艺术与宗教的关系问题是人类文化史上历久弥新的话题，随着历史的发展艺术研究的边界也在不断拓展。广义的理解中，艺术是一种媒介，承载意义并传递信息。在意义传播活动的维度思考艺术在文化中的作用，或许更适合讨论宗教艺术这种在诞生之初就具有强烈功利性的艺术形式。宗教传播者放大艺术功能性的一面，普通人对艺术意义的理解也成为信仰宗教的经验渠道之一。基督宗教在中世纪和文艺复兴时期的绘画、雕塑和建筑等传统的视觉艺术在那个特定时空缔造了一个可视可感的神圣世界，使基督宗教的文化进入人的精神生活和日常实践。视觉艺术作为“不识字人的《圣经》”，以一种意义传播媒介的姿态使用视觉语言符号转译社会中的话语、权力、身份等时代精神的要素。人们创作并欣赏那些精彩绝伦的视觉艺术，是在制造一种沟通此岸世界和彼岸世界的视觉媒介，这些媒介也最终成为塑造基督宗教文化的重要力量。

教会的首要职责是“传扬神的圣道”，成为基督宗教的主要传播者，掌控着对视觉媒介的使用和管理，负责制定和解释规则。视觉媒介在教义中的合法性可以追溯到“光”和“眼睛”这两个必要条件，二者既是人类视觉观看的基础，指引开启“理智之光”与“心灵之眼”，也代表着具有启迪意义的“上帝之光”和审判意味的“上帝之眼”。视觉媒介传递的意义属于教会要借助耶稣基督的权威在世间建立的社会秩序，而这个过程，要通过传播活动的“把关”模式对视觉艺术的内容和艺术家的创作进行干预，大到形象和题材的使用，小到针对制作过程制定规则，甚至对材料、线条、色彩甚至画像的表情等细节都有详细的要求。中世纪艺术家的地位和创作的自由意志，在很大程度上依赖教会的态度，即使文艺复兴阶段逐步显现出“人的觉醒”和世俗题材的发展，教会所划定的边界依然像遗传基因一样根深蒂固。

视觉媒介传播的内容主要是各种“图像化解经”的信息。这些内容遵循视觉符号生产意义的一般规律，兼具契约精神和参与属性。基督宗教传播中最主要的视觉符号是十字架、上帝、光、圣母、圣徒和耶稣等形象。十字架是视觉媒介中最常见的标志性符号，使用范围广、渗透力强。“光”代表不可见上帝的可见符号，主要通过显性和隐性两种可见的方式来暗示上帝的存在。圣母本身即是一种媒介，使上帝之子耶稣降临世间，东正教的圣母形象指涉宗教意义上的圣母崇拜，圣母的绘画就是人们日常祈祷的媒介；而天主教的圣母形象从中世纪到文艺复兴经历了明显转变，由庄严的天上圣母到人性化的地上母亲，契合当时文化对女神形象发展的期待。圣徒的形象兼具上帝的智慧和人的荣耀，这种双重身份使得圣徒崇拜和对圣徒形象的表现在天主教和东正教信仰中都占有重要地位。耶稣身为神与人之间的媒介，他的形象是最重要的视觉符号。整个中世纪时期，伴随基督宗教传播而异军突起的耶稣形象，在那个异教共存的年代，暗示出一种新型的体制和社会意识形态开始发挥作用。教会和世俗政权协作操纵耶稣形象的产生和使用，在基督宗教的文化传播范围中树立了一个“意见领袖”的权威形象，甚至是某种意义上的“偶像”。正是这个“意见领袖”形象的崛起，加速了其他古老异教神的衰落，他的至上性和唯一性也促使基督宗教文化最终发展成为西方中世纪的主导文化。

视觉符号常用的编码方式是象征。象征不仅是一种修辞手段，还是一种获得宗教体验的方式，一种参与信仰的行动方式。早期基督宗教地下墓窟中的绘画艺术，即使最粗陋简单的象征符号也有神秘启示与凝聚的作用。中世纪的视觉艺术也继承了这一传统，在表达方式上充满了说教精神。艺术家在使用象征时，严格遵守神学家对《圣经》的解释，并用唯心主义主导下的视觉形式表现出来。随着天主教势力和经院哲学在欧洲的兴起，有浓郁象征色彩的哥特式艺术风格大放异彩，13世纪的很多艺术准则甚至已经具备教义的分量。文艺复兴时期艺术领域最重要的透视法，则是一种凝聚了科学精神和人文因素的高级象征。立体的视觉空间暗示了宗教观念的新变化，远小近大的空间排列使事物朝观看的人聚拢，象征一种新的空间秩序，经过人的理性和科学的检验，宣告了“上帝之眼”不再是唯一的权威。

媒介的使用效果包含各种社会关系的投射。对个体的基督徒来说，圣像和十字架等视觉符号构成一种充满宗教意义的信息环境，宗教体验在一种符号互动中形成基督徒自我身份的认知。视觉媒介兼具直观性和审美性，也使之更容易在情感认同和宗教经验两个方面强化信徒对所信仰观念的服从，进而在社会实践中调适自己的思想和行为。在整个社会范围内，视觉符号代表的宗教意义被基督徒群体共享，能够教育并强化群体认同感，而视觉媒介直观呈现的那种以上帝为顶点的秩序，也能塑造和维持现实中的社会秩序。除此之外，基督宗教内在的普世性要求驱使其广泛开展跨文化的传播活动。在向西方以外的地区传教时，视觉艺术往往是最先进入一个新地区、最快融入一种新文化的有效媒介。视觉符号的美感经验具有超越性，而其“处境化”策略也使之更容易在异文化之间建立起宗教意义的图式。

