Not Etched in Stone

The essays presented by Professors Marie A. Conn and Thrse McGuire examine stone and water as vehicles of ritual memory through the lenses of various disciplines. In seven concise yet revealing chapters, the authors examine instances throughout history and unbound by geography of stone and water as real or abstract objects that shape our lives, possibly without our notice. Chapters topics include: Water as a vehicle for ritual memory from the earliest days of human history to the present-day. An investigation of the aesthetic principles of the Middle Ages up to the Gothic styles of cathedrals in North America. Julian of Norwich, the famous cloistress, walled in by stone in comparison to Etty Hillesum, a WWII-era mystic, whose small desk used to write her revealing diaries became her stone cloister cell. The Irish, water, and stone in Finnegan's Wake. Warming the "stone heart" of a child pummeled by the foster care system. The lack of clean water that contributes to wide-spread disease. Group behavior and the eventualities of war through stone-like, (uncooperative and hardened) psychological states.