Symbolism and Iconography
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Introduction
Symbolism, the basic and often complex artistic forms and gestures used
as a kind of key to convey religious concepts, and iconography,
the visual, auditory, and kinetic representations of religious ideas and events,
have been utilized by all the religions of the world. (see also religious
symbolism, religious art) |
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In the 20th century the symbolical character of religion has often been
stressed over attempts to present religion rationally. The symbolic aspect of
religion is even considered by some scholars of psychology and mythology as the
main characteristic of religious expression. Scholars of comparative religions,
ethnologists, and psychologists have gathered and interpreted a great abundance
of material on the symbolical aspects of religion, especially in relation to
Eastern and primitive religions. In recent Christian theology and liturgical
practices another revaluation of religious symbolical elements has occurred. |
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The importance of symbolical expression and of the pictorial
presentation of religious facts and ideas has been confirmed, widened, and
deepened both by the study of primitive cultures and religions and by the
comparative study of world religions. Systems of symbols and pictures that are
constituted in a certain ordered and determined relationship to the form,
content, and intention of presentation are believed to be among the most
important means of knowing and expressing religious facts. Such systems also
contribute to the maintenance and strengthening of the relationships between man
and the realm of the sacred or holy (the transcendent, spiritual dimension). The
symbol is, in effect, the mediator, presence, and real (or intelligible)
representation of the holy in certain conventional and standardized forms. |
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THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS AND SYMBOLIZATION
The word symbol comes from the Greek symbolon, which means
contract, token, insignia, and a means of identification. Parties to a contract,
allies, guests, and their host could identify each other with the help of the
parts of the symbolon. In its original meaning the symbol represented and
communicated a coherent greater whole by means of a part. The part, as a sort of
certificate, guaranteed the presence of the whole and, as a concise meaningful
formula, indicated the larger context. The symbol is based, therefore, on the
principle of complementation. The symbol object, picture, sign, word, and
gesture require the association of certain conscious ideas in order to fully
express what is meant by them. To this extent it has both an esoteric and an
exoteric, or a veiling and a revealing, function. The discovery of its meaning
presupposes a certain amount of active cooperation. As a rule, it is based on
the convention of a group that agrees upon its meaning. |
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Concepts of symbolization.
In the historical development and present use of the concepts of
symbolization, a variety of categories and relationships must necessarily be
differentiated. Religious symbols are used to convey concepts concerned with
man's relationship to the sacred or holy (e.g., the cross
in Christianity) and also to his social and
material world (e.g., the dharma-cakra, or wheel of the law, of Buddhism).
Other nonreligious types of symbols have achieved increasing significance in the
19th and 20th centuries, especially those dealing with man's relationship to and
conceptualization of the material world. Rational, scientific-technical symbols
have assumed an ever increasing importance in modern science and technology.
They serve partly to codify and partly to indicate, abbreviate, and make
intelligible the various mathematical (e.g., =, equality;
 ,
identity;
 ,
similarity;
 ,
parallel; or <, less than), physical (e.g.,
 ,
alternating (see also sacred and profane) |
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current), chemical (e.g., , benzene ring), biological |
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(e.g., {male}, male; {female}, female), and other
scientific and technical relationships and functions. This type of
"secularized" symbol is rooted, to a degree, in the realm of religious
symbolism. It functions in a manner similar to that of the religious symbol by
associating a particular meaning with a particular sign. The rationalization of
symbols and symbolical complexes as well as the rationalization of myth have
been in evidence at least since the Renaissance. |
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The concept of the religious symbol also embraces an abundantly wide
variety of types and meanings. Allegory,
personifications, figures, analogies, metaphors,
parables, pictures (or, more exactly, pictorial representations of ideas),
signs, emblems as individually conceived, artificial symbols with an added
verbal meaning, and attributes as a mark used to distinguish certain persons all
are formal, historical, literary, and artificial categories of the symbolical.
If one looks for a definable common denominator for the various types of
symbols, one could perhaps choose the term "meaning picture" or
"meaning sign" to best describe the revealing and at the same time the
concealing aspects of religious experience. The symbol (religious and other) is
intended primarily for the circle of the initiated and involves the
acknowledgment of the experience that it expresses. The symbol is not, however,
kept hidden in meaning; to some extent, it even has a revelatory character (i.e.,
it goes beyond the obvious meaning for those who contemplate its depths). It
indicates the need for communication and yet conceals the details and innermost
aspects of its contents. |
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Varieties and meanings associated with the term symbol.
Different forms and levels of the experience of and relationship to reality
(both sacred and profane) are linked with the concepts of symbol, sign,
and picture. The function of the symbol is to represent a reality or a truth and
to reveal them either instantaneously or gradually. The relationship of the
symbol to a reality is conceived of as somewhat direct and intimate and also as
somewhat indirect and distant. The symbol is sometimes identified with the
reality that it represents and sometimes regarded as a pure transparency of it.
As a "sign" or "picture" the representation of the
experience of and relationship to reality has either a denotative or a truly
representative meaning. The doctrine of the eucharistic
(sacramental) presence of Christ in the teachings of Eastern
Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and the Protestant Reformers concretely
demonstrate the various and extensive levels of symbolical understandings. These
levels extend all the way from the concept of physical identity in the transubstantiation
theory of Roman Catholicism (in which the substance of breadness and wineness is
believed to be changed into the body and blood of Christ, though the properties
of the elements remain the same) through Luther's Real
Presence theory (in which Christ is viewed as present, though the
question of how is not answered because the question of why he is present is
considered more important), and Zwingli's sign
(symbolic or memorial) theory, to the concept of mere allusion. The concept of
the symbol, however, includes all these interpretations. (see also mass)
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Furthermore, a symbol in its intermediary function has aspects of epistemology
(theory of knowing) and ontology (theory of
being). As a means of knowledge, it operates in a characteristically dialectical
process of veiling and revealing truths. It fulfills an interpretative function
in the process of effectively apprehending and comprehending religious
experience. In doing so, the word, or symbol--with its meaning, contextual use,
relationship to other types of religious expression, and interpretative
connection with the various forms of sign, picture, gesture, and sound--plays an
important part in the process of symbolical perception and reflection. Although
the symbol is an abbreviation, as a means of communication it brings
about--through its connection with the object of religion and with the world of
the transcendent--not only an interpretative knowledge of the world and a
conferral or comparison of meaning to life but also a means of access to the
sacred reality. It may possibly even lead to a fusion, or union of some sort,
with the divine. To this extent, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the
liturgical and ritualistic mystery in Christianity--with its many symbolical
signs, pictorial representations, significative actions, interpretative words,
and various levels of approach to the divine reality--is an example of a highly
developed form of a complex symbolic action. Here, the concept of analogy is
important; the symbol functions in these ways because it has an analogous
cognitional as well as existential relationship to that which it signifies. |
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The symbolic process.
To trace the origin, development, and differentiation of a symbol is a
complicated process. Almost every symbol and picture in religion is at first
either directly or indirectly connected with the sense impressions and objects
of man's environment. Many are derived from the objects of nature, and others
are artificially constructed in a process of intuitive perception, emotional
experience, or rational reflection. In most cases, the constructions are again
related to objects in the world of sense perception. A tendency toward
simplification, abbreviation into signs, and abstraction from sense objects is
quite evident, as well as a tendency to concentrate several processes into a
single symbol. A good example of this last tendency may be seen in ancient
Christian portrayals of the triumphant cross before a background of a
star-filled heaven that appear in the apses of many basilican churches. In these
representations the Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, exaltation, and
Transfiguration of Christ are joined to apocalyptic concepts (centring on sudden
interventions by God into history) inherent in the doctrine of the Last
Judgment. An excellent example of such an apse mosaic is to be found in the S. Apollinare
in Classe, near Ravenna (in Italy). On the other hand, there is a
tendency to accumulate, combine, multiply, and differentiate symbolical
statements for the same thought or circumstance, as seen, for example, on the
sarcophagi (stone coffins) of late Christian antiquity--especially in Ravenna.