Abstract

The relation between art and religion is aever hot topic in the history of human culture,with the development of the history,the boundary of art is also expanding.In the broad sense,art is a medium that carries meaning and conveys information.Considering the role of art in culture in the dimension of meaning communication,it may be more appropriate to discuss the form of religious art,which has a strong utilitarian nature at the beginning of its birth.The communicators enlarge the artistic functions of religion,and the ordinary people's understanding of the meaning of art has become one of the experience channels of religious belief.In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period,religious painting,sculpture and architecture and other traditional visual art had created a visible divine world,making the Christian culture into people's spiritual life and daily practice.As the Bible for the illiterate,visual arts interpreted the discourse,power,identity and other elements of the time spirit,used the visual language symbols in a meaning medium gesture.People's creating and appreciating of those wonderful visual arts was building a visual medium to connect this world and the paradise,these media had finally become an important force in shaping the religious culture.

The primary responsibility of the Church is to proclaim the doctrine of God.The Church became the main communicator of Christianity,controlled the usage and management of the visual media,and in charge of the formulation and interpretation of the rules.The legitimacy of the visual media in the doctrine can be traced back to the two necessary conditions: the light and the eyes,which are the foundations of human vision that open the light of reason and the eyes of heart,and represents the enlightening light of God and the trialing eyes of God.The significance of visual media is that the church establishes the social order in the earthy world by the authority of Jesus Christ,however,the contents of visual art and the creations of artists in the above process should be intervened by the gatekeeper mode of communicating activities,from the using of images and themes,to formulation of rules aiming to the production process,and even the materials,lines,colors and the expression of the portraits and other detail.The status of medieval artists and the free will of creation were dependent on the attitude of the Church to a large extent,even though the human's awakening and secular themes had been emerging gradually in the the Renaissance,the boundaries demarcated by the Church were still as ingrained as the genetic genes.

The main content of visual media communication is the information of thevisualized interpretation.These contents follow the general law of the significance of visual symbol production,and have the contractual spirit and the participation attributes.The most important visual symbols in the communication of Christianity are the visual images of the cross,God,the light,the saint Mary,the saint,the Jesus,etc.The cross is the most common symbol in visual media,which has a wide range of application and strong penetration; the light is the visible symbol representing to be invisible to God,and it can be used to imply the existence of God in two ways:the dominant and the recessive; the saint Mary is a kind of media itself to give birth to the son of God Jesus,the orthodox image of the saint Mary refers to the worship of saint Mary in the religious sense,and its painting is the a media for people's daily pray;while the Catholic image of the saint Mary has undergone significant changes from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance,becoming the humanized mother on earth instead of the solemn mother in heaven,which conforms to the expectation of the development of goddess image at that time.The image of the saint is the combination of the wisdom of God and the human glory,this makes the dual identity performance of the wor ship of saint and the images of saint play an important role in the Catholic belief and Orthodox faith.Jesus is the medium between God and man,and his image is the most important visual symbol.During the whole medieval period,the newly-flourished image of Jesus Christ accompanies with the spread of Christianity,suggests that a new social system and ideology begin to play its role in the paganism era.The church and the secular regime set up an authoritative image of opinion leader in the scope of the spread of Christianity,even an idol in some sense,by manipulating the production and use of the image of Jesus cooperatively.It is the rise of the opinion leaders that accelerates the decline of other ancient pagan gods,his supremacy and uniqueness also prompts Christian culture to develop into the dominant culture of Western Middle Ages eventually.

The common encoding mode of visual symbols is symbolism.Symbolism is not only a rhetorical device,but also a way to obtain the religious experience and an action mode to participate in the belief.In early Christianity,the painting art in the catacombs,even the most coarse and simple symbols have a role of the mysterious inspiration and coherence.The visual art of the Middle Ages inherits this tradition,which is full of the spirit of preaching.When using the symbols,the artists strictly adhere to the theologians'interpretation of the Bible,and express them with a visual form under the guidance of idealism.With the development of the Catholicism and Scholasticism in Europe,the Gothic art style with a strong symbolic color starts to shine,a lot of art standards in thirteenth Century can be considered as religious doctrine.In the Renaissance,the most important perspective method in the field of art is an advanced symbol with the spirit of science and humanities.The threedimensional visual space implies new changes of religious ideas,the spatial arrangement of perspective method makes things move toward people who are watching them,which indicates a new space order,it also declares that the eyes of God is no longer the only authority after being tested scientifically.

The use of media includes the projection of various social relations.For individual Christians,the icons,the cross and other visual symbols constitute an information environment which is full of religious significance,and the religious experience forms Christians' self identification in a symbolic interaction.Being equipped with intuition and aesthetics,visual media also makes it easier for Christians to obey their belief from the aspects of emotional identity and religious experience,thus adjusting their own thinking and behaviors in the social practice.In the whole society,religious significance represented by visual symbols are shared by Christian communities,which is able to educate and strengthen the sense of group identity,and the God-centered order displayed by the visual symbols intuitively can also create and maintain the actual social order.In addition,the universality of the Christian religion requires it to carry out a wide range of cross-cultural communication activities.In the missionary work outside the western countries,visual art is often the most effective media to enter a new area and integrate into a new culture quickly.The aesthetic experience of the visual symbols is transcendent,and the contextualization strategy makes it easier to establish the schemas of its religious meaning.