Essay 7a. Faith and Belief

7a. Faith and Belief

Is Art in any way, an intrinsic part of, or primary factor in religion or religious expression and if so, how did it specifically play a part in the development of Christianity.

"Faith in the whispers of the lonely muse is to them the evidence of things not seen; and therefore true Art requires the service of mind and heart."

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Part One:

SUMMARY: Christian art is a timeless, absolute and essential cornerstone of culture. Throughout the centuries, artists have used their art to express their own faith and beliefs or to depict events of the Bible and Christian views. In most cases, their works are designed to have a profound effect on the audience. Some of these works are intended to make the audience really think about faith and beliefs and some are intended to teach the audience something. Some of this art is very dramatic and emotional and designed overcome the audience with feelings of a sense of love and respect for, and even fear of, Christianity. 

But does religion and art affect everyone the same way? Everyone perceives things differently and what the artist may have intended can be perceived by the audience in a different way, such as depictions of Jesus on the cross or people that felt in those magnificent cathedrals were oppressive rather than awe-inspiring. Our beliefs influence our view of things and if these are different than what the artist may have intended, you might see the art differently. (http://www.artsmia.org/world-religions/christianity)

REASON: I believe the reason for this question was to help us to understand how Christianity impacted art and how art could also be used to influence Christianity. 

PURPOSE:  I believe this question is intended to help us understand how a person's own personal convictions, faith and spirituality could affect the way a particular work of art was perceived but that external influences also played an important part in their perception.

DIRECTION: The exercise of researching and answering this topic has taught me to see Christian art of a particular period differently. I have a better understanding and renewed respect for iconography which is significant to the Greek Orthodox Church. As a non-denominational Christian with respect for the Orthodox faith, my own personal convictions had actually led me to wonder if it was considered idolatry.

IMPRESSIONS: My research of this topic reinforces just how powerful an impact religion has had on art. I believe that understanding the influences surrounding Christian art of each period can result in greater appreciation. There is no doubt that the beauty of Christian art has moved even the most hardened of hearts.

Part Two

7a. Faith and Belief

Is Art in any way, an intrinsic part of, or primary factor in religion or religious expression and if so, how did it specifically play a part in the development of Christianity.

Christianity has become an important part of the cultures in which it is practiced, so much that  Western culture would not at all be the same without its influences of Christianity. Christianity has also extended its influence to works of Western art. Throughout the centuries, artists have used their art to express their own faith and beliefs or to depict events of the Bible and Christian views. In most cases, their works are designed to have a profound effect on the audience. Some of these works are intended to make the audience really think about faith and beliefs and some are intended to teach the audience something. Some is very dramatic and emotional and designed overcome the audience with feelings of a sense of love and respect for, and even fear of, Christianity. Finally, some of these works of art were and still are used in Christian rituals.

The Christians not only accepted Christ as the Messiah, but they felt that it was important that Christ be thought of as God, or in other words, that Jesus was God in a human form. Christians were also concerned about the human soul after death. From its beginning, Christianity was a religion that wanted to convert all people.

Statues of Jesus on the cross have been painted and carved for centuries to portray the suffering of Christ and have also unintentionally portrayed Jesus as weak and picked on. European and Russian Orthodox churches have used art for centuries in their large cathedrals and churches to evoke a feeling of awe and worship in their followers.

Pietà by Michelangelo in St.Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome 

But does religion and art affect everyone the same way? Everyone perceives things differently and what the artist may have intended can be perceived by the audience in a different way, such as depictions of Jesus on the cross or people that felt that the magnificent old cathedrals were oppressive rather than awe-inspiring. Our beliefs influence our view of things and if these are different than what the artist may have intended, you might see the art differently. (http://www.artsmia.org/world-religions/christianity)


In determining the influence of art and its importance in the development of Religion, one might assume that art has some relation to Religion. Art deals unites two seemingly opposed ideas, the spiritual and the material therefore people might consider its influence as nothing but a “refined impression on the sensual nerves and therefore easily mistaken for true religious feeling. But there is a point in which art does come into very close contact with Religion.

As Edward Carpenter wrote in 1870 in “The Religious Influence of Art”, “There can be no doubt, it seems to me, that, whether it be in music or in architecture or in painting, true Art does, without exception, suggest to the mind the existence of something which is beyond, though ever present in, the sphere of everyday life; something which cannot easily be expressed at all, never clearly, which yet we feel to be akin with our deepest consciousness. I do not think that anyone who has loved music can be ignorant of the irresistible sense it awakens of another world, as it were, flowing ceaselessly around us, into which we are for the time translated with a passing insight into its mystery; nor is it possible to stand amidst beautiful architecture, whether it be in some joyous conception of human Art, or amongst the woods and mountains of Nature's handiwork, without experiencing that feeling of strange wonder and delight, whose very indefiniteness seems to im print it all the deeper on our minds. Whatever its phase, and Art has many phases, it always comes to us with the sense of something veiled, of something still half-unexpressed, which in its fulness we desire yet find not.”

(http://www.edwardcarpenterforum.org/web-books/the-religious-influence-of-art/page-5.html)

Historically, early Christian art dates to the period when the religion was still a modest and often persecuted sect, and became accepted after 313, when the Christian emperor Constantine the Great made toleration of Christianity official. Only then did the church begin to produce art and architecture to reflect its newfound dignity and social status.

