{"id":3391,"date":"2009-07-01T11:27:10","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T16:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/?p=3391"},"modified":"2020-09-12T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T22:16:08","slug":"book-review-signs-mysteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/?p=3391","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Signs & Mysteries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"signs<\/a><\/div>\n

Signs & Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols<\/strong><\/em>
\nby Mike Aquilina
\nillustrated by Lea Marie Ravotti
\nOur Sunday Visitor \u00a92008
\nISBN 978-1-59276-450-1<\/p>\n

The early Christian Church survived hostility and persecution by using a variety of symbols to share their beliefs and stealthly decorate their tombs and places of worship. Simple, yet very special, these artistic creations became a symbolic language that was a silent witness to the faith of our early Christian ancestors.<\/p>\n

Our key to understanding the early-Christian use of symbols can be summed up in a single word: typology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Typology is the discernment of “typical” patterns of God’s activity throughout salvation history.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Signs & Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols<\/em>, Aquilina presents in-depth analysis of 25 ancient Christian symbols:<\/p>\n

\"signs<\/div>\n

Fish \u2022 Orant \u2022 Shepherd \u2022 Vine \u2022 Philosopher \u2022 Phoenix \u2022 Dolphin \u2022 Peacock \u2022 Milk \u2022 Lamp \u2022 Moses \u2022 Plow \u2022 Vessels \u2022 Lamb \u2022 Dove \u2022 Bread and Sheaves \u2022 Crown \u2022 Banquet \u2022 Lighthouse \u2022 Ankh \u2022 Cross \u2022 Anchor \u2022 Ships and Boats \u2022 Labarum (Chi-Rho) \u2022 Alpha and Omega<\/p>\n

By referencing ancient and modern Church documents, he explains the connection between pagan, Jewish, and Christian symbols.<\/p>\n

A symbology is a system of symbols, a kind of language. And a language, even a visual language. sets a kind of boundary for a people or a nation. It includes the natives (baptized) and excludes the aliens (pagans). Recovering a common Christian language, we can recover a sense of the nearness or our ancestors, the immediacy of the family we call the Communion of Saints.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a beautiful little book. The design, typography, and illustrations are exquisite, light, and graceful. However, it is not light reading. To fully comprehend the meaning of each symbol, take it one chapter at a time. An understanding of these ancient symbols will bring us closer to our Christian roots, and in turn, closer to our Risen Lord.<\/p>\n

\"cc<\/a><\/p>\n

This review was written as part of the Catholic book<\/a> Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Signs and Mysteries<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Signs & Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols by Mike Aquilina illustrated by Lea Marie Ravotti Our Sunday Visitor \u00a92008 ISBN 978-1-59276-450-1 The early Christian Church survived hostility and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,118],"class_list":["post-3391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books","tag-catholic-company-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}