Here, the same idea is symbolically expressed in various manners; e.g., by
means of persons, objects, animals, and signs, all appearing side by side. |
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The forms and figures of symbolical thought can change into
exaggerations and rank growths, however, and lead to transformations and
hybrids--figures with several heads, faces, or hands--as exemplified in the
statues and pictorial representations of the deities of India (e.g., the
multi-armed goddess Kali) and of Slavic tribes (e.g., the
four-headed Suantevitus). The meaning of individual symbols can change and even
be perverted. The lamb that in ancient Christian
art symbolizes Christ may also symbolize the Apostles or mankind in general. The
dove may symbolize the Holy Spirit or the human
soul. The wheel or circle
can symbolize the universe, the sun, or even the underworld. The encyclopaedic
Christian allegorism (symbolism) of the Middle Ages offers many interesting
examples, as noted in the writings of Isidore of Seville, a 6th- to 7th-century
Spanish theologian, and Rabanus Maurus, a 9th-century German abbot and
encyclopaedist. |
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The foundations of the symbolization process lie in the areas of the
conscious and the unconscious, of experience and thought, and of sense
perception, intuition, and imagination. From these arises the structure of
religious symbolism. Sensation and physiological and psychological processes
participate in the formation of the symbol structure. Extraordinary religious
experiences and conditions, visions, ecstasy, and religious delirium
brought about by intoxication, hallucinogenics, or drugs that produce euphoria
and changes in consciousness must also be taken into consideration. The symbol
itself, however, is intended as an objective concentration of experiences of the
transcendent world and not as a subjective construction of a personally creative
process. In cultic and mystical visions and trances, the forms and processes of
the external world and of the religious tradition are condensed and combined
with mythical images and historical events and take on a life of their own. The
process of rational conceptualization and structuralization, however, also plays
a part in the origin and development of many symbols. There is a correlation
between sense perception, imagination, and the work of the intellect. |
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Symbols in the religious consciousness.
The formation of religious symbols that occur when unconscious ideas are
aroused or when a process of consciousness occurs is principally a matter of
religious experience. Such symbols usually become intellectual acquisitions,
and, as religious concepts are further elaborated upon, the symbols may even
finally become subjects of major theological questions. In Christian theology,
for example, summaries of dogmatic statements of faith are called symbols (e.g.,
the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds and the confessional books of
Protestantism, such as the Augsburg Confession of Lutheranism). This particular
use of the term symbol is exceptional, however. |
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In the development of the symbol, religious experience, understanding,
and logic are all connected, but each places different accents on the individual
categories and species of symbol. Occasionally, religion is regarded as the
origin and the product of certain established (or fundamental) symbols. In such
cases the outcome of the process of the structuralization of religious
consciousness would then be the establishment of a symbol that is generally
applicable to a particular historical species of religion. Conversely, one could
ask whether the experience and establishment of an individual or collective
symbol by a creative personality or a community is not itself the establishment
of a religion. If so, the classical symbol that was developed at the time of the
foundation of any one particular religion would then be constitutive for its
origin and further development (e.g., the T'ai Chi or the combination of
Yin and Yang for the Chinese, the cross for the Christian religion). In any
event, the symbol belongs to the essence of man's coming of religious
consciousness and to the formation of history's institutional religions. It
plays a fundamental and continual part in the further growing of such religions
and in the mental horizons of their followers. |
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THE RELATION OF THE SYMBOL AND THE SACRED
Symbols as the incarnate presence of the sacred or holy.
Whatever the experience of reality that lies behind the religious symbol
may be, it is above all the experience of the sacred or holy, which belongs
essentially to any concept of religion. The historical study of religions has
shown that it is fundamentally the symbol that mediates and forms for man's
religious consciousness the reality and the claim of the holy. Religion is a
system of relationships, a system of reciprocal challenges and responses the
principal correspondents of which are the sacred or holy and man. Though there
are many forms of experience in which the sacred or holy is distinctly known and
felt, the experience is often acquired in worship,
in which this system of relationships is realized and continually renewed and in
which the sacred or holy supposedly makes itself present. The details of worship
serve to objectify and regulate in a perceptual and material manner the
presupposed presence of the sacred or holy, of which the symbol and the picture
are intended to be its materialization. In its material manifestation the sacred
or holy is adapted to man's perceptual and conceptual faculties. Viewed from the
aspect of its holiness, the symbol originates in a process of mediation and revelation,
and every encounter with it is supposed to bring about a renewed actualization
and a continual remembrance of this revelation. |
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The actualization of the presence of the holy by means of symbolic
representation can, in extreme cases, lead to an identification of the physical
manifestations with the spiritual power symbolized in them. The symbol, or at
least an aspect of it, is then viewed as the incarnated presence of the holy.
The sacred stone, animal, plant, and drum and the totem symbol or the picture of
ancestors all represent the sacred or holy and guarantee its presence and
efficacy. The origin of many such symbols clearly indicates the identity that
was presumed to have existed between the symbol and the sacred or holy. The
Greek god Dionysus as a bull, the Greek goddess Demeter
as an ear of corn, the Roman god Jupiter as a stone, the Syrian god
Tammuz-Adonis as a plant, and the Egyptian god Horus
as a falcon all are viewed as manifestations of the deities that were originally
identified with these respective objects of nature. (see also totemism)
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Symbols as indicators of the sacred or holy.
The symbol is understood to have a referential character. It refers to
the reality of the sacred or holy that is somewhat and somehow present. When the
symbol is an indicator of the sacred or holy, a certain distance exists between
them, and there is no claim that the two are identical. Short of actual
identification, various degrees of intensity exist between the symbol and the
spiritual reality of the sacred or holy. The symbol is a transparency, a signal,
and a sign leading to the sacred or holy. The objects, gestures, formulas, and
words used in meditation--for example, the
Buddhist mudras (gestures), pratimas
(images), mantras (magic formulas)--and
in mysticism--for example, the crystal or the
shoemaker's ball in the contemplative experience of Jacob B?me, a 16th- to
17th-century German cobbler and mystic; the navel in Omphalicism (a method
[called Hesychasm] of contemplating the navel in
order to experience the divine light and glory in medieval Greek Christian
mysticism of the monks of Mt. Athos); and the pictures of the deity in the
language of Hindu, Islamic, and medieval Christian mysticism--all of
these are truly symbols, but nonetheless they have at most only an indirect
mediating relationship to the divine, a purely noetic (intellectually abstract)
significance with regard to the reality and presence of the sacred or holy. (see
also Hinduism) |
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Symbols of sacred
time
and space.
The symbolical forms of representation of the sacred or holy are to be
understood as references to or transparencies of the sacred or holy. The sacred
manifests itself in time and space, so that time and space themselves become
diaphanous indications of the holy. The holy place--a shrine, forest grove,
temple, church, or other area of worship--is symbolically marked off as a sacred
area. The signs, such as a stake, post, or pillar, that delimit the area
themselves are endowed with sacred symbolic meanings, which often can be noted
by their particular designs. The ground plan of the sacred building and its
orientation, walls, roof, and arches are all utilized to symbolize the sacred or
holy. Prehistoric places of worship--e.g., Stonehenge
(in England) and other megaliths of Europe and the shrines and holy places of
ancient Egypt, Babylon, China, and Mexico--were invested with symbolical
meanings. (see also sacred place) |
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Sacred places are often pictorial reflections of the universe and its
design and partake of its holiness. The domes of
Christian churches are symbols of heaven, the altar
a symbol of Christ, the Holy of Holies of the
Temple in Jerusalem a symbol of Yahweh, the Holy of Holies in Shinto
shrines (honden) a symbol of the
divinity, and the prayer niches in mosques a symbol of the presence of Allah.
In many instances shoes may not be worn on holy ground (e.g., Shinto
temples), and hands and feet are to be washed before entering into a holy place.
The woodwork of demolished Shinto shrines, when taken to private homes,
makes the sacred or holy present in the homes of pious Japanese families. (see
also Judaism, jinja)
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Time as a transparent symbol of the sacred may be represented by means
of the cycle of the sacred year and its high points--e.g., New Year's (as
in ancient Near Eastern religions), the times of
sowing and reaping, and the solstices and equinoxes. Or the lapse of time may be
represented in signs and pictures. Cosmic, mythical, and liturgical time and
destiny are portrayed, for example, in the Buddhist symbol of the wheel of life,
bhava-cakra, with its causal chain of
human deeds and succession of existences, entwined by the claws of a devouring
monster; the figures of Aion (Time) in late Greco-Roman and Persian antiquity
show a figure with a winged lion's head standing on a globe and encircled by a
snake. Time itself, its course, division, and fixed points, is both an allusion
and the bearer and mediator of the sacred or holy. (see also sacred
calendar) |
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Ceremonial
and ritualistic objects as indicators or bearers of the sacred or holy.
