Word & Image in Christianity
Of course the Word of God is central to Christianity, but what about the image of God? How does it fit into Christian history?
Role of Images in Christianity
In the 8th & 9th centuries, some Christians argued that the Ten Commandments prohibited graven images of God, so all of the Christian art should be destroyed. Other Christians disagreed. They figured that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the event in which God became Man, was God’s voluntarily becoming visible. Once God became visible in the person of Jesus Christ, it made sense that God could be depicted in artwork, at least as Jesus Christ. Many people still thought that the commandment forbids trying to create images of God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. The people in favor of the images won, at least for a while. The issue arose again in the 16th century. This time some people were for artworks of Jesus Christ, others were against it, and the two groups went their separate ways.
If you are Christian and want to know which side of this debate your group of Christians came down on, see the section called Your Tradition and Christian Art.
Once it was settled that it was okay to make images of Jesus Christ, there was some debate on whether the images could be used as aids in worshipping Jesus Christ or whether they could be used only as educational tools. Some of the people in the 16th century thought it was okay to make artworks of Jesus Christ only if they were used for educating people. This Website focuses on the educational value of Christian art.
Relationship between Word & Image
The Bible doesn’t offer every possible detail in its stories. In Genesis for example, no mention is made of the emotion Abraham felt as he led his son Isaac to be sacrificed. No mention is made of Isaac’s emotion as his father tied him up, placed him on the altar, and raised the knife to sacrifice him. So some interpretation on the part of the listener/reader is necessary. It is easy for the those listening to the Word of God to imagine themselves in either Abraham or Isaac’s shoes, but each listener imagines the emotional content a bit differently. Because artists cannot depict the event without putting some emotion on the faces, artworks show us the variety of possible interpretations of the Scripture stories.
Some people may prefer to learn through words but there is an argument that a combination of words, images, & action may be a better approach to learning.This suggests a strategy for working with the artworks: going back & forth between the Bible & the artwork, between Word & image, looking for details that the Bible leaves out and challenging the artist if he or she has taken liberties with the Scripture story.
