Anchoring the Altar

When we talk about the connection between art and religion, the most basic similarity is clarity of vision. Art teaches us how to see what is, rather than what is real for us. It tries to banish the innate blindness of vision that religion also tries to dispel. In Anchoring the Altar Mark Patrick Hederman, in his clear and imaginative style, explores the relationship between the work of art and Christianity. An Ireland in the twenty-first century closed to any aspect or variety of humanity or to the possibility of divinity should be an Ireland too narrow for us. Anchoring the Altar makes a plea for Christianity as an important opening in this direction, and tries to persuade the Irish people not to abandon a very deep and ingrained devotion to the Eucharist. The fact that most of our population has become highly educated should mean, not that we abandon our dearest and deepest practices, but that we try to understand them more fully. Anchoring the Altar is the final book in Mark Patrick Hederman's trilogy.