Liturgical and ceremonial objects can also indicate or lead to the
sacred or holy. Not only holy pictures and symbols (e.g., the cross in
Christianity or the mirror in Japanese Shinto) but also lights, candles,
lamps, vessels for holy materials, liturgical books, holy writings, vestments,
and sacred ornaments are indicators of the sacred or holy. Liturgical vestments
and masks are intended to transform the wearer, to remove him from the realm of
the this-worldly, and to adapt him to the sphere of the sacred or holy; they
help him to come into contact with the divine--for example, by obscuring his
sexual characteristics. The vestments may be covered with symbols, such as those
worn by Arctic shamans (medicine men with psychic transformation abilities).
They are signs of the function of the wearer and his relationships to the sacred
or holy and to the profane world. Such vestments are frequently derived from
those of rulers or from ceremonial court dress; e.g., Japanese Shinto
and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. They are supposed to
create a fitting atmosphere of solemnity and dignity. In Western Christianity,
the liturgical vestments have a very specific symbolism: the alb
(a tunic) symbolizes purity of heart; the stole, the raiment of immortality; and
the chasuble (an outer eucharistic, or holy
communion, vestment), the yoke of Christ. The liturgical vestments of the
Eastern Christian churches have a similar symbolism. The ritual headdress and
the crown express the sacred dignity of the wearer. The vestments of the various
religious orders (Oriental and Occidental) express the holiness of the members
of the community, their nearness to the sacred or holy, and the significance of
religious life for them. In the reception ritual of Jainism
and Buddhism, the monastic vestments are put on as a sign of an entrance in a
new state of life. This ritual in Jainism resembles that of a wedding ceremony.
The taking over of the monastic garb is an essential part of becoming a sadhu.
The monks of the Jainistic Shvetambara
sect wear five objects (e.g., shells) as symbols of the five monastic
virtues. In early Christianity the white baptismal vestment was a symbol of
rebirth, new life, and innocence. (see also Eastern
Christian Independent church, monasticism)
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Other relations between the symbol and the sacred.
The sacred or holy as represented or manifested in the symbol has,
generally speaking, a sanctifying function (elevating one to a closer
relationship to the sacred or holy) and an exorcising function (decreasing or
eliminating those aspects that hinder one's relationship to the sacred or holy).
Remembrance (anamnesis) and imitation (mimesis) are the analogous
and associative means of representing the reality and indestructibility of the
sacred or holy and its power, which defends, protects from injury, bans evil,
and guarantees salvation. Symbolic signs and pictures (e.g., masks; sex,
animal, or plant symbols, such as the skulls or horns of animals) are placed on
houses and sacred places to make present the saving and sanctifying power of the
sacred or holy. |
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RELATION OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM AND ICONOGRAPHY TO OTHER
ASPECTS OF RELIGION AND CULTURE
Relation to myth and ritual.
The symbol has a long-established relationship with myth (sacred stories that define the human condition and man's
relation to the sacred or holy). Often containing a collection of symbolic
forms, actions, expressions, and objects, myths describe gods, demons, men,
animals, plants, and material objects that are themselves bearers of symbolical
meanings and intentions. Thus, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between
a myth and a coherent complex of symbols brought together in story form.
Examples are myths of cosmogony (origin of the world), theogony (origin of the
gods), and anthropogony (origin of man). The details and contexts of religious
teaching, dogma, and theology
also produce or form symbolic values or refer to traditional symbolic
representations. Symbol structures and pictorial representations are brought
into connection with dogma and theological statements--e.g., the
Buddhistic karma-samsara (law of cause and effect and reincarnation)
theory and the bodhisattva (buddha-to-be)
theory or the Christian teaching of the Last Judgment, punishment of sin, hell
and purgatory, and eternal reward (Paradise). In worship, individual actions and
objects used in the ritual are given a symbolic meaning that transcends their
immediate practical purpose. Magic, in its
ritual, also uses various formations of symbols, pictures, and symbolical
actions that may be seen as parallels to the distinctively religious use of
symbols. (see also karma) |
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Relation to meditation and mysticism.
The spiritualization of religious experience in forms of meditation and
mysticism assimilate and rework the existing symbols and pictures of an older
historical period of religion, giving to some symbols a higher value and placing
others in the centre of focus. At the same time it develops new forms the
appearances of which stem especially from the visionary experiences of the
mystic and from his need for a suitable means of expression and from the objects
of meditation training; e.g., holy sounds and words (om),
the lotus flower, the vajra (ritual object shaped like a thunderbolt),
and the wheel in Buddhist meditations or the ladder, the heart, and the letters
IHS (the first three letters of the Greek word for Jesus) in Christian
mysticism. In contemplation, colours, forms, sounds, signs, and pictures become
ways and means of penetrating to the centre of the mystical union. Jacob B?me's
work is characteristic of the development of an especially rich mystical
language of symbols. Mysticism supplies conventional and customary religiosity
with new pictures and symbols. |
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Relation to the social realm.
The field of symbolism and iconography shows a strong interdependence
that existed between religion and other areas of culture that were later to
become autonomous and profane (or secularistic). The social domain under the
influence of religion develops its own symbolism for expressing its values and
objectives. Conversely, religion often draws its symbols and pictorial forms
from the social, political, and economic domains. Persons (e.g., king,
father, mother, child, slave, brother) and conditions and structures in society
and the state (e.g., government, a people, family, marriage, occupation)
all receive meaning as symbolical and pictorial motifs in myth and cult.
Examples of such motifs are throne, crown, sceptre, standard, arms, instruments,
the figures of the father, mother, and child, and symbols of familial
relationships. The morals, law, administration of justice, and the customs and
habits of a society contain religious symbols and symbolical actions, as in the
anointing of a king and in the administering of the oath or ordeal or in the
observance of traditions and customs associated with birth, marriage, and death.
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Relation to the literary and visual
arts.
Religious symbols and pictures may be identical with, related to, or
similar to those of language (metaphors) and to pictorial expressions in prose
and poetry. They are related in allegory, parable, fairy tales, fables, and
legends in which they can appear in a form that is closely related to that of
religious symbolism. Religious symbols are used in the plastic arts, in
architecture, and in music. Symbols also have been developed in those arts and
then introduced into religion. A few examples of such symbols are house, room,
door, column, sound, harmony, and melody (as when Christ was viewed as the
"new melody" in the words of Clement of Alexandria, a 2nd-century
philosophical theologian). Here, also, the interdependence and the continual
reciprocal influence of religion and culture may be observed. (see also religious
literature) |
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Relation to other areas of culture.
The formation of religious symbols and pictures has been stimulated by
numerous other areas of human culture--such as the philosophy
of nature, the natural sciences (especially botany and zoology), alchemy,
and medicine (including anatomy, physiology, pathology, and psychiatry). In the
works of Jacob B?me, alchemy (e.g., the
elements, fire, salt, sulfur, mercury, tincture, gold, essence, the
philosopher's stone, and the transmutation) found an all-inclusive symbolical
use; and in the works of Robert Fludd, an
English physician and mystical philosopher of the 16th and 17th centuries,
medical, cosmological, alchemical, and theosophical (esoteric religious) symbols
were fused together (e.g., the contrast of light and darkness and the
idea of man as a microcosm). Symbols, also religious and mythological (such as
signs of astral gods for the planets in astronomy), have achieved new importance
in the conceptual presentations of distinctively scientific systems; e.g., in
physics, cosmology, psychiatry, and psychology. Even spaceships bear symbolic or
mythical names. Psychoanalysis and depth
psychology have reevaluated the role of the religious symbols and have
used them in interpreting psychological processes, such as in the works of the
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung interprets
religious processes as symbolic ones and emphasizes the growing of individual
and social symbols in the unconscious. According
to his interpretations, many of the symbols, transforming the archaic libido
into other functions, come out of dream experiences in a kind of intuition or
revelation. Important symbols are duality (male-female, animus-anima), trinity,
and quaternity. (see also collective unconscious)
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Changes in symbolical relations and meanings.
