Symbolic Representation In Religion

The Importance of Symbolic Representation in Religion

The curiosity of humanity has always driven it to powerful questions, going into the proverbial deep end of the intellectual pool. “Why are we here? What is our purpose? How did existence come to exist,” are all questions that were commonly asked by the philosophers of the ancient world. Through science, humanity has been able to vaguely answer some of these questions; however, these revelations are relatively modern. The concepts of science and provability were non-existent in the primordial world, leaving the people of the age without answers and a dark void of unawareness. In order to fill the void, the people turned to religion, ideology, and myth to sate their quest for knowledge;

and, as certain aspects of a theology became too complex for words, the need for symbolic representation was created. To satisfy this craving for symbolism, art was introduced into theology. There is an inseparable connection between religion and art. This concept is supported by an excerpt of Karen Armstrong’s book, Case for God, titled “Homo Religiosis.” The connection between iconography, sound, and religion is no different from the connection between art and religion. In fact, conceptually speaking, there is no real difference between art, iconography, sound, body and mind manipulation, or any other form of allegory when used in conjunction with a theology. All of these mediums act as representation when words fail to describe the important points of a religion.
Armstrong clearly states that art and religion are inseparably linked due to the strong connection between them, being that art and religion are both ways for people find meaning in an otherwise painful and meaningless world.

The major point of connection—art and religion stem from the misery and sadness of life— is a clear concept to grasp. As stated before, people are curious creatures, intelligent animals that require an answer to the question. When life becomes heavy with hardship and strife, they cannot simply be satisfied with an answer of ‘Just cause,’ when the question they ask is ‘Why.’ They need to find an answer to their sorrow and, in the case of these primitive cultures, the answer was found in art and religion. As Armstrong puts it, “Like art, religion is an attempt to construct meaning in the face of the relentless pain and injustice of life,” (Armstrong 5). People require a way to find meaning in life; this desire to find meaning often manifest itself into some form of medium. An ideology that justifies the pain in life—the thought that for one life to continue another life must end—is often the result of such a

desire.
When words failed to describe the conceptual point behind a certain aspect of the ideology, however, some type of art was created to display the meaning behind a myth. The Lascaux cave system in Dordogne, France is a prime example of how art is used to instill a sense of belief. The core of the cave is decorated with over 2,100 different pieces of primitive art, all depicting some form of natural phenomena (usually involving animals), which appear to have some form of religious importance. This concept of ritualistic drawings is of special importance, especially considering that “[The Lascaux caves] have the earliest known evidence of an ideological system…” (Armstrong 3). The oeuvre that scatters the walls of the hidden temple was not just some form of artistic expression, but rather a statement of ritualistic importance. The artwork was an attempt to record the ideology of the time—an appreciation and respect for the natural world—and cement throughout the ages for future generations to follow. These pictures were meant to act as a recording of belief, showing the importance of art in religion. In some cases, the practice of drawing was a ritual in and of itself, a symbolic gesture to respect the animals that were used for food. By stating that “[The Bushmen] smear the walls of the caves with the blood, excrement, and fat of their kill in order to restore it, symbolically, to the earth…and the act of painting itself could have been a ritual of restoration” (Armstrong 4). To the Bushmen, the act of painting was not a simple or meaningless gesture. It was a symbolic ‘thank you’ to the animals that gave their lives so that the Bushmen could live. To many of these ancient cultures the act of painting was not just an act of recording a ritual or right, but an act of ritual itself, a ritual as meaningful as a burial.
The impact that art has on its audience is as important to religion as is the impact of myths and rituals. With that being said, art is only one form of religious representation. The use of iconography was often used as a method of displaying certain aspects of a god or being. For example, “A stone or a rock (frequent symbols of the sacred) expressed the stability and durability of the Being” (Armstrong 8). This form of symbolism was common among many of the archaic religions of the time, often with a multitude of items with a multitude of connotations. Like art, the rock was a representation of certain principles in the religion. In some cases, such as that of the Aryan tribes, sound has also been used as a medium of divine interpretation. In the case of the Aryan tribes, sound was used as a way to spread the ideology of the Brahman, their idea of the all-encompassing power of existence, as “…[sound’s] power and intangible quality seemed a particularly apt embodiment of the all-pervasive Brahman” (Armstrong 9). The Brahmin priests even went so far as to create a religious game out of speech, with one competitor asking deep questions about the Brahman while the other answered with an equally deep response. Interestingly enough, the winner of this competition was not the one who gave the most interesting response, but rather the one who reduced the opponent to silence. For the Brahmin priests silence was the most powerful representation of the Brahman as “[The Brahman] became manifest only in the stunning realization of the impotence of speech” (Armstrong 9). The effect that the sketch of the Animal Master had on the members of the Lascaux tribes is the same that the Neolithic tribes found in natural symbolism and the Aryan people established in sound, all three instilling a sense of shock, awe, and meaning in the populace of the tribes. The different forms of symbolism used between these cultures were all used to portray the near incomprehensible nature of the deep thoughts behind their respective cultures.
Some cultures, however, required a different form of symbolic gesture to get to the deeper teachings of the theology.

