This text is a cross-cultural exploration of the study of visuality and the arts from a religious perspective. The collection gathers together the contemporary scholarship for those interested in art, religion, visual culture, and cultural studies.

This text is a cross-cultural exploration of the study of visuality and the arts from a religious perspective. The collection gathers together the contemporary scholarship for those interested in art, religion, visual culture, and cultural studies. Inherently interdisciplinary, this reader approaches the study of world religions through the human, meaning-making activity of seeing. The volume oscillates between specific visual subjects (painting, landscape gardens, calligraphy, architecture, mass media) and the broader theoretical discourses which are relevant to humanities students today.

Section 1 The eye and the mind: introduction to section one, S. Brent Plate
from "Vision", D. Ackerman
from "Eye and Mind", R.L. Gregory
from "To See and Not See", O. Sacks
from "Metaphors on Vision", S. Brakhage. Section 2: Icon: the image of Jesus Christ and Christian theology: introduction to section two, S. Brent Plate
from "Image", M. Miles
from "Painting the Word", J. Drury
from "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion", L. Steinberg
from "Would Jesus Have Sat for a Portrait? The Likeness of Christ in the Popular Reception of Sallman's Art", D. Morgan. Section 3 Qalam: the relationship of word and image in Islamic calligraphy: introduction to section three, S.Brent Plate
from "Mediation of Ornament", O. Grabar
from "The Spiritual Message of Islamic Calligraphy", S.H. Nasr
from "Calligraphy and Islamic Culture", A. Schimmel
from "Modern Islamic Art", W. Ali. (Part contents).