Symbols emerge and disappear and change in their value and function.
Although symbols have a tendency to be normative, stable, and to have a fixed
meaning value, the demise of old symbols and the genesis of new ones or changes
in the meaning of existing symbols nevertheless occur. Many ancient Christian
symbols (e.g., the fish) had long lost their recognition value or had
been pushed into the background. With the renewal of ancient Christian symbolism
in modern times, they have had a re-evaluation. The triangle and the eye as
recently used in Christianity are relatively new symbols for God. The old and
formerly very meaningful religious symbolism of the axe and hammer has almost
disappeared. The symbolism of kingship and sovereign authority has, on the other
hand, been maintained in religious language and in the religious conceptual
framework, although the political structures from which it originated have
disappeared or lost their relevance. The disintegration of individual symbols
and the change in the emphasis on the role of symbolism in general are partly
consequences of cultural, intellectual, social, and economic transformations. |
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MODES OF SYMBOLIC EXPRESSION
In the long history of the forms of symbolical expression a narrower
(exclusive) and broader (inclusive) idea of what a symbol is has gradually
evolved. This evolution is reflected in the various manners of symbolical
expression that may influence and combine with one another. Many scholars
question whether a picture or a verbal expression, for example, strictly
corresponds to the idea of a symbol. Just as the ideology and terminology of the
ancient Greek mystery (salvatory) religions distinguished between that which is
shown and seen (deiknymenon), that which is done (dromenon), and
that which is said (legomenon), so also can one make distinctions among
three types of symbols: the visual symbol, the symbolical action that is
dramatically enacted in worship, and the linguistic symbol, which includes music
and other sounds. Viewed in these various aspects, the complex character of the
symbol becomes apparent. |
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Diagrammatic and emblematic.
Symbolic representations are usually depicted in diagrammatic or ideographic
modes as signs, abbreviations, images, and
objects of all kinds that indicate a larger context. In this category belong the
simplified or abstract forms of objects of nature or other objects and
geometrical forms, as well as colours, letters, and numbers. The circle, the
disk, the rosette, or the swastika, for example,
may symbolize the sun, universe, or a star. The square and the cross may
symbolize the Earth or the four cardinal points; the wreath, the labyrinth, the
spiral, the plait, and the knot may indicate eternity, the flow of time, or a
magical spell. |
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Ornamental designs in primitive artwork, those of the American Indians,
for example, frequently have a symbolical meaning and embody fundamental
figures, such as the straight line, circle, rectangle, rhombus, or ellipse. The
cross in its varying forms: the Latin ( ), Tau (T), ankh ( ), Saint Andrew's
(X), and the forked (Y) may symbolize man and his extremities. Among various
peoples and in different religions a number of basic colours have at times
different and sometimes even opposite meanings. White, for example, may signify
joy and festivity or death and sadness. Red has the most pronounced symbolical
value: it refers to the liturgical, priestly sphere and also to life and death.
In Christianity, colour symbolism is associated with the sacred year; in
Buddhism with the picture of the universe, the regions of which are classified
according to particular colours; and in the religion of the Maya of Mexico and
Central America with the four world directions--east (red), north (white), west
(black), and south (yellow). The symbolism of metals and precious stones also is
related to their colours (e.g., emerald with green). (see also American
Peoples, Arts of Native, colour symbolism,
liturgy, Mayan religion)
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The symbolism of the letters of the alphabet varies according to the alphabet
(e.g.,
 and
 in
Greek or A to Z in English) and is often connected with magic and
prophecy--which is also true of the symbolism of numbers. In the picture writing
of hieroglyphic systems and in the ideographic
(idea-sign) writing of earlier times there is a
direct relation between the word-sign and the object to which it refers. In
alphabetic writing, numbers and letters are interchangeable if the letter has a
number value, as, for example, in Greek and Hebrew alphabets. In some religions,
the world of the gods is arranged according to a number system; e.g., into
enneads (nines), triads (threes), or dyads (pairs). The idea of oneness was then
extended to a numerically arranged pantheon. Gnosticism
(a Hellenistic esoteric dualistic system) and Kabbala
(a Jewish esoteric mystical system) developed number symbolisms. The letters
received a symbolic character in two ways: first, as components of a word for
which they stood--e.g., the Hebrew tetragram (four-letter) YHWH (Yahweh)
for God, the Latin IOM for Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter the Best and
Greatest), and the Greek IHS for Jesus--or, second through their numerical
value, as in
 and
 ,
the beginning and end of the Greek alphabet, signifying Christ. They then became
means of abbreviation--signs possessing a specific content and meaning. |
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Pictorial.
Pictorial symbolism in its many forms is a further development of
nonrepresentational, ideographic symbolism and also, to some extent, its origin.
In depicting the world of nature, pictorial symbolism captures and mediates the
religious experience of reality. The picture shows plainly and clearly the rich
and intricate connections of its symbolic content. It may present a part for a
whole (a head, a hand, a foot, or an eye for a complete figure) or the whole
itself. Symbolic expression of religious experience by means of painting
has had a long history. |
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Sculptural
representations of the sacred or holy have their origin in cult. They range from
Stone Age idols to the sacred sculpture of early Mesopotamian and Egyptian
cultures, from the statues and reliefs of Greco-Roman gods (see photograph),
divinized heroes, and their deeds to the symbolic sculpture of India with its
Hindu gods and demons, from the sacred sculpture of China and Japan with their
respective pantheons to that of Mahayana
(Greater Vehicle) Buddhism with its bodhisattvas (buddhas-to-be), saints,
and spirits. These sacred figures, which may appear in statue or relief form,
are sculptured out of various materials. The reliefs on the interiors and
exteriors of temples have a decorative function similar to that of wall
painting. They narrate a myth or tell a sacred history. Particular parts of the
body and symbolical objects may also be sculpturally represented. They may be
the male and female sexual organs (e.g., the linga-yoni in
Hinduism); the hand of Sabazius, a Greek god sometimes identified with Dionysus
(the god of wine), whose hand is portrayed as raised in blessing and encircled
by a number of rather bizarre appendages; and human limbs used as votive
offerings for the cure of the part of the body represented. Representative
symbolic sculpture tends either to simplify the figure in an abstract,
geometrical, or expressionistic style or to imitate nature realistically. |
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Gestural and physical movements.
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Gestures
and bodily movements play an important part in religious ritual and in the
religious conduct of man. Such behaviour derives its meaning from its
relationship to the holy. |
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In proceeding to and from a holy place, a worshipper generally proceeds
according to certain symbolic patterns: rectilineal, circular, and vertical.
Rectilineal movement to and from a holy place is intended to gradually prepare
the worshipper for the spatial encounter with the holy and after the encounter
to remove him from the sacred sphere. Special streets for processions often are
marked off or built to a temple or holy place, such as in ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and China. The great procession from Athens to Eleusis for
participants in the mysteries possessed a symbolic meaning. Worshippers not only
enter a holy place but may also walk around it. Rectilineal and circular
movement thus complement each other. Movement to and from a holy place may also
be vertical as well as horizontal, as to and from a holy place on top of a
mountain or pyramid. All these various types of movement give expression to the
symbolism of the holy way or path. |
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The sacred dance combines rectilineal
and circular movements and may also include hopping, jumping, and hand
movements. Hand and finger movements in temple dances in Indian and other Asian
cultures are strictly regulated and have a precise symbolic meaning. The liturgical
dance in a rudimentary form was maintained for a long time in
Christianity, as has been the procession. Dancing has not only a significative
but also a magical function. It seeks to enchant the holy power. |
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Hand movements are widely used in ritual and liturgical actions; the
touching of holy objects, materials, or men is performed according to a canon
(rule) that precisely regulates these gestures and their accompanying prayers
and blessings. The gesture of blessing may imitate a symbolic form, such as that
of the cross in Christianity. Here the position of the fingers is regulated and
has a special meaning, as is also true in the Hindu and Buddhist practice of meditation
(mudras). Stroking, thrusting, striking,
pushing, waving, and hand clapping also can be symbolical gestures. By raising
his hands in prayer, the worshipper approaches the realm of the heavenly gods;
by kneeling, the realm of the underworld. This apparently was the original
meaning of kneeling before it became an expression of humility. The bow as an
intimated genuflection generally indicates respect. The kiss and the
embrace--and sometimes also the actions of breathing or spitting upon someone or
anointing a person with spittle--were originally magical manipulations; in later
usage, they indicated union with or a strengthening of the community or the
transferral or communication of power. The holy kiss, whether practiced or only
verbally depicted, plays an important part in many religions. Standing is a
posture of respect; sitting expresses the reception and acceptance of the sacred
word or teaching. It is also the position for meditation as it is practiced in
Buddhist monasteries. Symbolic gestures may be either individually or
collectively performed. (see also benediction) |
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Verbal symbolism.
