The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (249 page)

Aron
:

see
ARK (2)
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

ar-R
shid
n
(the (first) four caliphs)
:

see
KHAL
FA
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Art
.

Although religions are usually studied through their words and texts, religious people live at least as much (probably more) through their non-verbal modes of expression—through
ritual
at least as much as through
myth
, through rhythm as much as through song. Beyond ritual, religious art extends the human ability to communicate through complex signsystems, locking on, especially, to the imagination of worlds and states which cannot be directly seen. Religious art is profoundly connected to the human ability to recognize and take delight in truth, beauty, and goodness. What
counts
as beautiful or good may differ from one religion to another (or from one age to another in any religion), but not the human ability to recognize those absolutes within the change and contingency of human circumstance. Thus religious art is extensively concerned with celebration, worship, thanks-giving, and praise. Art and prayer are connected in that, according to one artist (R. Raistick), an artist must spend ‘hour after hour looking at the one subject’, just as those who pray spend hour after hour looking at the One Subject. Above all, the demands of religious art have offered the supreme challenge and opportunity to the human ability to create—to be the creator of artefacts, to be an artist. Not surprisingly, religions have been the resource and inspiration of almost all the most enduring art and architecture throughout the whole of human history, at least until very recently; and religions (i.e. religious people or institutions) have been evocative of art through patronage on a massive scale.
Yet at the same time, each religion develops its own distinctive art,
dance
, architecture, and
music
. That is because such art cannot be detached from the entire network of ‘information’ which constitutes the characteristic nature, form, and content of each religion (obviously, the sub-systems of any religion may themselves be competitive in such a way that the very status of art may itself be contested). Thus Judaism produces synagogues, Christianity produces churches, Islam mosques, Hinduism temples, Buddhism
st
pas
, etc. Partly this is a function of available materials and current technology. But also (and much more), these characteristic ‘shapes’ are controlled into their outcome by the ideology (represented through signs,
symbols
, and
icons
) of the religion in question. These sign-systems provide the controlling metaphors for religious art; but then, conversely, religious art mediates those basic, controlling metaphors back into the lives of believers, transforming them into outcomes that could not otherwise occur.
Religious art does this at many different levels and in equally many different ways. At its most basic (and often most banal), religious art can be propaganda; not far beyond that, it can be exploitation (the attempt to elicit religious emotions at an immature level, what Rose Macaulay summarized as ‘bleeding hearts in convent parlours’). It can be coercive (Doré's engravings of heaven are perfunctory, of hell terrifying), it can be repetitive and dull, it can simply be illustration. But moving again beyond that, religious art can both be, and be the instrument of, a reawakening of forgotten or abandoned truths about ourselves and our possibilities: it can open eyes to a new seeing of an otherwise prosaic world. At this level, the controlling metaphors become, not restriction, but opportunity, not least because they evoke contrasted meanings. Finally, the manifestations of religious art can be epiphany: they can
be
what they purport to be about, the incursion of whatever it is that is true into the midst of time and space. Art is then holy rather than religious.
Judaism
Jewish art is a dialectic between strong prohibitions against making images or likenesses of living creatures (Exodus 20. 4, Deuteronomy 4. 16–8, 5. 8) and the celebration of craftsmanship in the building of the Temple and its appurtenances. In general, Jewish art has focused on the synagogue and its contents, and on Torah manuscripts and Torah ornaments (e.g. the
keter
or crown, the
rimmonim
, the finials on the rollers holding the scroll). Jewish symbols reconnect with the lost temple, most recurrently through the
menorah
. Among other books beautifully produced, the Passover Haggadah has been the most frequent.
Synagogue architecture has seen many different styles of hall or building appropriated through the ages. Apart from the necessity to separate women from men (in Orthodox synagogues), the main requirement is to give prominence (and protection) to the Torah Scroll, and to provide a pulpit for the reading of scripture.
Christianity
Beginning from simple emblems of identity and allegiance (e.g. the sign of a fish, since the Gk. for ‘fish’ is
ichthus
, the letters of which stand for Jesus Christ, God and Saviour) Christian art and architecture developed into the most diverse forms of expression. The representation of biblical scenes, and of the Last Judgement, were visual aids in the instruction of largely illiterate or uneducated populations. But the power inherent in such representations led directly to the development of
icons
—and to the eventual controversy about the extent to which, if at all, they were/are idolatrous. Mosaics (those of Ravenna being especially fine early examples) and wall-paintings were reinforced in churches by stained glass. But church buildings themselves summarized Christian truths and affirmations in their layout: thus the secular basilica, or assembly hall, was adapted to draw attention to the celebration of the
eucharist
, and to the role of the
bishop
in presiding; or again, Gothic cathedrals extended the shape to make it cruciform, and to enhance the vast and mysterious unknowability of God who can only be approached in penitence and praise. Redevelopment of Christian art simply cannot be summarized: resting frequently on a strong doctrine of creation (as also on developing systems of patronage and commissioning), it is, at its best, a deliberate extension of the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing order and beauty out of chaos and ugliness. At its worst, it is the illustration of a text, sometimes allied to the spiritual terrorization which can on occasion characterize Christian missionary zeal.
Islam
Muslim art is controlled by the prohibition on rivalling God as creator, and thus on portraying the human figure. The work of the artist or architect in Islam is limited, therefore, to the work of giving praise to
All
h
, or to expressing allegiance (
islam
). Supremely this is seen in
mosque
architecture, which may be extremely simple—nothing more than a hut—or classically elegant and cool. It needs little more, internally, than the niche indicating the direction of prayer towards
Mecca
(
mihrab
; see
MOSQUE
) and the pulpit for the delivering of the sermon (
khu
ba
), and externally the minaret from which the faithful are summoned to prayer. But it calls also for the reminder of the primacy of the
Qur
n
over life through the carving of texts from the Qur
n. This, as also the writing of copies of the Qur
n, led to the most distinctive of Islamic art forms,
calligraphy
.
Hinduism
Of all religions, Hinduism is most vivid in its
iconography
, because of its belief that the underlying source of all appearance (
Brahman
) is present in all appearance. Thus the work of the sculptor, etc., is to make manifest what is already there in the material, not simply to illustrate a story about the gods. They can thus produce the state of
rasananda
(see
RASA
), blissful union with the god, often regarded as the equivalent of
sam
dhi