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| Title: | Seeing is Believing: The Power of Visual Culture in the Religious World of Ase Zar'a Ya'eqob of Ethiopia (1434-1468) |
| Author: | Kaplan, Steven |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
| Volume: | 32 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| Pages: | 403-421 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | Ethiopian Church traditional rulers History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Architecture and the Arts |
| About person: | Zar'a Ya'qob, negus of Ethiopia (-1468) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1581600 |
| Abstract: | This paper looks at religious life in Ethiopia during the rule of Zär'a Ya'eqob (1434-1468). It examines the importance of the Cross, the image of the Virgin, the construction of churches and other visual aspects of religious life in Zär'a Ya'eqob's Ethiopia. No other Ethiopian ruler confronted the religious challenges presented by a divided Church and a largely unchristianized empire as systematically and successfully as Zär'a Ya'eqob. Moreover, he was as sensitive to the daily unspoken truths of religious life as he was to great theological debates and controversies. He understood power in all its manifestations and sought to protect his State, his church and his people with every means at his disposal. By promoting devotion to both the Cross and the Virgin Mary, he built on the foundations prepared by his parents. He also mobilized Christian symbols which transcended local rivalries and regional loyalties. These symbols, as well as the churches he built, were also particularly suited to visual representation and hence comparatively easy to propagate among Ethiopia's largely illiterate population. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract] |
