I listened to an advent audio essay on BBC radio 4 show ‘A Point of View‘ by atheist Clive James. Its well worth listening to (it can be listened to here and downloaded here, although I don’t know how long for), but at one point he mentioned the transition from iconography to true-to-life:

When the early painters of the renaissance began painting religious figures as people rather than icons a new kind of belief had begun. The centre of attention was switching from the next world to this one, according to the revolutionary conviction that the life that really matters, happens between birth and death.

I’m no art historian, nor do I know much about iconography. To be honest, I haven’t even read up on it, except online. Try However, I’m very interested in it – check out Richard Beck’s series on the theology of icons, and to me, just as Mr James said, the change in artistic expression of belief seems to be symbolic of a change in the beliefs themselves.

Perhaps this was the emergence of humanism as Mr James suggests, or the emergence of Protestantism, or a combination of both. Regardless, it seems to be representative of the rise of two major players in the spiritual zeitgeist of our age – individualism and hedonism.

The Protestant in me protests that individualism could ever be a bad thing. And the creationist in me protests that hedonism is bad. I would probably be characterised, in some ways, as a Christian hedonist (according to John Piper, anyway), although I don’t usually like the label. I certainly take delight in creation, and it seems to me that creation is there to be delighted in.

But, in all things, moderation. I think the mysticism, spiritual consciousness and group awareness reflected in iconography must be tempered with the awareness of the individual, consciousness of the physical, and missional focus that is inherent in humanist portrayals of faith.

We are, after all, both individuals and communities, both physical and spiritual, called to invite God both inside ourselves and invite him out into the larger world. If I were an artist, I think I would attempt to express this: a humanist iconography.