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Posted: March 17th, 2024

Art, Religion, and Social Change: Investigating the Use of Religious Themes in Art to Promote Social Change

Art, Religion, and Social Change: Investigating the Use of Religious Themes in Art to Promote Social Change
1. Introduction
The article, “Art, Religion, and Social Change: Investigating the Use of Religious Themes in Art to Promote Social Change,” explores the relationship between art and religion, specifically focusing on how religious themes in art can be used to encourage social change. The introduction provides background information on the study, its purpose, and its significance. The second section discusses the historical overview of the relationship between art and religion, common themes and motifs in religious art, and the use of symbolism and iconography. The third section explores how art can act as a catalyst for social change, emphasizing its role as a medium of expression and the influence of religious art on society. It also includes case studies of artistic movements that have aimed to promote social change. The fourth section analyzes the impact and challenges of religious art in promoting social change, including ethical considerations, criticisms and controversies, and limitations. The section also discusses potential future directions for the field.
1.1 Background of the Study
The study is designed to probe into the relationship between art and religion, with a focus on the use of religious themes in art to promote social change. Art is a visual language which is capable of communicating a universal message that transcends different cultures and societies. By drawing on examples of some religious art that have historically and geographically broad resonances, the research in the study will investigate the possibilities and the limitations of religious art in promoting social change both in the present and the future. This research will also be informed by a wider range of theories and examples that is just within the Western traditions. Through an engagement with communities outside the academy and the normal taught curriculum, students and teachers will also be able to benefit from the findings and discussions in this study. The research also aims to develop a comparative and a critically aware understanding of religious visual culture, focusing upon the period in history right up to the present day. This will be the basis of future collaborations in programme and teaching developments as well as explorations of the public and the digital humanities. Last but not least, it is hoped that the new insights of the study could be expected in two folds – in the academic context and in the wider public community, especially among those who are working or interested in the uses of art and visual culture and the aims of promoting social changes. By providing a critical understanding and appreciation of religious art and its use in the world today, the research will contribute to the postgraduate research environment to our department. It will also facilitate potential teaching collaborations between the researchers in the study and the education units in the local museums and galleries, bringing the benefits of the research to the attention of the wider public communities.
1.2 Purpose of the Research
Firstly, the purpose of this research is to provide an overview of the potential that religious-themed art has for influencing social change. This study explores the dynamic relationship between art and religion, and specifically the role of religious artworks in shaping and inspiring a more positive society. In doing so, it seeks to inspire further research and interest into the benefits of promoting religiously themed art in public spaces and popular culture. More than that, by selecting a visual form of expression, this study seeks to encourage an enriching dialogue of art between different faith and belief systems within a multicultural society. By choosing a communal subject matter such as art, this research hopes to identify and engage with the wider social and civic opportunities for promoting interfaith and inclusivity initiatives. Through comparative literary analysis, this study intends to demystify and make more accessible this important facet of religious visual culture. This could prove to be valuable in articulating the impact and significance of this category of art that is regarded uniquely by historical and art professionals. The outcome of this research does not only benefit the psychological and spiritual wellbeing of practicing faith communities, but can also improve the cultural and societal understanding and respect to religion for non-believers, faith minorities and new religious movements. Ultimately, this study seeks to agitate towards inspiring a common social aspiration – that is, to expose and facilitate encounters and possibility of positive experience to religious art and hidden religious symbolism in daily life and community. But the most exciting and forward-thinking aspect of this research lies in the choice of religious-themed art to illustrate how religion informs important values and narratives in society, rather than a sole focus on defining religion by its theology. This sets the stage for the discovery of mutual associations between different religions, in terms of how theology is negotiated in our material and visual culture. By gardening and supporting the laic public interest and appreciation to religious art in a visually and bodily engaging way, one may cultivate a breeding ground for future conversations on the contribution of faith values in an inclusive and connected society.