Certain Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism and Confucianism, required their followers to undertake some form of physical and mental alteration. The principles of Buddhism required a monk to live by a code of anatta, a form of ego death, while the principles of Confucianism are guided by the Golden Rule, a life-style of kindness towards others. Both of these religious practices focused around a mental metamorphosis and an alteration of the self. A yogi, for example, would partake in the ancient art of yoga, a form of physical manipulation, to achieve a feeling of peace and harmony. Yoga, however, was not an activity for anyone to participate in. The young disciples were not allowed to perform this rite until they “…had completed an intensive moral program” (Armstrong 15). Just like the disciples of Buddhism and Confucianism the yogins had to undergo a form of behavioral metamorphosis in order to reach the true meaning of their theology. The yogin had to take up a rule of ahisma, or nonviolence. A yogin could not simply begin to perform the mind-enlightening art of yoga, but had to alter his mind into a state of peace. This is similar to the usage of art for the Lascaux tribes in the sense that both cultures required a “pre-enlightenment” in order to understand the deeper beliefs behind their respective religions. The Lascaux people may have used the

caverns as a form of initiation, as a rite of passage from boy to man. The boys—young teens beginning puberty—were forced to roam through the cave while being disoriented by various sounds and complete darkness. When they reached the center of the cave, they came across a large, all-encompassing image of a semi-human being, with eyes fixed on the entrance. This powerful image represented the Animal Master, a major deity in the theology of the Lascaux tribe. For one who has been through a terrific ordeal, such as the boys, to come into the cavern of an image his tribe’s god must has a profound effect on the child. Like the Lascaux tribes, the gurus forced their yogins to go through their own form of mental trial in order to truly understand the depths of their theology. Upon comparison, there is no real difference between the usage of art and the usage of mental manipulation in this case.
Regardless of how one chooses to look at it, there is an unbreakable connection between religion and art. These two concepts feed into each other—religion giving birth to art and art giving life to religion—creating a self-feeding entity of meaning and explanation. Armstrong notes the inseparable nature of art and religion as a way for people to explain the difficulties and the unfairness of life. However, art is just a small part of a larger puzzle. Art was just a single method to explain the more complex ideas of a doctrine. In truth, the connection between religion and art runs deeper than the art itself; religion is connected to the symbolic meaning that the art represents, rather than the artwork. Iconography and sound were just as affective a method as art to create belief among tribes, acting in the exact same way and purpose as art. In the same sense, the manipulation of the body and mind offered the same transformative experience to the East Asian cultures as art did to the Lascaux tribes. Because of this shared genesis and similar concepts, it is only natural that religion and art, or rather the symbolic representation of doctrine, should be intertwined.