After Constantine’s mother, Helena, visited Palestine around 325, she convinced him to build a number of churches and shrines in Jerusalem. (Marilyn Stokstad, 297)

Hagia Sophia
"Worshipers standing on the church floor must have felt such a spiritual uplift as they gazed at the mosaics of saints and angels in the central dome." (Stokstad, 311-312)

Art during this period had its roots in classical Roman style, but began to evolve into a more simplified artistic expression focused not some much on physical beauty but spirituality. (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2747231/roman_influence_in_early_christian.html)

During this time the body was less important. Sculptors took less time with the body and at times the body was not in the correct proportions. Many figures were sculpted with the eyes looking towards heaven. (http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_rome/art.htm)

Christian art began to illustrate, supplement and portray the principles of Christianity. Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from His life are the most common subjects but scenes from the Old Testament also were an important part of art of most denominations.

Stories about the life of Jesus form the basis of Christian iconography. (Stokstad, 306)

Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem (14th Century icon from St. Catherine's Monastery of Mount Sinai:http://www.rel.gr/photo/displayimage.php?album=33&pos=107)

As Western European society emerged in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church essentially led the way in art, commissioning both painting and sculptures.

During the development of Christian art in the Byzantine empire, more abstract art replaced the naturalism that was predominant in Hellinistic art and its primary purpose was to convey religious meaning rather depict objects and people. During this period, the controversy over the use of graven images of the Second Commandment led to a standardization of religious imagery within the Eastern Orthodox church. Much art focused on the expression of Biblical and religious truths, and showed the higher glory of a heavenly world. The use of gold in the background of paintings or glass in mosaics or windows became popular. 

Detail from the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos, depicting the Theotokos being translated to heaven, and her giving St. Thomas her Holy Zoni (www.eikonografos.com u)

The early Christian church faced many philosophical and doctrinal controversies, some of which resulted in serious splits or “schisms” within the church. (Stokstad, 304)

For Orthodox Christians, there was and remains a strong and relationship between the spiritual and material. Orthodox Christians don’t worship the images themselves, but rather the subjects they depict. “This is why frescoes and other religious images or icons are two-dimensional - the flatness serves as a reminder that it is a representation, minimizing the potential for idolatrous worship of the image itself.” (http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/byzantine.htm)

In 1453, the fall of Constantinople brought an end to Byzantine art but Orthodox art, or "icons" continued with minimal change,

The transfiguration of Christ

In the West, the Renaissance resulted in an increase in secular works, and Christian art continued to be produced in large quantity until the Protestant Reformation which had a big effect on art. It essentially stopped the production of public Christian art in Protestant countries and destroyed much most of the art that existed. Artists switched to secular portraits and landscape paintings rather than saints. In Catholic countries, iconic art continued, and actually increased during the counter-reformation, but was brought under much more stringent control by the church.

The Last Judgment by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Veneto, Italy

The seven virtues and seven vices are sometimes shown in opposition. The Last Judgement shows God with his right hand palm up towards the saved, and along the right wall are the seven virtues. His left hand is palm down towards the damned, and along the left wall are the seven vices, each opposite its corresponding virtue.

As a secular, non-sectarian, art emerged in 19th century Western Europe, ancient and Medieval Christian art was  collected more for art appreciation than for worship.

“Art is inescapably a religious activity. Man, in all his activities, manifests his faith. Henry Van Til, in The Calvinistic Concept of Culture (1959), defined culture as a religion externalized. Man expresses his faith in his daily life, in his art, music, work, and play.”

In “The Meaning and Greatness of Christian Art,” R.J. Rushdoony wrote that “art is most certainly a form of communication.”  He tells us Christian art stresses an objective frame of reference whereas modern art stresses self-expression.  “In no other civilization than in the Christian world has art gained a higher status and function. The artisan has been a member of a communion, and his function therein has been to enable man better to attain self-realization in the framework of theonomy. It is the good use of things, the right way of doing something: it is communication, and it presupposes a communion in a common faith. Without the presuppositions of the God of Scripture, there can be no art. With that presupposition, every artisan in the arts has the function of bringing forth a common self-realization under God. He externalizes, develops, and gives voice to the growth and awareness in his day of God's glory and grace as it is realized in and through man's world and experience. Instead of being a lone outsider, he is the concert violinist in a great concerto, because he is the high realization of a common life and experience. This is the greatness of truly Christian art. It is a media of communication, communion, and an enhanced common life.” (http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/rr-great-art.html)

Recently I saw a news feature about Donald Jackson, who in 1970 told Barbara Walters that it was his dream to handwrite the entire Bible. 

In 1998, Minnesota's St. John's Abbey and University commissioned him to create the 2-foot tall, 3-foot wide St. John's Bible, which features biblical scripture and images of mankind's accomplishments throughout the last 500 years. 

The purpose of the St. John's Bible is to bring the Word of God to today's population in a way they've never seen it before. Reproductions of the Bible can be viewed at more than 40 establishments throughout the world. The piece is the only "handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine Monastery since the advent of the printing press more than 500 years ago," according to the press release about the St. John's Bible. (http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/)

Excerpt from the St. John's Bible (http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/see/)




This demonstrates to me that art was, is and will always be a vehicle for

sharing, and perhaps helping to develop, Christianity.

"Art was given for that-

God uses us to help each other so,

Lending our minds out."

                       Robert Browning