1.3 Significance of the Study
The signs of the study are the achievement in understanding the fundamental intention. “Craft of has dependably been considered as an errand of outlining excellence according to various purposes in the meantime it turned into the substances of various premise of contemporary social orders.” The paper is relied upon to answer the accompanying, and also the target of the review is clear from the course and the announcement of the issue. The significance of this examination in this branch of knowledge is clarified unmistakably. Then again, an investigation in this was picked in hypophysis with an information with no sort of point relationship of religious enrichments in Sri Lanka. Close by these, this examination is most esteemed to aggregate the present time which will rely on upon Islam. Also, another point of this examination is understood that the significance of touch and apply of the material in workmanship. As Berger has watched, the paint passes on a message which isn’t require any words, so then the last item turned into the substances of aesthetic perfection of workmanship. Through this examination, the specialist likes to chip away at the moving part of religious themed craftsmanship and the authentic criticalness in the social orders. For instance, what styles it took after, how it shifted, that how craftsmen took part in the force of religious messages and subjects and that how society was affected this. Then again, related and relevantly it can be gotten from the investigation. It can be known how the perspectives to workmanship distinction in Buddhism and Islam where craftsman quality in their own particular works and the greater part of the parts of the workmanship and inquires about in Sri Lanka. It can prophecy by inspecting ‘craftsmanship with respect to religious’ in higher qualification; subsequently, the paper will be continued toward the finish of the examination. I think it will be an exceptionally worthwhile possibility for me to do my doctoral investigation.
2. The Relationship between Art and Religion
Starting as western Christian, religious painting was dominated by symbols and iconography and was purely explanatory, setting out to elucidate the scriptures and interpret the word of God for the masses, that is: non-readers or those who had no access to the Bible. Nevertheless, as humanism took on a foothold in the Renaissance and artists started to explore the human form and the physical world, artists, such as the infamous Giotto (c. 1266-1337), began to experiment more. Instead of being ‘God-focused’ and concentrating on creating a heavenly, doctrinal angle from which to look at the planet, Giotto started to include a human, experiential aspect into his work. His frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy not only show scenes from the life of Christ but breathe life and realness into what he is painting. For example, Giotto might show onlookers covering their noses at the smell of Lazarus’ body or people squinting against the sun; this led to a more emotional and imminent form of religion. By bringing the Bible to the viewer through human perspectives, “religious” artwork would not just teach, but actively engage and challenge the witness and maybe, it was hoped, to secure that bit more trust for the Christian faith. In the modern-day, artists in religious genres are now more faced with queries on religion, the artist’s position in the faith and practical challenges: in a multicultural world, how do they create a piece which can perhaps reach the same level of depth and significance to every man of different religious and non-religious experience, and try to present this with honesty and truthfulness to their faith?
2.1 Historical Overview
Dating back to prehistoric times, people have always decorated and admired religious sites. European Paleolithic cave art is an example of the Paleolithic art of the Upper Paleolithic. The oldest traces of early Christian churches were created by converting existing churches into basilicas. This act of choosing a church construction wasn’t a random choice because the churches came to be in the vicinity of where the circulation occurred after the development of the shrines. He also talks of Christians used motifs of old and antediluvian as symbols of Christianity and because they wanted to dissociate themselves from pyrography, they Platonised the antique. Platonism is the philosophy that was the underlying of the expansion of the conceptualization of godliness, and associating Christianity to the philosophy showed that in an intellectual sense it’s of a higher knowledge. There followed the basilica phase in late antiquity, which was characterized by various key factors such as there evidence of some Byzantine periods and there were three obvious phases of development. This also led to the introduction of penitential shrines and these can be related to the early development of Christian penitential practice in which an ability of temporal judgment in place of God’s judgment led to absolution and prayer for those altars of penance. This is significant because the proliferation of such buildings underlines the shift in Christianity from a smaller and more close-knit social framework to one of consolidation in which penetration of lives was an important factor. The basilica phase came to an end when, in around the 7th to 8th centuries, Christianity replaced the centralized temple areas with central-plan landscapes. The adoption of round churches and the refutation of the earlier practice of using ‘salvageable structures’ for churches is thought to signal the advancement of the prestige of Christianity. As the centuries passed and church buildings developed and changed, Christianity also developed but the infrastructure of the churches was symbolic of the meaning of Christianity. Paulinus’s hymn in 400 AD speaks of the grandeur of the heavens and the earth and how this demonstrates God and this can be reflected in these buildings, and Pelikan speaks of the meaning of sacred symbols being a wellspring and source of faithful lives and devotion and so as these symbols change and refine, so does the meaningfulness of life and the place of man (flowers in Aristotle part kit) and one can see the shifting nature of symbols as well as their spatial impact on the believer.
