Part One: Religious Art

The majority of ancient people couldn’t read or write. Illiteracy was normal. Conceptual visual interpretations of God, Heaven, angels and bible stories were aids for ancient orators before the invention of alphabets and writing, centuries before written works could be distributed by the invention of printing.

Religious art was and is meant to be definitive, it should virtually last forever. Much of it has endured the tests of time, but much was destroyed by war and cultural clashes when the winning sides typically erased the losers by cultural cancellation.

I’m a Pastor and a professional artist. If someone tasked me to interpret religious oral traditions what would my sketches, drawings, paintings and sculptures look like if I had no references to draw on (pun intended)?

Essentially, I’d have to make them up from scratch. Like any client/artist relationship today, I’d have to go on their ideas, their abilities to express their ideas, and then try to manifest their imaginations visually by using my own imagination.

Ever play the game ‘telephone’?

Writers for film and television have to suck that up all the time. Finished films can vary drastically from their original scripts, even when the writer is also the director, because there’s too many people involved; add to that budget constraints, egos, opinions, market research; very few films are impervious to the process of constant revision and collaborative interpretation.

Same with the art of the ages; even works created in isolation with no outside pressures are still the interpretation of one artist.

But interpretation is not factual.

Part Two: If It Ain’t Broke

If the art was accepted culturally, or by the powers that be, there was no need for a fix. Over time, the art spread with no one questioning it if it adhered to the times and man’s growing definitions of the cosmos.

It passed down generation to generation, eventually around so long that it was as if it was always so, and that worked perfectly for the purposes of continuity, over time becoming tradition, which in and of itself fostered even more lasting power.

There were tweaks made over centuries as cultural tastes changed and art needed updating to suit new generations of viewers. It’s not easy changing what people are used to, but it did happen when those in power needed images that suited their interests over those of the past.

Artists skills vastly improved from childlike renderings to remarkable masterworks in ways we still marvel at today. We still collectively think, “how’d they do that?”

And if you saw the art as a child, it registered in the beautiful blank spaces of your psyche before it filled up with something else, and chances are the impressions were lasting. We’ve all had that experience. It still works that way for contemporary humans as it did then. 

It always will. 

Part Three: Modern World Makes ‘Mod God’

With modern cultural needs, and for the most part with a lack of cultural constraints, God can be anything today, from cruel to cool.

We can keep Him as the bearded Greek and Hebrew versions of antiquity, or go new age with psychedelic colors and cosmic elements borrowed from science, then add to that the requisite all inclusive melding of Eastern and Western traditions (so no one gets offended).

How about a Hindu purple elephant man-being conversing with a Christian beautiful baby cherub from the Sistine Chapel (season to taste).

However, from the very beginning, there’s still the inherent problem, i.e. the artists and those who commissioned the artists.

Again, interpretations.

Part Four: Are They Factual?

It’s hard enough to justify the written parts of religious texts that we ‘mostly’ accept today; we acquiesce and go along with it saying, “we don’t know, because we weren’t there.”

However, art is an exception, because it’s either taken from someone, from texts, from the artist, or created by consensus by invested parties that have particulars serving their own needs, whether good or bad.

No one has ever seen a bearded God sitting on a white puffy cloud or cherubs laughing together by pools of water in Roman gardens.

Even as mystics insist their visions are genuine, they’re still from their imaginations and the culture they’re  steeped in, regardless of how credible they may be, they can’t be verified.

Revelations is a good example. All the references use imagery of John’s time; trumpets, fiery horses, borrowed mythological creatures, and so on.

Let’s say that Revelations is correct, it’s 2026 at the time of this writing, where are the self driving cars and rocket ships? No computers or AI or aliens? John’s “accurate visions” couldn’t see that far into the future?

Obviously, Revelations didn’t happen in his lifetime or since, which means it’s potentially still coming. Will there be angels with trumpets and non-existent creatures suddenly thrust into the modern world, like a Marvel movie?

Apologists always fall back on metaphor as the excuse for the disparities, but in the time it was written it was meant as literal prophesy. That’s not suitable anymore, just like religious art is not suitable; the imagery is outdated and obsolete.

Part Five: Is it Propaganda?

Like most people, I love the culture and arts I grew up with and exploring art from other cultures all over the world, but it’s the 21st century, and although we know God exists, perhaps we should abandon the images associated with Him created across 3,000 plus years in cultures that vary from animal gods to burning bushes. 

There is only one God, but there is no bearded man in the sky. 

Part Six: Why is this so important?

Because myths are myths, and the associated art is not just pretty or cool to look at, it’s also used as propaganda to manifest religious needs and purposes, which may not be ill intended at all, but valuable like the ancient orators who needed visual assistance for clarity. 

Think of the endless proliferation of marketing and advertising we’re bombarded with every millisecond of every day. There’s no inherent need for anything except food, shelter and safety, but the ads tell us otherwise. Religious art has always used the same methods. Artists were always the marketing professionals.

