Visual Myths: An Alternative Way of Seeing and Believing

Introduction: Reconsidering The Relationship Between Visuality And Religion

Is visual communication primarily contingent upon physical elements to be seen with the eye, or does visuality also extend into the imagination? Despite the progress of modernity since the Enlightenment, a different form of thinking exists that is predicated upon visual metaphors (St. Clair, 2000) and mythic structures (Lief, 2009). The process of thinking visually invariably includes mythopoeism, or myth making, which is established through linguistic “picture making” often evident in religious narratives, or stories (Kilby, 1964, p. 81). However, a facet of religious mythopoeism is the transcendence of natural objects that ultimately become archetypical imitations or representations of the metaphysical. Nevertheless, there have been attempts to stamp out such linguistic forms only to discover their inherent nature in language (Lewis, 1939). What is often a failure in scholarship is the lack of desire to understand that such processes are not only a natural form of language (Barfield, 1928) but actually a different process of understanding altogether called thinking visually (St. Clair, 2000). C. S. Lewis (1939) once made the distinction between rationalism and metaphorical language by noting that, “For me, reason is the natural organ of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning. Imagination, producing new metaphors or revivifying old, is not the cause of truth, but its condition” (p. 157). In other words, the functional effect of the imagination is to create meaning which is most evident in these linguistic structures. A stance has emerged over time dichotomizing mythic thought and rationalism despite the underlying importance of both. Yet, the process of thinking visually whether through metaphorical language or myths has not ceased and continues to be employed. In fact, there has been a call both in the academic realm (Lee, 2014; St. Claire, 2000) as well as the religious realm (Lief, 2009) to return to such visual ways of thinking. Not much work has been put forth by scholars to intimate such ideas especially in relation to religious belief.

Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to unfold the position of thinking visually to the realm of religious beliefs emanating from ancient oral cultures who often created connections of natural, rhetorical objects with the metaphysical through the mythic imagination. Many of these experiences, in fact, are captured in visions within sacred texts. More importantly, these experiences often create an undetected rhetoric constantly refreshed through the religious elements of mythopoeism, or myth making, as the physical plane is transposed. Such formulae of thinking visually through the myth-form is evident in various natural connections and is experiential (Hill, 2004). Throughout this paper, I plan to undergo an analysis of three ekphrastic texts concerning visions of God’s glory at the Tabernacle, Jerusalem Temple, and in the person of Jesus within Judeo-Christian thought. This research will analyze such visual thinking through biblical teachings which demonstrate various forms of ekphrasis (Grk. “speak out”) in which specific verbal descriptions represent interaction between physical and divine planes and thus contiguity (Fisher, 2015). Additionally, I will also establish changes over time resulting in varying forms of iconography uncovering unique rhetorical elements. In other words, throughout this paper, I will further scholarship involving mythopoeism and visual communication through ekphrastic texts that demonstrate the intricacies of thinking visually within religious belief.

Although mythic thought and visuality are not often linked, research illustrates that mythic stories act as a form of visuality wherein the contents of one’s world are refigured by the myth making function. Following this discussion, I will link such research to visual communication by illustrating specific relationships between the physical and sacred realm as well as the rhetorical contiguity evident in everything from landscape photography to ekphrastic texts which specifically capture an interplay between the mythic and physical via religious visions.