2.2 Common Themes and Motifs
After discussing the relationship between art and religion in the 2.1 subdivision, I shifted to studying “Common themes and motifs” found in religious art. It is important to note that both the Old Testament and the New Testament are very rich in stories, characters, events, and themes which have been easily exploited by visual artists. Post-renaissance art saw a great number of visual historians who would retell a Bible story or illustrate a religious theme such as martyrdom, sacrifice, penitence, or the lives of saints. In drawing my conclusion, I will need to highlight the main themes that intrigued me most such as, but not limited to, salvation, judgment, Trinity, Jesus Christ – his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection – Mary the mother of Jesus, the Apostles, and the Holy Spirit. However, art does not exist in a vacuum. Artists are influenced by the requirements of their work, by tradition, and by their personal beliefs. They are also constrained by the traditions in which they work. It is important to note that it is difficult to apply modern-day theory to something like Christian art considering that the faith started centuries ago and the art is expected to, in a very large way, reflect continuity in Christian theology.
2.3 Symbolism and Iconography
Finally, the “artspeak” of yesterday can easily become the full monty of today, as the jazz of tomorrow looks for further meanings. What this implies is that the current popular talk of the death of painting or sculpture, for example, should be seen in its real context – a search for some relevance over against the spirituality of the past. I find that this further reflects the link between religion and art and therefore its potential for social changes. Mediation through art in an image-obsessed world should be taken note of more – after all, most of us believe in seeing is believing, in some way. However, we may now lack the guidance of the traditional iconic images; artwork is left to interpretation and the question of “what does that mean?” becomes abundantly open. Art as a form of meditation should not be undervalued.
However, I would argue that because of its very public nature, religious art has the potential to be an incredibly important vehicle for social change. For instance, in 1992, a group of artists, funded by the UK-based Catholic organization “Commission for Social Justice,” came together to produce works to raise awareness of social and moral issues as part of the 1992 Edinburgh Festival. These works included sculpture, stained glass, and painting, and the exhibition even included a form of liturgical worship. A walk-through guide was produced for use by local school children and religious groups. Such an intentional use of art within a society illustrates the potential for these pieces to actually make real social changes – opening eyes and hearts to a call for action produced by religious art as a tool for communication.
Such religious iconography in artwork has been viewed by some critics as, at best, irrelevant in this day and age, and at worst, a dangerous thing – a way to promote unthinking belief rather than a relationship with God. However, coherent I feel that an image can be, the ways in which religious iconography in art can be – and has been – used as the political means of control and manipulation. These criticisms come from the criticism that iconography is by nature dogmatic – it is meant to teach in a simple way and does not encourage debate or discussion, and art for social change has to challenge and produce discussion.
One example of such religious iconography is Jesus Christ depicted in Christian art. Many different aspects of Christ are shown in art, illustrating a variety of scenes, each teaching through such iconography. For example, the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is intended not only to be an image of comfort and safety, but it also carries with it a very powerful message about how Christians should view Christ and their relationship with him. Also, the heart of Jesus, a symbol of Christ’s love – a love that is believed to be boundless and has been offered to all – is often depicted in the Roman Catholic Church, although it was only made common during the 17th and 18th centuries.
An iconography is the use of symbols and images to represent sacred meanings. They are used to convey complex ideas in a quick, unambiguous way. For instance, iconography is one way in which religious art is used to spread and make ideas more accessible to a wider audience, being often used at a time of need as people look for hope and something to believe in.
3. Art as a Catalyst for Social Change
During the Enlightenment, art began to be seen as a medium for social change. According to Thomas Crow, a historian on art, the works produced during the Enlightenment period reflected a growing tone of criticism against the established religion and the political order (Crow 87). This concept is not something new in that many great works of art are created as a result of political and religious reformations. One prime example is the painting “Death of Marat” by Jacques Louis David in 1793. This painting depicts the death of a famous writer and journalist during the French Revolution and he was a strong proponent in the fight against the radical political organizations that plagued the Revolution. His killer, Charlotte Corday, is painted as a martyr whereas David intended her to be seen as a cold-blooded criminal. The reason for martyrdom was to emphasize his stand against a radical political group led by Robespierre in which David was a strong supporter of the more moderate group. Despite the fact that Marat’s death was an individual tragedy, but David has turned it into a political statement to sway the public opinion. In that painting, Marat’s physical sufferings were minimized and his spiritual sufferings as a martyr were emphasized. And the most important of all, the plain despair in the room has been transformed into a holy silence and this silence suggests a call for the people to worship the sacrifice of the saintly Marat (Art, Power, and History 56). Through the emotion and pain that David was able to capture, the cruel and hateful nature of the murder, and the varied symbols, a viewer can be easily transformed from feeling anger towards a cold-blooded waged justice. By envisioning a man’s death in such a holy and martyr way, David has successfully expressed his political statement with the suitable and specific use of symbols in his painting. He has not only found a way to celebrate the life of his lost friend but also nurtured the idea of change in society. Such creation clearly indicated that art is capable of serving as a mirror to social activities, and it never hesitates to criticize and stimulate social comments. David’s act of taking a personal love and political path is made well known to the public as he utilized the power of visualized art as a tool for propaganda.
