Disseminating Christian Beliefs Through Word and Image in Medieval and Renaissance Times

Dear Colleagues,

Based primarily on the writings of the Bible, Christianity is essentially a religion centered on the word. All its guiding principles, both the primary ones concerning doctrine, morality and worship, as well as the derivatives concerning uses and customs, are essentially based on the canonical texts of the Old and New Testament.

In addition, these biblical texts are clarified through the exegetical comments and the catechetical teaching of the Church Fathers and theologians in their role as teachers in charge of transmitting the contents of Christian orthodoxy to the believing community. Therefore, they had to resort to various modes of verbal expression, from profound theological treatises to direct homilies or attractive liturgical hymns.

On the other hand, Christianity assumed the image very early on—especially in the Middle Ages, when almost the entire population was illiterate—as an indispensable support and complement to the word: that way the words were illustrated by images, as a visible embodiment of the ideas.

This essential intertwining between word and image in Christianity becomes particularly dramatic in periods of iconoclastic crisis, such as in the 8th century in the Byzantine sphere and in the 16th century in the Central European domain affected by the Protestant Reformation, especially the Calvinist one. To counteract such iconoclastic crises, Orthodox Christianity chose to emphasize even more the necessary visualization of verbal contents through images, thus motivating a crucial revaluation of worship of images.

The fundamental purpose of this Special Issue of Religions is to publish the work of several specialists in various academic fields who can debate this specific subject matter from an interdisciplinary and transversal perspective.

We seek to invite contributions from a wide range of academic disciplines, such as Church history, theology, philosophy, iconography, arts and humanities, cultural studies, sociology, and other branches of knowledge to contribute to shaping a monograph with a multifocal approach that aspires to provide a valuable supplement to the existing literature.

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore some fundamental dimensions of the interaction between word and image in medieval and Renaissance Christianity. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Interaction between words and images in medieval and Renaissance Christianity.
• Role of Christian images as a useful tool for teaching the theological message.
• Historical examples of interactions between Christian images and their doctrinal meanings.
• Various modes of embodiment of Christian beliefs in medieval and Renaissance images.
• New insights on doctrinal approaches to medieval and Renaissance Christian iconography.
• Empirical case studies to formulate new iconographic analyses.
• Interaction of Christian words and images with new methods of approach.
• Interdisciplinary insights into the questions addressed.
• Contribution of Christianity to medieval and Renaissance iconography.
• Christianity facing to iconoclastic reactions.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor ([email protected]) or to the Religions Editorial Office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review process.

Prof. Dr. José María Salvador-González
Guest Editor

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• Christianity
• Christian doctrine
• patrology
• theology
• Christian iconography
• church history
• medieval culture
• Christian society
• popular devotion
• religious experience
• liturgical hymns
• interdisciplinary studies
• middle ages
• renaissance