Let me ask the question: Which elements do art and religion have in common? My answer is: They both are creations of the unique human brain, a brain that can use the power of imagination to conceive of a past and a future. A brain capable to invent multiple fantasy realities to supplement factual reality when it eludes understanding or explanations. Both, art and religion, are tied in deeply with the emotional centers of the human brain stem, in their quest to find and express emotionally satisfactory explanations for human existence in this universe. They both use physical and intellectual skills in their creations, which give human life purpose and beauty beyond sheer survival. Other animals can employ considerable craftsmanship in building their nests, or in their musical calls, their mating dances. But these have strictly survival value, even if we humans can perceive artful beauty in them.
Human art and religion go far beyond immediate survival purposes. Still, they also work towards the goal of species survival, by strengthening the social bond between humans, by engendering positive emotions of joy, hope and empathy. The can give the comfort of imagined certainty and order in an environment of uncertainties. All human societies which we know have practiced some form of religion, combined with artistic expression. In the ancient Egyptian language the hieroglyphic word for art and religion was one as an inseparable concept. Religion frees art from mere everyday purposes, such as decorating utensils, clothing, weapons or housing. From the rocks of Easter Island and Stonehenge to pyramids, temples and cathedrals, religious art is mankind's sacred heritage, witnessing our common humanity.
In order to continue with this paper it is necessary to define at some length what I personally understand by the terms "Art" and "Religion".
Art creates factual realities outside of the creations of the rest of nature by means of human thoughts and hands. This, Art has in common with applied science and technology. It does exists in space and time, be it through durable objects like paintings, sculptures, architecture and writings, or through temporary happenings like music, dance, theater, storytelling and rituals. Art is a reflection of our humanity, not necessarily a mirror image, but bent by emotions, imagination, and traditions somewhat like a light ray is bent by entering a new medium like water. In contrast to technology, art is not bound by a practical purpose but transcends it, although it can enhance the practical. Art represents filtered and condensed humanity and thus can touch all human beings. Its creations need communal understanding and support to be of lasting value to the people of a specific culture and to all of open-minded humankind.
Countless volumes have been written over millennia on the subject of religion, more than on any other subject of interest to humans till the advent of the age of science. My personal understanding of religion as a human enterprise is as follows: The purpose of all religions is an attempt to understand the universe and its forces, to form a relationship (religio) with the world around us, beyond our limited factual understanding. It is also an attempt to influence and change the natural events in our favor by conceived supernatural means. Science and technology also attempt to change natural conditions in our favor, but by rational means. The perimeter of factual knowledge has steadily increased during human history. Therefore religious concepts and practices had to change accordingly. Still, they are always lagging behind, bound by unchangeable dogmas and scriptures. It took till 1860 for the Catholic Church to officially acknowledge that the planets revolve around the sun.
Omit One of the earliest divisions of human labor was the establishment of a caste of priests and priestesses, of shamans, medicine men, holy seers, who were physically supported by the working population. They were given the task to commune with the spirits, the forces of nature, with personalized animal and human-like gods and goddesses. As we now know, these shamans, seers and prophets often were afflicted with mental illnesses, schizophrenia, and epilepsy. They often obtained their trances and visions through drugs, starvation, and isolation. But they also had time available to study astronomy, medicine, and carry out all kinds of scientific inquiries. Knowledge provided them with power. They also gained insight into human nature, how to promote socially fortuitous behavior through sacred "commandments", and how to control the fears and actions of people by invoking supernatural powers. Promises and threats of supernatural interference were the means of control. Established religions became often more powerful than secular leaders, because they had the so-called supernatural on their side, up to the promises of eternal life or eternal hellfire.
In my view, the three main functions of the strange human phenomenon called religion were the following:
1) The establishment and enforcement of rules for social behavior by divine commandments,
2) An attempt to increase and preserve factual knowledge and skills
3) An attempt to answer questions which are empirically unanswerable through supernatural explanations. These may be emotionally satisfying, but require acts of belief. Adding psychological comfort and certainty of belief to human life is a tool for survival, an irrational means to a rational end. The fear of death and the drive to live may be the strongest motivations for humans to lean towards supernatural promises.