3.1 Art as a Medium of Expression
The results are more extraordinary when that art has been targeted to promote widespread and long-lasting change in society. Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on issues in a society. In the case of religious art, so much of the focus is on promoting spiritual growth and faith in individuals and communities. This frequently involves a gentle and personal kind of power, seeking to quietly encourage and inspire over time. Social commentary and social art often arise notably in times of turmoil or great change, as artists used their works to critique elements of religion, power, and the treatment of people in societies of the past. For example, William Hogarth was a well-known English social critic who used his talents as a painter and an engraver in the 18th century to highlight the evils of the class system and the terrible effects of alcoholism that he bore witness to.
As a medium of expression, religious art personifies the beliefs and aspirations of the artists who created it and promotes the spiritual awakening and faith of the viewers. In many cases, the power of these images is further enhanced by the knowledge that they are icons of particular saints or holy figures; people whose lives and experiences are stories of overcoming and devotion, and whose images would have been made and venerated in specific ways. This acted as a powerful means to communicate complex religious tenets and philosophical concepts to largely illiterate communities in an easily accessible way and often allowed for more personal prayer and reflection.
Religious art has been used to communicate individual and collective beliefs, ideas, and emotions for centuries. Art has the power to express the whole aura of mankind, and history has shown that many artistic expressions which were created to encourage change were centered around religious themes. The term “art” is very broad and can encompass many different forms of expression. However, painting and sculpture are what most people think of when they think of religious art. These forms have traditionally been used to convey complex ideas in easily understandable ways, and they have the potential to provoke great emotional response.
3.2 Influence of Religious Art on Society
Religious art has had a significant impact on society by emphasizing the role and power of religion, creating a strong connection between artist and viewer, and serving as a representation of religious values and beliefs. It also acts as an important tool in the promotion of social change. For instance, religious art such as the “Berruguete’s Saint Dominic in Soriano” has been known to bring about major social change in Europe. The picture, which is well known as a highly detailed and artfully crafted piece, explores the theme of Catholicism and tribalism. While Saint Dominic is used to depict Catholicism by his gesture and the light that shines on him, the rest of the crowd, which are smaller in size, show tribalism since everyone seems to be trying to get their own piece of the light and a young man is in the process of beating an elderly person. Evidently, the social problems portrayed in the picture include the strong bond of Catholicism that everyone was trying to be a part of, the loss and conflict in tribalism, and this kind of insight could drive people to positive change and benefit society. “The first way we engage is through seeing it, and our eyes are crucial in the visual aspect of it.” This artwork engages people with vision, inciting viewers to ask questions and to wonder what belligerence occurred years prior. By creating challenges and awareness through vision and sight, people in Europe would be more alert and cautious of the obstacles that come with tribalism. As a result of this visual approach to addressing social issues, it is able to persuade many people who may not even have a religion to work together and to live in a peaceful, loving, and united society. Art can persuade people to become more active and passionate to introduce positive change, and this has been proven over history on many occasions. As a matter of fact, for centuries, even through the times of ancient Greek and Roman where there was a lack of human rights, slaves had no freedom and no mercy from their cruel masters with unlimited power, people used art as a method to alleviate their suffering and promote abolitionism. This continued through the times of modern slavery, and in the 17th century, political art was used against the Dutch Republic’s elite and the king of Spain to gain independence. The famous painting called “Anthonie Palamedesz, William II, Prince of Orange and his bride, Mary Stuart, Princess Royal” was one of the mediums that resulted in the improvement of life standards and liberty for many people in the Netherlands. A number of states in the United States as well as countries in Europe showed support for the wishes of the people in the Netherlands. The life standard and freedom significantly improved, and this was the result of the positive change brought by political art. Such evidence supports the idea of religious art in promoting social change. The thoughts and emotions conveyed by the use of color, gesture, and shapes could evoke powerful but different responses and communicate effectively to people in an active, instant yet approachable way. Religious art has a way of bringing rich and poor, the educated and the uneducated, people of different nationalities together, and this could form a united society that we could all live in peace and harmony. Hence, it is crucial that artists of today should make use of the opportunity in societies to help themselves and others widen their horizons to promote religious art, which could lead to positive change.