Gestures are usually accompanied by words. The spoken and written word
in religion generally is not thought of primarily as symbolic but rather as a
form of rational communication, of communication of thought. Despite its
predominantly rational character in modern times, however, language
does develop expressions that extend into the area of the symbolical. In its
origin, language most likely was richly symbolical. Linguistic symbolism,
however, has always had a certain tendency toward rational transparency and
logical coherence, and thus words, objects, and pictures--in their origin as
symbols--are very closely related. The visual value of the object and picture is
later translated into language and enhanced by it. |
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Linguistic symbolism generally is metaphorical;
the allegory, a particular development of the metaphor, symbolically represents
an idea by means of a coherent complex of metaphors. Specific genres of
narration and literature, such as myth, belong in this category. In a
figurative, interpretative, and cryptic sense, names and metaphors denote the
person or thing in question. God sometimes is metaphorically called a
"spring" or a "rock"; Christ, "the Beloved"; Mary
(the mother of Jesus), "the Rose"; and Vardhamana Malavira
(the founder of Jainism) and the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, the founder
of Buddhism) are called "the Conqueror." |
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Individual syllables or sounds may also have a symbolic quality. The om,
which is used to introduce the holy texts of Hinduism and is a meditation
syllable used in Buddhism, provides one example. Understood magically as an
emanation of the divine, the word or a name or a part of a word can become an
independent hypostatized (substantial) object, a representation, or even the
incarnation of the divine, such as the Logos
(Word) in the Gospel According to John or hu ("he") and al-haqq
("the truth") in Islamic mysticism
or the name Metatron in Kabbala. A holy writing or book in its entirety may
represent the divine in the same way, as the Bible
in Christianity, the Qur'an in Islam, and the Adi Granth in
Sikhism. |
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Musical symbolism.
Music, like the word, also may have symbolic meaning. The basic elements
out of which musical symbolism is built are sounds, tones, melodies, harmonies,
and the various musical instruments, among which is the human voice. Sound
effects can have a numinous (spiritual) character and may be used to bring about
contact with the realm of the holy. A specific tone may call one to an awareness
of the holy, make the holy present, and produce an experience of the holy. This
may be done by means of drums, gongs, bells, or other instruments. The ritual
instruments can, through their shape or the materials from which they are made,
have symbolic meaning. The Uitoto in Colombia, for example, believe that all the
souls of their ancestors are contained in the ritual drums. (see also music
theory, liturgical music) |
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The relationship between religious ideas and music is of special
importance when the sacred word is set to music or when the music supports or
interprets the sacred word by orchestral accompaniment. Medieval and modern
Christianity in the West has made important contributions in this area. The
symbolic word may be enriched, intensified, and increased in meaning when it is
given a musical form. In the medieval technique of motet
composition, different but parallel texts from the Bible or the liturgy would be
simultaneously sung in various voices to appropriate but different melodies.
This is an example of the structuralization of symbols into a coherent whole, a
process that may sometimes also be encountered in the visual arts. |
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Conjunction and combination of various modes.
In ritual, liturgy, liturgical and devotional art, and in religious
literature and experience, many different types of symbolical expression are
frequently combined. Pictorial art may be symbolically interpreted or its
present meaning may be reinforced by the addition of a verbal explanation or
possibly even by music. In ritual, symbolical words, tones, noises, gestures,
signs, odours (e.g., the odour of the sacrifice or the fragrance of
incense as an expression of prayer and offering), colours, and pictures are
combined. Pictorial art often depicts religious texts and ideas; in so doing it
not only uses the human form but also objects of nature, scenery, sacred
architecture, and particular symbols. A picture or sign on an emblem often
receives its interpretation by the inscription of a verbal explanation.
Conversely, in an illustration of religious texts, the picture or sign
interprets the text. Over against verbal and musical symbols stands the sacred
value of silence. It may indicate devotion, contemplation, or the presence of
God. |
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ICONS
AND SYSTEMS OF ICONOGRAPHY
Throughout the history of their development, religious iconography and
symbolism have been closely interrelated. Many religious symbols can be
understood as conceptual abbreviations, simplifications, abstractions, and
stylizations of pictures or of pictorial impressions of the world of sense
objects that are manifested in iconographic representations. In conceiving,
describing, and communicating the experience of reality, the realistic picture
and the nonrepresentational sign both have as their primary function the
expression of this experience in religious terms. In religious pictures that are
of a compound or complex nature, particular symbols occasionally reappear. These
pictures may also include other types of symbolic representation, such as words,
tones, gestures, rituals, and architecture. (see also religious
architecture) |
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Iconographic forms.
Temples
and other sacred places.
The architectural iconography of sacred buildings and places of worship
is a field of its own. The place of worship, insofar as it is understood as the
image of the universe and its centre, must be architecturally patterned
according to a specific design of the universe. The place of worship may be
considered to be the navel of the world; e.g., the omphalos, a
round stone in the temple at Delphi (in Greece),
the holy stone in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem, or the rock in
the temple area of the Dome of the Rock (Mosque of Omar), in Jerusalem. A holy
place usually is built around these holy points. |
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The cross-shaped ground plan of the Christian transept church is
sometimes interpreted as an architectural portrayal of the crucified Christ, the
apse with its altar representing Christ's head.
The holy place as a structural creation together with its natural setting may
create an idyllic or overwhelming effect, evoking in the beholder an experience
of religious awe or devotion. The Shinto and Buddhist temples of Japan
and the beauty of the landscape in which they are set, the mountain temples of
ancient Greece, and Christian churches and chapels built in such dramatic
settings as Le Mont-Saint-Michel in France all inspire a sense of wonderment.
The Buddhist temple in all the splendour and richness of its form, trappings,
and surroundings or the stupa (a building
containing relics of the Buddha) represents the presence of the Buddha. |
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Great importance, therefore, is often attached to the exterior form of
the holy place, and its construction is governed by a canon of symbolical and
iconological principles. The individual parts of the building--the walls,
columns, ceilings, vaults, and towers--usually have pictorial and symbolic
functions. Generally, the ceiling or vault presents a picture of heaven. Special
accent is placed on the portals and the paths leading to them, on the position
of the tables of offering, altars, sacred pictures, and relics. The bell tower,
or campanile, is characteristic of Christian churches and is popularly
interpreted as the finger of God. Ancient Christian basilicas (large, roofed
buildings, generally with aisles) were viewed as images of the heavenly
Jerusalem. The pictorial aspect of the place of worship extends not only to the
building in the entirety of its architectural form but also to the painted,
sculptured, and mosaic artwork that decorates it. The exteriors of Hindu and
Buddhist holy places, such as the famous terrace temple of Borobudur on
Java, and the pediments and friezes of Greek temples utilize an abundance of
figures and reliefs representing scenes from myth and sacred history. The
facades of Egyptian temples are covered with tableaus of the gods and depictions
of ritual ceremonies. The facades and portal walls and sometimes the outside
walls of Christian churches portray the main figures and events in the history
of salvation, legends of the saints, and the Last Judgment. Inside the holy
place, this pictorial and interpretative function is continued in the figures
and scenes on its walls, capitals, and vaults. The adytum (sanctuary), the
apses, and the altar may be decorated with symbols or pictures of the divinity
or of other gods and saints. |
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Icons and
images.
