Christian Art, Music and Prayer

Overview

Recall questions on the use and rejection of images, the place of music, forms of prayer, and how each expresses belief.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What conventions shape depictions of the Nativity, and where do they come from?

   Model answer

   Many familiar features are not in the gospel accounts at all. The ox and ass come from prophetic imagery, the cave is a tradition rather than a text, and the number of magi is inferred from the number of gifts. Eastern icons set the birth in a dark cave to signify a world in shadow and wrap the infant in bands resembling grave-cloths, so the birth already points to the tomb. Western art tends to warmth, domesticity and local settings.

2. 2

   How has the Nativity been used to express local Christian identity?

   Model answer

   Artists have consistently set the scene in their own world, giving Renaissance Italian landscapes, Northern European interiors and, more recently, African, Latin American, Asian and Pacific nativities with local dress, faces and buildings. Supporters argue this is inculturation, saying that the incarnation belongs to every people rather than to first-century Palestine alone. Critics worry it can domesticate the story or obscure its Jewish setting.

3. 3

   Contrast the two main ways the crucifixion has been depicted.

   Model answer

   One tradition shows Christ reigning from the cross, upright, eyes open, sometimes crowned and robed, presenting the crucifixion as a victory. The other shows the tortured, dying or dead body in unsparing detail; Grünewald's altarpiece, painted for a hospital where patients suffered a disfiguring disease, is the standard example of a Christ whose wounds resemble those of the viewers. Many Protestant churches prefer an empty cross, emphasising resurrection and avoiding an image of the body.

4. 4

   How do Christians disagree about religious images?

   Model answer

   Orthodoxy defends icons on the ground that God became visible in Christ, so depicting him affirms the incarnation; veneration is directed through the image to the person, not to the paint. Catholic practice similarly uses statues and paintings as aids. Reformed and some evangelical traditions read the commandment against images strictly, stripped their churches, and argue that visual devotion slides into idolatry and distracts from the preached word. Lutheran and Anglican practice sits between these.

5. 5

   How is art actually used in Christian devotion?

   Model answer

   It teaches, especially where literacy was limited; it focuses attention in prayer, as with an icon or a crucifix; it structures devotional movement, as in the Stations of the Cross; it prompts compassion by making suffering vivid; it marks sacred space and time; and it can carry protest, as in modern crucifixions that place Christ among the victims of war or racism. Christians differ on whether the response is to the image or through it.

6. 6

   How does music differ across Christian traditions?

   Model answer

   Plainchant and polyphony in the Latin tradition; unaccompanied vocal chant in most Orthodox churches, where instruments are traditionally excluded; congregational chorales and elaborate settings in Lutheranism; metrical psalms sung plainly in the stricter Reformed tradition, which restricted what could be sung; choral evensong and anthems in Anglican cathedrals; hymns as a teaching medium among Methodists; gospel, spirituals and improvised singing in Black churches; drumming and dance in many African congregations; and amplified contemporary worship in Pentecostal and charismatic settings.

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