This course studies contemporary themes related to ecclesiology in general. An interdisciplinary method of approach will be followed. An introduction to the relationship between the rich visual world of Christian art and its interpretation through a familiarity with texts, sacred and devotional, that feed Christian imagination.
Iconography means both the creation and interpretation of Christian images built on an understanding of its conventions and the literary roots upon which iconography is built. A fuller understanding of iconography relates it to the social, cultural, economic, political and historical context of the development of Christianity as a visible and tangible reality. Such fuller study, named iconology by Erwin Panofsky will be briefly discussed but will not be a focus of the course.
The sacramentality of the image gives it a characteristic Catholic slant and will be the theological optic through which iconography will be studied.