Pictures are the main subject matter of iconography, which also includes
free-standing sculptured forms and reliefs. Free-standing figures or statues are
important in ritual as well as in partly serving magical purposes, which cannot
always be separated from religious ritual. Such figures, which later became
objects of personal devotion and meditation, include representations of the gods
and demons in various prehistoric religions and of Buddha, Christ, and the
various Buddhist and Christian saints. Generally, Judaism, Islam, and
ancient Shinto have rejected any representation of the divine. |
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Painted or sculptured tableaus of historical or mythical events
originally belonged in a ritual setting. The function of a wall painting, wall
or floor mosaic, or relief was or is to establish the ritual actions as
authentic re-enactments of their mythical or historical prototype and to make
these mythical or historical events continually present. These tableaus also may
be found on the interiors and sometimes the exteriors of houses and on cemetery
monuments. They are made to serve private devotion and a personal confession of
faith. In the form of a framed picture, Oriental roll picture, print, or book
illustration, such an iconographic tableau contains religious information,
mediates, and stimulates contemplation and devotion. |
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Iconographic themes.
In the religions of highly developed cultures and in the universal
religions, complicated systems of iconography have been developed. In the course
of time, however, these systems have been subject to change. Icons (images) may
depict the divine in its oneness and in the plurality of its differentiations,
emanations, and incarnations, as well as man in his various relationships to the
sphere of the holy. They may also depict the world as the stage of divine
action, as the realm of the diabolical, or as the battleground of these two
warring forces. They may portray evil, the diabolical, and the Satanic (the
negatively sacred); or, more positively, they may depict the offer of salvation,
redemption, and damnation. Furthermore, icons may portray the ritual means of
attaining salvation or moral relationships and duties. Icons may borrow from
myths and other religious narrative material to depict the historical past and
the present, as well as the future and the afterlife. Icons, finally, may
represent religious doctrine and the theological treatment of dogmatic themes,
as well as other religious beliefs, religious experiences, and conceptions of a
more individualistic nature. |
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Iconographic types.
There are many fundamentally different points of departure in the ways
of conceiving the contents of religious pictures and of forming them. These
differences, which go back to very early times, continue to exist side by side
throughout the history of religions, some dominating at one time while others
recede in importance. |
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Anthropomorphic
motifs.
The object that generally is depicted in religious pictures or sculpture
is an anthropomorphic (human-form)
representation. Man is shown as the image and likeness of the holy and as
engaging in typically religious behaviour; conversely, the divine appears with
anthropomorphic characteristics. This tendency is found quite early in the
history of religions. Examples include the religious pictures used in ancestor
worship; the spirit and soul idols of various primitive cultures in animism;
the fetish, or charm, figures of West African
fetishism; and the magical objects of hunter and agrarian cultures. This type of
anthropomorphism reaches its high point in the ritual and mythical pictures of
the great polytheistic religions and is especially characteristic of ancient
Greek religion and also of Jainism in its pictures of the Tirthankaras
(saviours). |
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In universal religions, such as Buddhism and Christianity,
anthropomorphic pictures of the divine were maintained despite criticism. They
were not intended to be interpreted realistically but rather as symbolically
representing the divine. Buddhism adapted the gods and anthropomorphic myths of
the then popular Asian religions and developed the figure of the bodhisattva (buddha-to-be)
to represent the attainment of Nirvana (the state of extinction or
bliss). In Christianity, the picture of Christ usually serves as a
representation of the divine. God the Father also is anthropomorphically
depicted, usually as an old man wearing papal or imperial insignia. Individual
parts of the body may be depicted and serve as symbols of the divine: e.g., the
hand of God may stand for Christ, the creative power of God, God's covenant with
man, or for God's fidelity and truth; the phallus or foot may symbolize Shiva
(a Hindu god). Man may be portrayed as a miniature copy of the universe or as
the recipient of salvation and also the bearer
of the divine, as in the Christian iconography of Mary and the saints. |
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Theriomorphic,
or zoomorphic, motifs.
Besides animal demons in primitive religions and totemism
(a belief system and social system based on animal symbolism), animal images
frequently occur in other more sophisticated religions. The animal form as a
representation of the divine (theriomorphism, or
zoomorphism) is characteristic of polytheism. It has been maintained in
Hinduism, to some extent in Buddhism, and occasionally in Christianity. Besides
the theriomorphic (animal-form) representations of the holy (e.g., the
ancient Egyptian gods and animals that are symbols of the divine or the lamb
symbolizing Christ in Christianity), there are also theriomorphic (animal-form)
pictures of the universe and its powers and of the world of the demons. In many
religions the animal kingdom is depicted as a part of creation, as in the
portrayals of creation in ancient Greek myths and in the Bible. Animals also
play important roles in allegories. Various
forms of the shepherd-flock motif have been developed to describe God's
relationship to man. (see also animal worship) |
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Besides being represented in human form, the Christian Evangelists
Mark, Luke, and John
are symbolically depicted in animal form (lion, ox, and eagle, respectively).
Byzantine iconography sometimes depicts St. Christopher (patron of travellers)
with a dog's head. Parts of animals (skulls, horns, wings, and feet) also serve
as symbols of the power of the divine or diabolical. (see also Byzantine
art) |
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Phytomorphic
motifs.
Phytomorphic, or plant-form, representations of the divine also are rich
in diverse examples and often enigmatic. Holy plants
and plants considered to be divine are represented in connection with gods in
human form. The god sometimes is the plant itself, as the Egyptian god Nefertum
is the lotus, or begets the plant, as the Egyptian Osiris
or the Greek Demeter as deities of corn, or the deity comes forth from the
plant, as the Egyptian goddess Hathor from the
sycamore or the bodhisattva from the lotus,
or the god unites with or is transformed into the plant, as the Greek heroine Daphne
changed into the laurel tree, which thus became sacred to Apollo. The genealogy
of Christ from "the root of Jesse," the father of the Israelite king
David, is represented as a tree the last blossom of which is Christ. The
biblical story of creation describes the vegetative surroundings of man and his
dependence on plants (e.g., the tree of knowledge). The tree of life, the
world tree, and the primeval cosmic plant all have characteristics related to
the nature and origin of the cosmos. (see also Egyptian
religion, creation myth) |
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The grapevine is a prominent ritual
motif. It is found, for example, in representations of Dionysus
and Christ. Painted and sculptured leaf, flower, and plant motifs decorate
Christian churches and many religious and funeral monuments. Plants bound into a
wreath symbolically promise victory over death and the joys of heaven. In such
instances, the simple forms of nature may sometimes be depicted in a
nonrepresentational and ultimately abstract and stylized manner. |
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Hybrid motifs.
In religious iconography, anthropomorphic, theriomorphic, and
phytomorphic motifs may be combined. The result of this fusion of forms may be
seen in the numerous hybrid figures of primitive culture (e.g., totem
poles, uli figures of New Ireland, and ancestral tablets). Such combined
motifs occur also in ancient Near Eastern figures of winged demons with human
heads and animal bodies or in winged beings with animal heads and human bodies
and in the winged Greek goddesses, as well as in the winged protectresses of the
dead in ancient Egypt and the angels and demons in Christian art. In
Christianity, the snake in the Garden of Eden is sometimes portrayed with a
human head (the face of Satan). In the Middle Ages, representations of the
living cross with its arms depicted as hands appear. The cross also has been
combined with various other anthropomorphic and phytomorphic elements. |
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A composite picture of plants, animals, and men together with other
natural objects and architectural structures often becomes a sacred scenic
background against which the mythical and ritual action takes place. Such scenic
depictions were developed in Hellenism and adopted by early Christianity.
Paradise scenes including plants, animals, men, Christ, and the saints are later
enriched by symbolic and diagrammatic elements. Renaissance painting and East
Asian Buddhist and Taoist art also use such combinations when depicting sacred,
mythological, and allegorical scenes. |
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Chrematomorphic
motifs.
Objects that are used, or chrematomorphic objects, provide another form
of pictorial representation. Holy objects, especially those used in worship,
fall in this category. The holy book, the cross, the throne and other insignia
of power and majesty, lights, lamps, and canopies become representatives of the
holy. Garments also may have a symbolic meaning of their own apart from their
wearer, as, for example, the veil or the blue mantle of Mary as symbols for the
tent of heaven. |
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Absence of
representational forms.
