with the broad
assumptions of the book I do that despite it not because of it. It does not, in itself, deliver a compelling
argument. It is only with concerted
effort that one is able to keep track of it’s underlying arguments as you range
far and wide over the details of particular artworks or background descriptions
of Christian theology.
What is also puzzling is who Irvine thinks the audience
will be. He gives such lengthy summaries of basic aspects of Christian theology
that you have to assume he is catering for the reader with no knowledge of the
Christian faith other that which is imparted within the covers of this volume –
there are many people in such a state of knowledge but whether they would ever
be drawn to read this work is I think doubtful.
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