Foundations Reading Room
If you’re new to sacred art, this is the best place to begin. The articles collected here introduce the essential ideas needed to understand the Christian tradition of sacred images: what an icon is, why Christians make them, why sacred art developed its distinctive symbolic and abstract style, and what the Church has taught about images from the earliest centuries.
The articles below build on one another, laying out our basic ideas and thesis, but you don’t have to read them in order. Together they provide the foundations for everything else in The Sacred Images Project.
The posts go back to 2022, and so tell the story of my own studies. I began this work knowing relatively little, and gradually came to a deeper understanding of the sacred tradition. I hope they will help you do the same.
The Metaphysics of the Image
What Sacred Art is and isn’t
Beyond the Turtles; the Renaissance wasn’t all that
Why Christians Use Images
What is an Icon?
Where next? More Reading Rooms
The Grammar of Sacred Art Reading Room - How to read the visual language.
History of Sacred Art Reading Room - Who did what, when?
Spirituality of sacred art reading room - Why is all this important?
Modern Revivals and Contemporary Debates Reading Room - What’s going on now?
Techniques, Methods and Materials Reading Room - How can I learn to create this?
Pilgrimages and Field Studies Reading Room - What should I go see?
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