The absence of an expected object, person, plant, or animal in a picture
or the absence of all pictorial representation may also represent the holy or
divine. In the Holy of Holies of the Jewish
Temple in Jerusalem there was no picture of Yahweh in or on the ark of the
Covenant, although it was supposed to be a sort of portable throne for God.
Ancient Christian art often depicted an empty throne on which perhaps lay a
folded purple robe or a book (hetoimasia) as a symbol of the invisible
presence of God. In mosques the empty prayer niche (mihrab), which is
oriented toward Mecca, represents the presence of Allah. Buddha
apparently was not iconically represented in early Buddhist art in accordance
with the theory of "emptiness" (shunya) and the radically
negative transcendence of the aim of salvation, Nirvana. The rejection of
a picture as a means of representing the holy also is a symbolical way of
positively asserting the presence of God. (see also aniconism,
Judaism) |
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Hostility toward and prohibition of pictures are found in ancient Shinto,
Judaism, Islam, the various radical movements (i.e., the
iconoclasts, or image destroyers) of 8th-century Christianity that were
influenced by Islam, and, centuries later, in some elements of Reformed
Protestantism. |
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INFLUENCE OF MAN'S ENVIRONMENT ON RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM AND
ICONOGRAPHY
Influences from nature.
The main streams of the influence from nature are derived from man's
experience of nature itself, his position in the universe, and his attempt to
master his world in religious terms. Man's sense of the holy influences the way
he perceives and understands nature. The space that surrounds man provides him
with the dimensional coordinates of his religious experience. Height, depth,
breadth, direction, proximity, and distance are the spatial forms in which the
holy manifests itself. The holy may reside on a mountaintop, in heaven, in a
chasm, in the underworld, in watery depths, or in a desert. The holy way or path
provides man with his direction to the divine and a means of approaching it. The
spatial position of the holy and the direction to it may also be abstractly
expressed--e.g., by means of symbolical numbers or coordinates. The
infinity of space may be represented by geometrical and linear figures. |
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Emptiness or fullness may characterize the utilization of spaces and
surfaces that are usually intended for the reception of symbols and signs. Works
of art may be totally absent in certain architectural structures; or all
available space may be filled with a dense profusion of all kinds of figures and
objects, all of which may sometimes be encircled by an ornamental network or web
of branches, vines, leaves, and blossoms; an example of such embellishment is
Islamic art. The ebb and flow of, time
and things, the flow of water, and the cyclic recurrence of time are pictorially
expressed--in symbols such as the wheel, spiral, wave, and circle. Time appears
as the god of destiny--kala in ancient Indian and Zurvan in
ancient Persian religions. In late antiquity time takes the form of a demon
entwined with snakes (Aion). The snake biting its own tail, the ring, and the
spiral are frequently recurring symbols of fate and eternity; in Christianity,
eternity is represented by the
 and
 ,
and the wreath. |
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Other physical, chemical, and physiological facts of nature also serve
as sources of symbolic and iconographic concepts. Examples include the
experiences of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching; the myriad
forms of plant and animal life; heaven and its astral and meteorological
phenomena, which may be represented realistically or abstractly through symbols
or personifications; and the colours and various colourful natural occurrences
such as the rainbow (often symbolizing God or Christ) or the sunrise and sunset
or minerals and precious stones. In the depiction of natural happenings, plant,
animal, and human forms may blend into one another, as in the symbolic circle of
the Mesopotamian god Tammuz in which the tree of
life is combined with figures of fertile wild and domestic animals and the
figure of a shepherd. All these symbols represent the preservation and
regeneration of life. They also represent nature as a holy power. |
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Another area of nature symbolism is that of the microcosm and macrocosm
of heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth are depicted as a dually or polarly
related pair, which generally are theistically personified as a man and a woman.
These roles may sometimes be reversed, as in ancient Egypt: the heavenly
divinity a goddess, Nut, and the Earth divinity a god, Geb. In Greek myths on
the origin of the gods (theogony), the world of the gods and man results from
such pairing. Mother Earth is a central figure of many myths: she is the
mistress of fertility and death. |
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Influence of human relationships.
Another group of pictures and symbols that are especially significant in
depicting the relationship of God and man are those drawn from the area of family
and social relationships, especially the roles of the father
and mother. These relationships to some extent
are determined by the structure of the society and its economy. The mother image
is closely bound up with Earth symbolism, vegetation, agriculture, fertility,
the reappearance of life, and the lunar cycle. The father image usually is
associated with the sphere of heaven, authority, dominion, age, wisdom, and
struggle. Love, betrothal, marriage, sexual union, family, and friendship also
are significant in symbolization. The relationships between brothers and sisters
are of importance, especially in the structure of religious communities and in
the various fraternal groups and secret organizations of modern societies. The
images of the child, the subject, or slave again indicate man's relationship to
God; those of the ruler, king, or master express the power and authority of the
deity. Even the structure of the world of the gods is explained in terms of
family. (see also childhood) |
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Symbolism of sex and the life cycle.
The symbols of sexuality and the life cycle
perform a function similar to those of time and eternity in the higher
religions. They indicate the permanence of the cycle of sexual functions and the
return and renewal of individual and collective physical life. The endless
renewal of life is variously represented. It may be as realistic depictions or
diagrammatic and stylized abbreviations of man and woman, god and goddess,
masculine and feminine animals in the act of love and sexual union, as in
reliefs on Hindu temples, or as depictions of sex characteristics (e.g., in
Indian linga-yoni symbolism). The theme of renewal also may be depicted
in representations of woman with emphasis on her function as mother, as in the
nursing-mother figures of ancient Greece. The life cycle also is represented by
figures portraying the ages of man or by depictions of pain and suffering, as in
pictures of the Buddha's death, which also indicate his breaking out of the
endless chain of existence. (see also sexual behaviour)
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Cultural influences.
Other cultural, political, social, and economic institutions and
conventions also influence religious symbolism and iconography. Work and
leisure, war and peace, and the myriad things associated with them--occupations,
positions in society, classes and their functions, the tools of domestic and
professional life, technical equipment, forms of international relations and
strife--all play an important part in man's interpretation and understanding of
religious reality and hence in his symbolization of this experience. Hunters,
farmers, shepherds, warriors, artisans, and merchants and their activities are
represented in religious pictures and appear in the verbal symbolism of
religion. In the universal and missionary religions, such as Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam, the believer is summoned to take up spiritual
arms and fight for salvation. In Judaism, Christianity, and the religion of
ancient Rome, the relationship between God and man is regulated according to the
model of a peace treaty. In ancient German and Indian religions the military
virtues of loyalty, duty, and comradeship are stressed. Man's religious
activities may also be expressed in terms of play and sport, training,
competition, and victory. |
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Conceptual influences.
Ideas, theories, and structured systems of thought also are incorporated
into religious symbolism. Abstract ideas--such as wholeness, unity, and the
absolute--and the power of the spirit are concretely expressed in religious
terms. The idea of unity plays an important part in expressing the oneness of
the divinity. Mathematical principles expressed in number symbolisms are used to
organize the world of the gods, spirits, and demons, to describe the inner
structure of man, and to systematize mythology
and theology. The concepts of duality or polarity find expression as the body
and soul of man: the divine pair; the syzygy (paired emanations) in Gnosticism;
the dualism of God and the devil, of good and evil; and, finally, as the two
natures of Christ. The number three, or triplicity, is represented in divine
triads, the trinity, and the body-soul-spirit structure of man; as is number
four, or quaternity, in the four cardinal points, the picture of the cosmic
whole, the divine quaternity. Time and eternity may be expressed in abstract
symbolical terms as well as concretely in picture form. |
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INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON SYMBOLISM AND ICONOGRAPHY
Religious figures and spiritual authorities themselves form a vast
complex of symbols: gods, saviours, redeemers, heroes, the avatars
(incarnations) and the Ishvaras (manifestations) of Hinduism, the heroes
and gods of epics, the founders, lawgivers, saints, and reformers of the great
religions. The biblical prophets, apostles, and evangelists and the Christian
saints are characterized by a very complicated system of symbols. Theologians,
mystics, and contemplatives may also be symbolically and pictorially
represented; the doctors (teachers) of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
and fathers of the early church have standard iconic forms, attributes, and
symbols (e.g., St. Augustine is
represented by the heart; St. Jerome by the lion). Persons connected with ritual
and representatives of the religious institution (e.g., hierarchs,
priests, assistants in the liturgy, male and female dancers, and musicians) may
also be symbolically and iconographically depicted. (see also Jerome,
Saint) |
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The offering, the place of offering, the altar and its trappings, the
instruments that prepare and destroy the offering, the fire that consumes it,
the liquids and drinks used in the rite, the sacred meal, and the rites of
communion all are objects of iconography and symbolism. The offering symbolizes
the idea of submission to the ideals of a religion, the giving up of valuables
and possessions for religious purposes and for the service of human brotherhood,
and the giving up of one's life for religion. (see also sacred
and profane) |
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A religious community recognizes itself and its ideas by symbols.