Jesus is handsome and blue eyed with European features for a reason, because no one wants to follow an ugly poor smelly short dude who lives in the middle of a nowhere desert, no matter what he has to say.

So, they invented a beautiful one, born in a magical manger, living in a cosmopolitan city and preaching love hippy style, overthrowing sexy bad guys with the power of His voice and words, doing miraculous good deeds for people in need, and a badass Father who ain’t having none of that evil shit, all of it just like a good yarn should: action, drama, a hero and bad guys getting defeated.

The art created is a major part of the theatrics that make it a blockbuster story, it keeps those seeking God in theater seats watching the play over and over again because it’s exciting and gives hope to those needing a pick me up, especially in those times.

I love it all, truly, but we must separate the yarn told well from the reality of actual events, shit, reality itself period.

Part Seven: Respect God

Almost unanimously, scholars of history believe that Jesus was a real person, regardless of their faith or lack thereof. So, Jesus was a real person, period, but like a biography on TV, the actors playing the parts are not the real people. Fictionalized stories are as old as time, and they’re always spiced up for entertainment.

Although the use of iconography is still a raging debate today, most Christian’s still insist on visual aides because they work, and because we love them.

The cross as a symbol of Jesus dying for sins is powerful propaganda, plain and simple. It’s brilliant visual advertising, worn on the necks of millions, myself included.

Vatican City is the accepted Holy Land, with Disney-esque delights of religious propaganda the likes that human history can’t match (maybe with the exception of other propaganda machines, like the pyramids and Asian temples). It’s full on immersion into the visual splendor of God and the Bible, both new and old. 

We should all be following the Jews who don’t permit any images of God out of respect for Him, you can’t even say His name. They know you can’t make visual what is not visual, or say what is unsayable. Now that’s respect!

Which leaves us with a conundrum. 

Part Eight: Should we give up on religious art?

Not at all, but the time has come to transcend religious art; like children we must all grow up, not by destroying the art, or even denouncing it, but in ourselves.

Do we get rid of children’s books because we’re adults? No.

Do we still believe in comic book characters when we grow up? No.

Keep the art, but retrain our minds to know that the art is for children, the transcendent is for adults.

Ghosts may be real, angels certainly are, but ghosts don’t wear sheets and angels don’t fly with wings.

You probably don’t realize how rooted the imagery is in your mind.

Think of God or prayer, what do most people do, they look up. Why? Because the artists made it that way! God’s in the sky, not in the room you’re in.

Part Nine: Can we visualize God’s world at all?

Not really…

We’re afraid of Ghosts that go ‘Boo’, and Devils in red suits with hoofed feet and pointy tails.

Likewise, we’re moved by beautiful Archangels with big swords and shiny suits of Armor.

Is any of that remotely possible in those forms? No!

Yet, demons and angels are real in their inherent forms, the likes of which no one’s seen, but some have experienced:

• Psychological Gremlins
• Whispers influencing behavior
• Apparitions of light
• Supernatural experiences

We know light is factual, but we don’t actually see light. We see the effects of light as it reflects off surfaces. What we see are environmental properties, colors and shadows bouncing light at us which is then interpreted by our eyes and minds. That’s why a mirage seems possible, it’s simply misinterpreted light.

The vast layers of the spirituail realms don’t have corresponding images, and if they did they’d probably look like science images of energy states and mathematical physics equations, not mythological creatures.

God is everywhere and formless.

Can anyone visualize ‘everywhere’?

How do you draw ‘formless’?

Obviously, a pure abstract work of art can and does, but I’m concerned here with traditional representative religious art.

Part Ten: Hinderances & Transcendence

Religious art is powerful, maybe too powerful. It’s moving and inspiring, but is it too specific when specifics are pure fiction? The average person takes that stuff face value because they trust the institutions that display them. 

Although humans are still evolving, we’re still susceptible to the power of imagery. It’s brilliant at jump starting the process of learning and understanding God, but it’s also a hindrance for those looking for more than surface levels of spirituality.

We shouldn’t live in a world without religious art, however we must be trained to withstand the effects of art, all of it, so that we can interpret concepts and supernatural experiences for ourselves, and not be blindly spoon fed or led like children.

The established religious institutions are starting points for personal journeys. You can certainly decide to stick with one for your whole life, or take a sampling of world religions.

Ultimately, I want you to understand God for real in the real.

Believe in God not because I or anyone else convinced or coerced you, not because you’re too lazy to ask hard questions or seek profound answers by taking it for granted and just going along with whatever is given to you, but because you made up your mind from your own diligent research, prayerful contemplation, and hopefully, experiences that open your mind to what’s possible.

Never take anyones word for it, decide for yourself. If you do decide that God is real, you’ll open the true doors of His connection.

Enjoy the art, embrace the poetry, revel in the splendor. All of it. Just remember that images of God can enlighten, but potentially hinder true understanding and growth. 

You may say that all of this is obvious, but not so in the subconscious.

Disney is not real, nor is the Sistine Chapel.

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