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contact:
malbon@vt.edu

Dr. Lara is Associate Professor of Christian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Program in Religion and the Arts at Yale University Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music, Worship & the Arts. For more information, see http://www.yale.edu/divinity/fac/index.html; scroll down and click on Jamie Lara.

Abstract: It is recognized today that the "discovery" of America at the end of the fifteenth century, and its subsequent evangelization by mendicant missionaries, was understood against the backdrop of medieval millennial and apocalyptic expectations. Those expectations often included prophecies that predicted either the reconstruction or liberation of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of its temple before a final age or climatic event. Additionally, these predictions were often associated with the expected discovery of the lost tribes of Israel. This temple-consciousness is found in the Sibylline Oracles, the Crusader literature, the hopes of Maimonides and fellow Jews, the historical theology of Joachim of Fiore, the political aspirations of the Holy Roman Emperors, and the writings of Christopher Columbus, among many others. These individuals found ample proof texts in Ezekiel and the minor prophets. The theme was also treated allegorically by the Fathers of the Church, medieval exegetes, the Reformers, and by the liturgy itself. But it was never merely abstract and speculative; rather it always took form in music, drama, art, and architecture. When a concurrence of spectacular events took place at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the belief reappeared with vigor in the New World and manifested itself in brick and mortar, as well as in "flower and song" (to use an Aztec phrase). The particular texts and visual sources of inspiration for this project are being brought to light. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the most extensive temple-building projects to date have occurred in the New World, and they continue to this day.

2003, Atlanta


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