Art and Religion
Art is an important element of a society’s ability to translate its religious belief to its members and to the world. Religion uses verbal arts, music, and pictorial arts in order to preserve its traditions and messages.
Verbal arts, such as myths, are used to explain why a religion has certain beliefs. These beliefs often stem from religious theories of creation and existence. Other verbal arts used to maintain religious timelines and storylines are legends. Legends are stories told and passed down as true accounts of what happened. (Haviland, 2002, pp.394-399). They are intended to support the greatness of a group’s heroes or god. In Ancient Greek society legends about heroes such as Hercules, were told to reflect the strengths and weaknesses of mortals.
Music is also a very important element of religious systems. It is used to unite and identify its members. Music is a very important element in African American religious groups and has developed into a unique style, gospel. The incorporation of traditional African rhythms and harmonies, helped unite this group of people in the south during times of slavery, and gave them a unifying force and power. Gospel was used further to transmit information long distances in the fields, and thus again it was being used as a unifying and communication system. Lyrics in songs also could be used as a way for religions in non-literate cultures to preserve oral histories and mythologies. (Haviland, 2002, pp. 403-406).
Pictorial arts are used as physical representations of religious themes and accounts. Religious art takes on many forms and styles, and reflect the ideologies and mythologies of a society. (Haviland, 2002, pp.406-414). Christian art is based on stories told from the Bible, usually depicting the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, his resurrection, or the Madonna. However pre-Christian symbolism has also been incorporated into these types of paintings that preserve European religious beliefs that pre-date Christianity. These pagan symbols, however, are applied to Christian mythologies. Islamic art, unlike Christian art, does not use figurative themes based on people or animals. This is because portraying humans and animals is seen as a form of idolatry. Therefore they developed a style of art that had an abstract and geometric motif. Words from the Qu’ran are deemed sacred and very important to calligraphy was developed as a beautiful art and used to transmit religious ideologies.
References
Haviland, William A. (2002). Cultural Anthropology. (10th ed.). Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers.
Lee, Valerie L., and Searles, Richard T. (2002). Study Guide for the Telecourse Faces of Culture. (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