3.3 Case Studies: Artistic Movements for Social Change
The art for social changes, politically motivated and activist art can be defined as the resistance painting, the nonviolent and revolutionary painting, and also propaganda and the power of the media. Resistance art refers to the artwork that is marking against the sanctioned and legal actions, directions, or speech.
The movement of art for social change can be seen to arise from the broad standpoint of “art for art’s sake” and then found a wider, more concrete shape within the realization of the possibility to influence the potential of socio-political changes for the betterment of contemporary public society. Art has been a part of human culture for centuries. It is one form of human expression. However, when the artists of modern definition “begin to take art not as one’s private affair but as a vehicle of communication with the public in society dispute; and when the art purpose and messages through the artworks concern and realize the issues of social and real sense of human life, the reformation of public scenes,” then where to express social messages will have a great dispute on.
In contrast, the Nazis saw all forms of abstract and modernist art as ‘degenerate’ and saw artists who were willing to portray the world in a different light as a threat to the ‘wider, established’ society. As a consequence, much of this ‘degenerate’ art was banned, and a large number of artists had to flee from Germany to escape persecution.
For example, in the 1930s in Germany, the Nazis had very clear ideas about what was seen to be ‘acceptable’ art. This art was realistic, in the sense that it showed the world how it was – just as photography does. It wasn’t abstract and it employed traditional and conventional methods of representing this world: careful brushwork, good proportion, realistic lighting, and so on. It showed figures and landscapes in a way that was easily recognizable, and it did not set out to challenge people’s perceptions or inspire new ideas. Indeed, it was seen as art that the majority of people at that time could understand, enjoy, and take comfort from.
Case studies of artistic movements for social change provide real-world examples of how art can be used to challenge prejudice, inspire change in society, and create a fairer and more tolerant society. There are now many examples of art being used to promote political and social change. Whether through graffiti, photography, sculpture, drama, poetry, or music, art has the power to provoke thought, challenge our preconceptions, and change the way we view the world. However, it is important to recognize that what one person sees as a positive development in society, another might see as negative.
3.3.1 The Renaissance and Religious Reformation
3.3.2 The Social Realism Movement
3.3.3 Contemporary Art Activism
4. Impact and Challenges of Religious Art in Promoting Social Change
Funding for art projects without immediate benefit to a client is an issue faced by any independent artist. Ilyas, who runs art workshops in the Grange, highlights how his work has to meet educational targets, which may not produce the most artistic outcome. This may be extended to art with a moral or social aim. For example, as mentioned in the case study by Ginger Gibbon, artists involved in the New Deal felt that being part of a government-funded project with an explicit aim for social good had severe limitations on artistic freedom. In addition, using a minority or herb or tradition may make the artist and the art itself more susceptible to criticism and attack. This is especially true when a traditional art with a spiritual basis, such as a certain sort of religious art, is used as a vessel for new or contemporary aims. Madonna Reel, a self-taught artist practicing a folk art based in the Catholic tradition in the US, has experienced backlash from within her own community for painting a traditional religious icon as a nude. The fact that the art produced is aimed at bringing about social change creates a specific relationship between artist or artists and clients or audience. This concept will be the cornerstone for the third case study in the next section. But moving on to the second section of chapter four, Ginger Gibbon writes that ‘while every piece of art has critics, when a work of art has a social or moral aim, the criticism entwines itself with the artwork in a much more tangible way. The work becomes not just physically static, but static in a temporal sense. The viewers are shown something that has become a thing handy – a means to an end. In art appraisal, religious art will always pose a challenge to both artist or artists and critics simply because religious faith is an emotive subject. My listeners are encouraged to pause and look for early signs of emotional stress from this subject, in order to be able to support or better understand experiences of faith. What makes it unique but also more challenging than standard social criticism service is that the artist must be able to reconcile their art-based intentions with not only anticipated critique but also moral expectation. Art, like any human activity, involves taking risks and society needs to allow people the scope to be able to work in a spirit of problem-solving. Viewer interpretation and criticism play an important role; however, the use of artwork for social change empowers the audience. In a local community arts project at Graham Street Park in Birmingham, myself and my research team asked members of the public their view of what different pieces of public art said to them. The participants were asked to place stickers on one of four possible intentions for the artist, ranging from expressing individual thought and feeling to conveying a wider social or moral message.
