LA THĖÂTRALITĖ DE L’IMAGE SACRĖE: UNE NOUVELLE CLĖ DE LA RELATION ĖGLISE-THĖÂTRE
THE THEATRICALITY OF THE SACRED IMAGE: A NEW KEY TO THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CHURCH AND THEATER

Summary/Abstract: The Theatricality of the Sacred Image: a New Key to the Connection between Church and Theater. Taking into consideration the fact that there have always been problems when confronting the theoretical and dogmatic position of the Christian Church on the one hand and the presence of the art of Theatre in all its forms on the other hand, the present article tries to explain in which way and why the history of medieval European theatre overlaps the history of Christianity. As one key to this much debated relation we propose to analyze and theorize about the theatricality of sacred images, which is able to explain one of the most puzzling questions in the history of the birth of religious theatre: why did the occidental medieval Church made this birth possible, while its twin sister, the Byzantine Church, never allowed it as such? What is this theatricality like, and what helped it or prevented it from transforming itself into real theatre, this is what we are going to see.

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