Examples are the yin-yang (union of opposites) symbol bound by the circle
of stability (t'ai-chi) in Chinese universalism; the swastika in Hinduism
and Jainism; the wheel of the law in Buddhism; the khanda (two swords,
dagger, and disk) in Sikhism; the star of David
or menora (candelabrum) in Judaism; and
the cross in its various forms in Christianity. |
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CONCLUSION
The further development of symbolism and iconography in the higher
religions of the modern world is an open question. During much of the 20th
century in the Christian communities, revivals of the liturgical traditions and
of ritual symbolism were in progress, though criticized vigorously by many
theologians. Liturgical symbolism became valued anew and stabilized. Theological
systems, like that developed by Paul Tillich, were based on the concept of the
symbol. On the other hand, during the 1960s some indifference toward symbols and
pictures developed because of an emphasis on the moral and social tasks of
religion. Symbols, myths, pictures, and anthropomorphic ideas of God were
rejected by many theologians, and philosophical structures (e.g., the
theory of the demythologization of the Bible, or the "God-is-dead"
theology) became substitutes for them. In the great non-Christian religions,
this process seems to be less acute. Within the horizons of a secularized,
skeptical, and agnostic society, religious symbols seem to be dispensable, but
nonetheless a new and increasing interest in symbols was appearing, especially
among the younger generations who came into contact with both Eastern and
Western religious and cultural traditions with their rich sources of symbolic
images and modes of thinking. Thus, a resurgence of an understanding for the
specific values of symbolism and iconography has been recognized in the latter
part of the 20th century, in spite of all apparently opposite trends. (see also Christianity)
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Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY |
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General works:
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Bibliographie
zur Symbolik, Ikonographie und Mythologie,
4 vol., ed. by MANFRED LURKER (1968-71), contains fundamental and comprehensive
bibliographies; Symbolik der Religionen, ed. by FERDINAND HERRMANN (1958-
), a series of compendious and important monographs; JUAN E. CIRLOT, A
Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed. (1971, reprinted 1983; originally published
in Spanish, 1962), with an excellent bibliography; REN?ALLEAU, La Science des
symboles (1976), a study of the principles of symbolism and methodology of
interpretation; J.C. COOPER, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional
Symbols (1978); AD DE VRIES, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, 3rd
rev. ed. (1981). See also Visible Religion (annual), started in 1982 by
the Institute of Religious Iconography, State University, Groningen. |
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The idea and nature of symbols, symbolization, and
culture:
HAROLD BAYLEY, The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Inquiry into the
Origin of Certain Letters, Words, Names, Fairy-Tales, Folklore, and Mythologies,
2 vol. (1912, reprinted 1968); ERNST CASSIRER, The Philosophy of Symbolic
Forms, 3 vol. (1953-57; originally published in German, 1923-29), a pioneer
work; HUGH DALZIEL DUNCAN, Symbols in Society (1968, reprinted 1972);
MIRCEA ELIADE, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism (1961,
reissued 1969; originally published in French, 1952); ERICH FROMM, The
Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales,
and Myths (1951, reissued 1974), discusses psychoanalytical aspects; D?IR?
HIRST, Hidden Riches: Traditional Symbolism from the Renaissance to Blake (1964);
HANS JENSEN, Sign, Symbol and Script, 3rd rev. ed. (1969; originally
published in German, 1925); FREDERICK ERNEST JOHNSON (ed.), Religious
Symbolism (1955, reissued 1969); CARL GUSTAV JUNG, Psyche and Symbol, ed.
by VIOLET S. DE LASZLO (1958), and Man and His Symbols (1964, reprinted
1979); GYORGY KEPES (ed.), Sign, Image and Symbol (1966); SUSANNE K.
LANGER, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite,
and Art, 3rd ed. (1957, reprinted 1979); LUCIEN L?Y-BRUHL, L'Experience
mystique et les symboles chez les primitives (1938); ROLLO MAY (ed.), Symbolism
in Religion and Literature (1960); RUDOLF OTTO, The Idea of the Holy, 2nd
ed. (1950, reprinted 1970; originally published in German, 1917; this
translation is from the 9th German ed., 1922); JOSEPH R. ROYCE et al.,
Psychology and the Symbol (1965); THEODORE THASS-THEINEMANN, Symbolic
Behavior (1968); PAUL TILLICH, "Existential Analyses and Religious
Symbols," in HAROLD A. BASILIUS (ed.), Contemporary Problems in
Religion, pp. 35-55 (1956, reprinted 1970); JOACHIM WACH, The Comparative
Study of Religions (1958, reprinted 1966); HEINZ WERNER and BERNARD KAPLAN, Symbol
Formation; An Organismic-Developmental Approach to Language and the Expression
of Thought (1963); ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD, Symbolism; Its Meaning and
Effect (1958); EDWARD C. WHITMONT, The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of
Analytical Psychology (1969, reissued 1978); S. FOSTER DAMON, A Blake
Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (1965, reprinted 1979), a
generously documented encyclopaedia; JOSEPH CAMPBELL, The Mythic Image
(1974), an analysis of mythologies from different cultures embracing Buddhism,
Christianity, and Islam; and JOHN SKORUPSKI, Symbol and Theory: A
Philosophical Study of Theories of Religion in Social Anthropology (1983), a
highly scholarly work. |
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Recurrent themes in history of symbolism and iconography:
LEROY H. APPLETON and STEPHEN BRIDGES, Symbolism in Liturgical Art (1959);
JITENDRA NATH BANERJEA, The Development of Hindu Iconography, 2nd ed.
rev. (1956, reprinted 1974); BENOYTOSH BHATTACHARYA, Indian Buddhist
Iconography, 2nd ed. rev. and enlarged (1958); E. DOUGLAS VAN BUREN, Symbols
of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art (1945); MAURICE FARBRIDGE, Studies in
Biblical and Semitic Symbolism (1923, reissued 1970); GEORGE FERGUSON, Signs
and Symbols in Christian Art, 2nd ed. (1955); ANTOINETTE K. GORDON, The
Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism, rev. ed. (1959, reprinted 1967); DONALD A.
MacKENZIE, The Migration of Symbols and Their Relations to Beliefs and
Customs (1926, reprinted 1970); CHARLES P. MOUNTFORD, Art, Myth and
Symbolism (1956); JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA and CHARLES LONG (eds.), Myths and
Symbols (1969, reprinted 1982); DORA and ERWIN PANOFSKY, Pandora's Box:
The Changing Aspects of a Mythical Symbol, 2nd rev. ed. (1962, reprinted
1978); H. DANIEL SMITH, K.K.A. VENKATACHARI, and V. GANAPATHI, A Source Book
of Vaisnava Iconography According to Pa?aratragama Texts (1969); CHARLES
ALFRED SPEED WILLIAMS, Encyclopedia of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives (1960);
HEINRICH ZIMMER, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946,
reprinted 1972); GERSHOM G. SCHOLEM, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbols
(1965, reissued 1969; originally published in German, 1960); GLADYS A. REICHARD,
Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism, 2nd ed. (1974, reprinted 1983);
BEATRICE L. GOFF, Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia (1963), and Symbols
of Ancient Egypt in the Late Period: The Twenty-First Dynasty (1979); JAMES
A. AHO, Religious Mythology and the Art of War: Comparative Religious
Symbolism of Military Violence (1981). (K.M.A.G.)
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