How Religion Has Been Important in the Arts

¶ … religion-focused works from literature, theatre, music, or art (such as painting and sculpture). How do they call a religion into question? Religion is a common theme in literature, art, and music. For example, the book The Da Vinci Code is about the Catholic Church. Although the book does not discuss serious theological issues, the author Dan Brown does talk about the political hierarchies in the Church.

Therefore, Brown calls into question the legitimacy of the Church due to its being a highly secretive and powerful organization that potentially uses its power as a means of social control. The book also explores the possibility that there are other narratives that can be equally as valid as the dominant narratives people have been taught. Religion in one way or another has inspired most art throughout history and in cultures around the world. In some cultures, art is inseparable from religion, as with Buddhist thangkas or African masks.

In Europe, the Catholic Church had long been a patron of the arts, funding art projects such as the Sistine Chapel at St. Peter's in Rome. The funding of the arts by religion has meant that much European art throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance was religious in content and theme. For example, Leonardo Da Vinci painted a work called "The Last Supper." This is the painting and the arts that inspired the theme and title for the book The Da Vinci Code.

In this painting, the artist depicts one of the most important events in the Christian Bible, which is Christ's "last supper." This proverbial last supper was a Passover dinner in which Jesus sits with his disciples including the one who eventually betrays him. Although the painting does not depict the death of Christ as some other artwork does, Da Vinci does capture the hours or even minutes before Christ was crucified.

Thus, although the painting seems to depict a peaceful dinner scene, it contains a lot of tension below the surface. The artist shows how religion is important for providing people with an ideology and the mythological motifs that shape the values and beliefs of the society. Explain how spirituality and faith in both works compare to that expressed in 'Connor and Carver's stories In O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the old lady character pleads with the Misfit to pray to God.

She believes herself to be a "good" woman, as she repeatedly emphasizes this belief throughout the story. When she tries to talk her way out of being killed, she uses Christ to try and persuade the Misfit. The Misfit, however, has no interest in religion. As with The Da Vinci Code, this story subverts the authority of religion. Religion has nothing to do with moral behavior; only the rational choices of human beings can determine whether we are good or bad to other people.

Likewise, morality is a human issue in Carver's "The Cathedral." The titular cathedral is just a symbol that emerges at the end of the story when the narrator and the blind man draw together. As a symbol, a cathedral represents the work of man in total devotion to a God. Now that cathedrals are no longer relevant in modern society, except as historical relics, the meaning of the cathedral has changed. In Carver's story, a cathedral is an image that two people are using to become kinder to one another.

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