How might the methodological orientation of phenomenology be compared to formally focused movements in other modernist domains where relations between…
Abstraction and reduction, with continual reference to Hilma af Klint
art
Populism without borders
In order to grasp the antagonisms covered up by the discourse on populism we should, I suggest, relate it to…
Borderlands of the sacred
Americans have long sacralized ordinary objects through memory work that reveals the power of the state, that transforms otherwise familiar,…
The soulful, comic defiance of Heavenly Bodies
Heavenly Bodies surprised me because I was anticipating a celebration of Catholic aesthetics and fashion. It was partly this. But…
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, something dead
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which opened this past spring and will…
Twin Peaks and late capitalism
In the universe of Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, the question, “Is this all there is?” no matter…
Madeline
He had fallen asleep on the train and missed his stop at Secaucus. . . .
Spirit in the Dark—An introduction
Josef Sorett (Columbia University) introduces a critical exchange centered on his new book, Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of…
CFP: Working with A Secular Age
On March 6-8, 2014, the University of Bern will host an international conference entitled "Working with A Secular Age: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Charles…
Spiritualism and visual romanticism
TIF editor at large, John Lardas Modern, reviews Charles Colbert's recent publication, Haunted Visions: Spiritualism and American Art.