Religions have mainly abandoned their ancient role of searching for truth in science and medicine. Modern science can do this much better, unencumbered by ancient myths and dogmas, using the scientific method instead of revelations. Science is willing to change outdated concepts if proven wrong by new facts. Like an expanding universe, science always pushes the perimeters of knowledge a little further out. Religious truths are largely confined to a particular belief, while scientific insights are globally tested and recognized. Religion often needs to restrict knowledge in order to preserve dogma. In short, religion in our modern age is no longer the main instrument in the search for factual truth.
As social animals, human beings need to establish and enforce rules of behavior. Most world religions share some basic rules of human interaction, like the so-called Golden Rule. They attempt to promote altruism among humans. They unfortunately also perpetuate many rules of exclusion and persecution of "the infidels, the sinners, the heathens, the heretics". Their various gods are conceived as the only "right" gods. Otherwise, how could these gods have the absolute power their followers crave. This has always caused great human suffering and warfare. In a shrinking world of global economics, travel, web connections, the exclusiveness of religions is becoming untenable. A truly democratic, secular legislative body is more capable to create and adjust the rules by which people have to live with each other in a rapidly changing, global, social environment.
Secular laws can be amended according to new social situations. An example is the desegregation struggle of the sixties in the US. Although the black communities found their strength in their churches, most white churches were not in the forefront of this struggle. They even established private schools to evade desegregation. It was secular law which accomplished desegregation.
Psychology and the insights of neuro-science and genetics can explain and influence human nature and inclinations better than ancient biases about the intrinsic sinfulness of human nature.
There remains the aspect of religion as a psychological help to navigate the troubled straights of individual living. Religions can be instrumental in the creation of harmonious group consciousness. This is where the important role of all the arts in combination with religion finds its affirmation. It is my thesis that the role of religion in the future of humankind would not lie in the quest for factual truth. Science does this better. A truly democratic society can establish social laws more justly than many a religion
The major role for future religions, as I see it, would be to satisfy the emotions, the senses, the need for integration of the individual with the whole, in a dignified, harmonious way, filled with awe and beauty. The arts have played this role in religions since times immemorial. Religious arts can continue to enhance and enrich human lives through emotional satisfaction and to inspire humans to live for the common good.
Now I want to consider the role the various arts have played in world religions up to now.
In the beginning, there was "The Word", the human imagination expressed in story-telling. Story-telling invents various gods and goddesses in human or animal shape. It relates these concepts to human lives and natural events. Oral and written stories have been the backbone of religious beliefs for thousands of years. They form the shared cultural heritage within groups. They often are of great poetic beauty and of metaphorical insights. They are works of art. If they include historical facts, that is incidental. The Word often has gone beyond its literal meaning. Languages that are no longer understood by the majority of the people involved have become "sacred" languages. They are used in ritual and song as well as in decorative scripts. For instance, the artists decorating mosques were not allowed to employ pictorial representation of religious stories. The reason given is that only Allah is eternal and should be exclusively venerated. The beautiful Arabian script became an art form, as a decorative element of mosques beyond the literal meaning of the words. These decorations are venerated as the word of the prophet even in countries where the population does not read Arabic, for instance in Turkey. The Latin used as sacred language in Catholic churches for many centuries was no longer spoken by the general public, but had become a language of scholars and of sacred mystery in ritual and music. The sonorous vowels of Latin have their own intrinsic beauty. The Catholic mass loses a great deal of its beauty and mystery when celebrated in every-day modern languages. The Russian Orthodox Church still uses an ancient Slavonic language for its chants and hymns, creating beauty without literal understanding. The dramatic elocution of priestly story-telling and sermons can be considered as a theatrical art form based on the power of spoken words.
