Hiérotopie de l’obscurité

A.  Simsky

A. Simsky Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0902-3634

Abstract

Tandis que le rôle de la lumière dans la création des espaces sacrés est bien connu, la hiérotopie de l’obscurité n’a jamais fait l’objet d’études specifiques. Dans cet article, l’obscurité est thématisée comme un élément constitutif des espaces sacrés. J’affirme que l’obscurité est plus que l’absence de lumière. L’ambiance sombre engendre une spiritualité toute particulière, caractérisée par le silence, la paix sereine et par la concentration sur le monde intérieur. Cette spiritualité est dotée de sa propre symbolique sacrée, étroitement liée avec la dramaturgie et la symbolique de la lumière. Comme exemple typique, nous allons prendre les catacombes romaines paléochrétiennes, lieux de rituels funéraires et commémoratifs. Du point de vue hiérotopique, les catacombes peuvent être considérées comme des icônes spatiales du royaume des morts, où l’image-paradigme du paradis chrétien luisait invisiblement à travers l’ambiance lugubre de ce monde souterrain.

Author Biography

A. Simsky, Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2023-5-1-106-114

Andrew Simsky
Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture, Leuven, Belgium
andrew_simsky@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0902-3634

Abstract
Although the role of light in the creation of sacred spaces is well known, the hierotopy of darkness has never been, to our knowledge, a subject of a dedicated study. In this work, darkness is thematized as a constitutive element of sacred spaces. I argue that there is more to darkness than merely the absence of light. A dark ambience engenders its own spirituality characterized by serenity, quiet peace and focusing on one’s inner life. Moreover, darkness is imbued with its own sacred meanings intimately intertwined with the dramaturgy and meanings of light. As an example, we take Roman catacombs, a site of funerary rituals and a spatial icon of the underworld through which the Christian paradise was shining, with sporadically embedded small gold-glass tondo icons as points of connection between earth and heaven.

Keywords: hierotopy, darkness, light, sacred space, spatial icon, image-paradigm, catacomb, paradise, beams of light, unknowing, golden glass, Rome

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About author

Andrew Simsky
Cand. Sci. (Physical and Mathematical Sciences), Senior Researcher
Research Center for Eastern Christian Culture
160, Groenstraat, Leuven, 3001, Belgium
E-mail: andrew_simsky@mail.ru

For citation:
Simsky A. Hiérotopie de l’obscurité. Journal of Visual Theology. 2023. Vol. 5. 1. Pp. 106–114.
https://doi.org/10.34680/vistheo-2023-5-1-106-114