Religion as an Artform

An Introduction to an Idea

Is Religion another aspect of human creativity —
albeit on the collective level?

This writer thinks so.

The same collective mind that fashioned language, music, poetry, painting — all the major art forms in fact — fashioned religion which shares — and exceeds — their capacity for emotional, sensual, and conceptual expression.

If this is so, then we can analyze religion for style and for the ways in which the creative spirit invents a cosmic framework within which a human society and the individual life make sense.

Moreover, religions create a style and a content compatible with the culture they serve.

Lastly a case can be made that religion is the greatest art form in any given culture, its proudest esthetic achievement.
It’s most sublime, certainly it’s most inclusive.

Some of the things that can be examined are:

· Period, style, including fashions

· Materials and tools

· Symbols and motifs

· Changing emphases and values over time

· Ritual and ceremonial styles, costumes, props, staging, & choreography

· Narrative and story-telling and texts

· Location, architecture, sacred spaces

This publication will look at these elements and more in the quest to

make the case for religion as a collective art form.