Religion and Art
This page is one of the explanatory pages for my website, http://www.CardinalKnowledge.org. The website is a work in progress, and each and every part of it is open for discussion. The comments to these explanatory pages are where this discussion is to take place.
The intersection of art and religion is an interesting facet of the human knowledge. Religious concepts are vivid in the imagination of great numbers of people, but, since they are not based on reason, each person perceives them in his own way, much like people percieve art. When an artist creates a work of art inspired by a religious concept, regardless if the artist himself is religious, or he’s only using the concept as a device to carry his own ideas, this work of art finds immediate active response in all those who share the religion, rather than only those who are sensitive to artistic perception. Besides inspiring artists and providing a common framework of symbols and ideas, many religions rely directly on the works of art in their rituals, where icons and sculptures of deities and saints are displayed and interacted with, and hymns are performed in places of worship.
For the examples on this site I’ve chosen some of the religions that had the largest impact on the world of art, in my opinion: Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Greek paganism.