The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican

Overview

Five hundred years ago Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world--the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.

The Sistine Secrets tells the fascinating story of how Michelangelo embedded messages of brotherhood, tolerance, and freethinking in his painting to encourage "fellow travelers" to challenge the repressive Roman Catholic Church of his time.

"Driven by the truths he had come to recognize during his years of study in private nontraditional schooling in Florence, truths rooted in his involvement with Judaic texts as well as Kabbalistic training that conflicted with approved Christian doctrine, Michelangelo needed to find a way to let viewers discern what he truly believed. He could not allow the Church to forever silence his soul. And what the Church would not permit him to communicate openly, he ingeniously found a way to convey to those diligent enough to learn his secret language."--from the Preface

Blech and Doliner reveal what Michelangelo meant in the angelic representations that brilliantly mocked his papal patron, how he managed to sneak unorthodox heresies into his ostensibly pious portrayals, and how he was able to fulfill his lifelong ambition to bridge the wisdom of science with the strictures of faith. The Sistine Secrets unearths secrets that have remained hidden in plain sight for centuries.

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Author Information

Bio of Benjamin Blech

Rabbi Benjamin Blech is an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author, and lecturer. He has written 12 highly acclaimed and bestselling books, with combined sales of close to half a million copies, including three as part of the highly popular Idiot's Guide series. His book, Understanding Judaism: The Basics of Deed and Creed, was chosen by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations as "the single best book on Judaism in our generation." Together with an accompanying six-hour video, filmed by the producers of 20/20 and featuring Rabbi Blech, it is presently being used as the basis for study groups in numerous synagogues and universities around the United States. His book, Taking Stock: A Spiritual Guide To Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs, was featured in a full-page article in the Sunday New York Times. Another work, If God is Good, Why Is The World So Bad?, has been translated into Indonesian, and it enjoyed a powerful reception in Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami. In a national survey, Rabbi Blech was ranked number 16 in a listing of the 50 most influential Jews in America. A recipient of the American Educator of the Year Award, he has been a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University since 1966. A tenth-generation rabbi, Rabbi Blech is Rabbi Emeritus of Young Israel of Oceanside, which he served for 37 years. He presently is a frequent lecturer in Jewish communities as far-flung as Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Israel. Closer to home, he has served as Scholar-in-Residence at hundreds of synagogues throughout the United States and Canada, and he has been active on behalf of countless Jewish causes. His lectures on tape have an international following and are among the most popular from among the thousands made available on the Web through Aish Hatorah. Rabbi Blech has appeared on national television (including The Oprah Winfrey Show), hosted a popular weekly radio program in New York, and written for Newsweek, The New York Times, and Newsday, as well as for a wide and varied number of scholarly publications. As a result of his personal meeting with the late Pope John Paul II, he was instrumental in securing the loan of precious Jewish manuscripts for exhibition in Israel, and he is presently involved in further negotiations for the return of precious Judaica held by the Vatican that may well prove to be of historic significance. Rabbi Blech is an unusually eloquent and gifted speaker, as well as a profound contemporary theologian and religious spokesman, who has made a major impact on the many tens of thousands of people he has addressed.

Bio of Roy Doliner

No bio available for Roy Doliner.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperOne

Filesize

1.18 MB

Number of Pages

336

eBook ISBN

9780061647758