An extension of story-telling is found in the visual arts, in murals, paintings, sculpture and architecture. Humans are visually oriented animals. They mainly gain information of the world around them through the sense of vision. The cultural heritage of various religious groups became more solidified by the visual expression and preservation of their stories. Certain standardized images were formed to visually express the various deities and stories, from ancient Egyptian murals and statues, Native American art, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto to African art. [HM1] These forms are maintained without change. I take as an example the depiction of the Buddha. At first the Buddha was only indicated by his footsteps and a halo of light, since he had entered Nirvana and was no longer physically representable. But the believers demanded to see a person. So Buddhist art evolved into paintings and statues of a well-rounded, benevolent, serene Buddha, either sitting in the lotus position, standing, or lying on his deathbed before entering Nirvana. Later on even adornments of jewels are added, or gold leave covers huge statues to express the preciousness of the Buddha. He had been turned into a deity. Since a person having attained enlightenment is supposed to be neither female nor male, the Buddha figures always combine masculine and rounded feminine features. As a contrast, consider the established image of Jesus as a brow-haired, slender, tall Caucasian with a long face, and narrow nose. No images have ever shown a pudgy, short, swarthy Jesus. Even in the black churches in the Caribbean, which we visited, we saw a white Jesus and white saints to be venerated. In deathbed hallucinations, people of Christian belief will see such a Jesus figure, whereas a Buddhist will see the image of the traditional Buddha. Originally, all these established images of the mind were created by artists.
Some religions depict their gods and goddesses as super-humans. But many others also employ images of mixed human and animal features. African and American Indian rites use exquisitely crafted masks in their ritual dances, often depicting powerful animals. This may stem from the close connection in hunter-gatherer societies with animals being prey and predator, sustenance and danger. The deep subconscious knowledge, that animals and humans share the same evolutionary heritage, is seen in the adoration of various animal-human gods, especially in Hindu mythology. For instance, the god Ganesha bears the head of an elephant or Hanuman is a god in monkey form. Both are benevolent. Krishna is always painted with a blue skin. Many Hindu gods have multiple limbs, twenty arms or legs as a sign of their super-human powers. The Middle Eastern Goddess of fertility, Cybele, has eight breasts. Even a Moslem myth has Mohamed riding to heaven on his half-human horse Al Borck.
The Judeo-Christian religion emphasizes the belief that humans are essentially different from animals. Its animal features are an expression of evil. The devil has hooves, horns and a tail, the snake and the dragon are signs of evil, while other religions see these as benevolent. Christian churches are populated with human figures, very rarely with animals. The only positive Christian animal-human depictions are the angels, bearing human features with bird wings. Artists' ingenuity invented uncountable ways of equipping angels with wings.
Without preserved religious visual arts we would know very little about life in ancient times. This has mainly to do with funereal arts. Since humans have a concept of past and future, life after death has been in the foreground of religious wonderings. A great deal of our knowledge about the past we have gained from graves. The often are equipped with the necessities and beauties of life to help the deceased in an imagined afterlife, up to the magnificent one thousand Chinese clay warriors!
The primary, long-lasting edifices of ancient religious architecture were tombs. They range from masonry-reinforced underground funereal chambers or man-made hills, to the giant proportions of pyramids, and of the pagodas and stupas of the Far East. These religious funereal buildings are witness to the enormous strength of the human hope for eternal life. Some were built by slave labor and by extortionate taxes, but scholars assume that many of these buildings were a voluntary effort of communities and generations, engendering great pride and connectedness. The towering stupas and pagodas of the Far East are intensely decorated with sculptures and murals on the outside, but are not accessible on the inside except for a ceremonial room at the ground level. They are giant containers for relics and ashes of god-like, venerated humans. Highly decorated or simple shrines and steles dedicated to the departed can be found in many religions.
The other facets of religious architecture are the "Houses for the Gods", the monumental temples, shrines, churches and cathedrals. Besides some of the palaces of secular rulers, religious architecture is the greatest statement of human dedication, community, grandeur, and pride beyond any measure. Religious buildings have the tendency to reach high up into the sky, nearer to the gods, as far as building technique permitted. What a triumph for people living in ground level hovels themselves. It is a vicarious experience of grandeur. Only commercial skyscrapers have dwarfed the towers of cathedrals and temples.
