Ping!
Fascinating.
Thanks, good article.
Megas - nice name.
From the article:
“All mosaics mention persons by name who contributed to the construction and mosaic furnishing of the church; and all donations still reveal the pagan ‘do-ut-des’-mentality – which means that a contribution to the ‘sanctuary’ was seen as a donation to God, who is ‘paid in advance’ for the fulfillment of an individual request,” he explains.
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I visited a couple of temples in Taiwan. Beautiful old buildings. In front of the various idols there were boxes for offerings to those idols. At the main door outside the temple was a box for donations for the preservation of the building.
I double-checked with my guide/driver that a donation to the building would not get confused as an offering to an idol! (He assured me that it would not!)
From the atrium, the faithful had a spectacular view – better than the other churches offered – of the Sea of Galilee, including all the sites where Jesus is said to have performed his miracles.
BUMP for later
Would love to see all the photos; but the entire article won’t load. I’ll try when it’s 3:00 AM in Israel!
Wonderful post. Ridiculous how the author is sneering at the “mediocre” folk art and probable poor neighborhood — sheesh. “What, no gold leaf?”