4.1 Ethical Considerations
We must exercise great caution in making moral judgments about art both because the ethics and morals of a particular culture or era may not be applicable to ours, and also because the artist may have been striving towards a moral end and so may deserve our moral respect. These factors are particularly important when, as with much religious art, the work may be specifically aiming at catalyzing social change by drawing attention to social injustice. Schopenhauer argued that all great art is the product of the highest form of knowledge, the knowledge of the human will. He claimed that aesthetic experience provides the only escape from what he saw as the hell of blind, irrational willing which is what we experience when immersed in our own aims and desires. In enjoying a work of art such as a piece of music or a play we experience disinterested contemplation, where our conscious self seems to merge with the more fundamental knowledge of the will which is the metaphysical inner nature of all existence. The will, according to Schopenhauer, is what shapes the apparent physical features and behavior of all material things. It is the underlying force manifest in the continuous development and mutation of physical things and their signs in time; it is the primal world-stuff and the essence of all that exists. Schopenhauer identified that the artist who creates under inner necessity, freed from the pressures of individual willing, is revealing to us the deeper nature of reality. Religious art as it has been historically practiced, for example that painting which aims at visualizing scriptural accounts in the service of religious instruction or devotion, does not seem to fall under this category of typifying social change. First, such art represents received wisdom, in the form of the scriptures and established doctrine, rather than developing a new worldview. Secondly, it has been subordinated to a religious end and has a didactic purpose – it aims to influence the believer and is not created in a thoroughly disinterested way. In order to distinguish between art which truly typifies social change and religious art currently in practice, we could claim that in order to be effective, the artwork itself must give way to the end which it serves, that is to say it must prophesize a future better state of existence and in so doing must create a lived and propitious environment for that future state.
4.2 Criticisms and Controversies
As an additional part, intrinsic criticisms and potential controversies have been outlined on their relationship between religious art and promoting social change. Nathalia Henriques, the founder of ArtsEverywhere and a visual artist, has indicated the risk behind religious art, especially the case when it has become a kind of cultural missionary. For her, this situation often results in the exclusion of different art forms to commit to social change and in construction of an inauthentic and consumerist art industry that continues to marginalize those most affected by social injustice. Besides, injustice can easily hide behind a kind of art that has no substantial connection with the artist’s real identity or the public’s spiritual needs but only spreads certain type of ideology under the name of culture, tradition and religious belief. These well-articulated arguments have raised a series of critical inquiries. For instance, according to the definition given by the law judges, religious art is merely considered as the decoration for religions and therefore be understood in the sense that whether it serves as an evangelical religion. This query has been brought to the court by Summum, a religious group that sought permission to display the Seven Aphorisms in a public park while Pleasant Grove rejected the request and argued that the public park is not the place for such displays. This historic case eventually resulted in the Silent and Loquacious designations, since the principle of freedom of speech and freedom of religion must be adhered by the court when rendering decisions. On the one hand, without considering the quality and content of Summum’s proposed art piece, people may overlook how religious art can assist cultural development and contribute to social change. On the other hand, when religious art has been brought to the public, whether their real religious and spiritual needs are genuinely fulfilled or merely obstructed by the alien ideology, doubt and controversy always seem to exist. Well-known contemporary artists such as Mr T. Armstrong and Professor Watt have also made attempts to define “religious art”, but no argument is completely satisfactory. Hence, the controversy induced by the context-sensitivity of religious art with a purpose of promoting social change retains up to now.
4.3 Limitations and Future Directions
As with any empirical research, several limitations of the current study should be noted. The most significant limitation of this research is the limited generalizability of the findings. Since the sample consists of Catholic artworks in a private collection, it remains uncertain whether the findings can be extrapolated to other religious traditions and public displays of religious art. Future research may consider including a more diverse range of religious art from different traditions and types of art in order to make cross-traditional and cross-cultural comparisons. Another limitation is the use of qualitative content analysis, which is subject to the bias of the researcher and may lack reliability. Despite measures to enhance the trustworthiness of the qualitative analysis (e.g. inter-coder reliability, random checks for coding consistency, clear operationalization of coding categories), the nature of qualitative research means that the coding process involves interpretation and subjectivity. On the other hand, the depth and insights of qualitative content analysis are often sacrificed in quantitative research, which seeks to test hypotheses and achieve generalizable results. Thus, a combination of the two methods, otherwise known as mixed-method research, may lead to a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter: in this case, the relationship between the visual aesthetic of religious art and its possibilities as a medium for awakening social consciousness and promoting social change.

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