The practical purpose of these structures is to provide a meeting place for religious rites and the abode for priests and tombs. The transcendent goal is to glorify the various gods, the splendor of life, the universe, and the abilities of the human mind, hands and emotions. No wonder that present-day humankind tries to preserve and restore these monuments, or even rebuild them. The Great Cathedral in Moscow, which Stalin had blown up, was rebuilt according to the original plans within two years. Every ornament was crafted according to the original. The whole world contributed money. The Dresden and Coventry Cathedrals were rebuilt by a world financial effort. The Egyptian temples at Abu Simbel were relocated with international effort when the Aswan Dam was built. Maybe even the giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban will one day be recreated. When the present religion of a country changed to a new belief, these houses of worship were often readjusted, putting a cathedral inside a former mosque, or a mosque into a former cathedral or Jewish temple.
Many of the present-day pilgrimages called "tourism" include visits to famous religious buildings of all faiths. They hopefully engender a sense of awe and admiration in the travelers, even without their understanding the religious concepts of other faiths.
Iconoclasm, a destructive, hatred of religious art, has recurred throughout the centuries. It is based on the attempt to remove everything sensually appealing from a religion by religious reformist movements and fanatics. It often does irreparable cultural damage by separating people from their traditions. Even in relatively civilized Switzerland, Calvin personally smattered stained-glass windows in churches and took the axe to organs. Protestant churches became barren of visual art.
But emotional appeal slipped through the Puritan barriers anyway, by the way of music. Organs were maintained and communal singing, in form of hymns in the native languages, developed into an art form. It culminated through Cantatas and Oratorios by great composers, again telling stories, this time with song and instrumental music. The spirituals of the black churches are remarkable in their depth of emotional expression. The Orthodox Christian Churches have insisted to this day to employ the human voice exclusively in their services and have developed a-capella music of great beauty. Preaching is of no importance in these churches, music and ritual is all.
Music is the most important religious art form besides the visual arts. Most religions employ some form of rhythmic chanting and the use of musical instruments in their ceremonies and calls to worship.. Before the creation of secular operas and symphonies, religious music was the most emotionally-touching constituent of religions rituals, culminating in the great Masses and Requiems of the past centuries and continuing through modern times.
Physical movement of the human body is interwoven with the rhythmic elements of music. Dancing, stomping, hand clapping, swaying are elements employed in many religious rites. Even the American Shakers, who tried to deny all sensuality, found their emotional religious expression by physically "shaking". In the mosques of Turkey we have observed ordinary citizens in business suits, twirling with out-stretched arms till they reached a kind of dizziness which seemingly filled them with religious fervor. This practice has been developed by the Twirling Dervishes as an art form. They twirl singly or in groups with their long, white skirts billowing in patterns till they reach a trance, the audience participates emotionally. Ceremonial dances are also a means of story telling. A fine art of intricate hand and foot gestures was developed in such different religions as Hindu, Shinto, Thai Buddhism, and Hawaiian sacred hula dancing. It is a religious language that only the initiated understand. Dance is an important element of Hindu Art. One hardly finds a stiff and upright figure in Hindu sculpture or painting. The bodies are twisting, the limbs moving in a perpetual and dynamic cosmic dance. A prominent example is The Hindu god Shiva, who dances goodness and evil eternally, waving multiple arms.
Some religions exclude the sensual and sexual from their arts and rites. But many others, especially religions from tropical climates, celebrate life in its fullness, including the sexual without prurience.
Religious holidays and rites would not appeal to people without richly employing all the arts, from precious vestments to theatrically choreographed processions. Even the otherwise neglected senses of smell and taste are stimulated through incense and sacred foods and drink. The sense of touch also finds its stylized and therefore artistic expression through hand gestures, kneeling and the use of prayer beads. Religious holidays all over the world persist in being observed, even if a large part of the population does no longer believe in the literal interpretation of their particular religion. They generally have much greater impact than national holidays. This is mainly because of the beauty and traditions of all the arts employed.
Religions which suppress the sensual and the artistic can become tyrannical and cruel theocracies, humorless and barren. I suspect that the sensuous and artistic deprivation practiced by Puritan Protestants partly led to the materialistic, secular culture of present day USA. To a certain extent our modern saints are movie stars and sports heroes, our emotional needs are to a degree fulfilled by sports events and rock concerts. With this essay I plead to promote the arts as an essential element of religion. Our emotions and spirits can be united globally through sacred arts.