RELIGIOUS SYMBOLISM AND ICONOGRAPHY

respectively, the basic and often complex artistic forms and gestures used as a kind of key to convey religious concepts and the visual, auditory, and kinetic representations of religious ideas and events. Symbolism and iconography have been utilized by all the religions of the world. In the 20th century the symbolical character of religion has often been stressed over attempts to present religion rationally. The symbolic aspect of religion is even considered by some scholars of psychology and mythology as the main characteristic of religious expression. Scholars of comparative religions, ethnologists, and psychologists have gathered and interpreted a great abundance of material on the symbolical aspects of religion, especially in relation to Eastern and primitive religions. In recent Christian theology and liturgical practices another revaluation of religious symbolical elements has occurred. The importance of symbolical expression and of the pictorial presentation of religious facts and ideas has been confirmed, widened, and deepened both by the study of primitive cultures and religions and by the comparative study of world religions. Systems of symbols and pictures that are constituted in a certain ordered and determined relationship to the form, content, and intention of presentation are believed to be among the most important means of knowing and expressing religious facts. Such systems also contribute to the maintenance and strengthening of the relationships between man and the realm of the sacred or holy (the transcendent, spiritual dimension). The symbol is, in effect, the mediator, presence, and real (or intelligible) representation of the holy in certain conventional and standardized forms. Additional reading General works Bibliographie zur Symbolik, Ikonographie und Mythologie, 4 vol., ed. by Manfred Lurker (196871), contains fundamental and comprehensive bibliographies; Symbolik der Religionen, ed. by Ferdinand Herrmann (1958 ), a series of compendious and important monographs; Juan E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, 2nd ed. (1971, reprinted 1983; originally published in Spanish, 1962), with an excellent bibliography; Ren Alleau, La Science des symboles (1976), a study of the principles of symbolism and methodology of interpretation; J.C. Cooper, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Traditional Symbols (1978); Ad de Vries, Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery, 3rd rev. ed. (1981). See also Visible Religion (annual), started in 1982 by the Institute of Religious Iconography, State University, Groningen. The idea and nature of symbols, symbolization, and culture Harold Bayley, The Lost Language of Symbolism: An Inquiry into the Origin of Certain Letters, Words, Names, Fairy-Tales, Folklore, and Mythologies, 2 vol. (1912, reprinted 1968); Ernst Cassirer, The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, 3 vol. (195357; originally published in German, 192329), a pioneer work; Hugh Dalziel Duncan, Symbols in Society (1968, reprinted 1972); Mircea Eliade, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism (1961, reissued 1969; originally published in French, 1952); Erich Fromm, The Forgotten Language: An Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales, and Myths (1951, reissued 1974), discusses psychoanalytical aspects; Dsire Hirst, Hidden Riches: Traditional Symbolism from the Renaissance to Blake (1964); Hans Jensen, Sign, Symbol and Script, 3rd rev. ed. (1969; originally published in German, 1925); Frederick Ernest Johnson (ed.), Religious Symbolism (1955, reissued 1969); Carl Gustav Jung, Psyche and Symbol, ed. by Violet S. de Laszlo (1958), and Man and His Symbols (1964, reprinted 1979); Gyorgy Kepes (ed.), Sign, Image and Symbol (1966); Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art, 3rd ed. (1957, reprinted 1979); Lucien Lvy-Bruhl, L'Experience mystique et les symboles chez les primitives (1938); Rollo May (ed.), Symbolism in Religion and Literature (1960); Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, 2nd ed. (1950, reprinted 1970; originally published in German, 1917; this translation is from the 9th German ed., 1922); Joseph R. Royce et al., Psychology and the Symbol (1965); Theodore Thass-Theinemann, Symbolic Behavior (1968); Paul Tillich, Existential Analyses and Religious Symbols, in Harold A. Basilius (ed.), Contemporary Problems in Religion, pp. 3555 (1956, reprinted 1970); Joachim Wach, The Comparative Study of Religions (1958, reprinted 1966); Heinz Werner and Bernard Kaplan, Symbol Formation; An Organismic-Developmental Approach to Language and the Expression of Thought (1963); Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism; Its Meaning and Effect (1958); Edward C. Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology (1969, reissued 1978); S. Foster Damon, A Blake Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake (1965, reprinted 1979), a generously documented encyclopaedia; Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image (1974), an analysis of mythologies from different cultures embracing Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam; and John Skorupski, Symbol and Theory: A Philosophical Study of Theories of Religion in Social Anthropology (1983), a highly scholarly work. Recurrent themes in history of symbolism and iconography Leroy H. Appleton and Stephen Bridges, Symbolism in Liturgical Art (1959); Jitendra Nath Banerjea, The Development of Hindu Iconography, 2nd ed. rev. (1956, reprinted 1974); Benoytosh Bhattacharya, Indian Buddhist Iconography, 2nd ed. rev. and enlarged (1958); E. Douglas Van Buren, Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art (1945); Maurice Farbridge, Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism (1923, reissued 1970); George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, 2nd ed. (1955); Antoinette K. Gordon, The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism, rev. ed. (1959, reprinted 1967); Donald A. MacKenzie, The Migration of Symbols and Their Relations to Beliefs and Customs (1926, reprinted 1970); Charles P. Mountford, Art, Myth and Symbolism (1956); Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles Long (eds.), Myths and Symbols (1969, reprinted 1982); Dora and Erwin Panofsky, Pandora's Box: The Changing Aspects of a Mythical Symbol, 2nd rev. ed. (1962, reprinted 1978); H. Daniel Smith, K.K.A. Venkatachari, and V. Ganapathi, A Source Book of Vaisnava Iconography According to Pacaratragama Texts (1969); Charles Alfred Speed Williams, Encyclopedia of Chinese Symbolism and Art Motives (1960); Heinrich Zimmer, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946, reprinted 1972); Gershom G. Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbols (1965, reissued 1969; originally published in German, 1960); Gladys A. Reichard, Navaho Religion: A Study of Symbolism, 2nd ed. (1974, reprinted 1983); Beatrice L. Goff, Symbols of Prehistoric Mesopotamia (1963), and Symbols of Ancient Egypt in the Late Period: The Twenty-First Dynasty (1979); James A. Aho, Religious Mythology and the Art of War: Comparative Religious Symbolism of Military Violence (1981). Kurt Moritz Artur Goldammer