Writing Homework Help

I’m working on a art question and need a sample draft to help me study.

1-The ways in which Jesus and representations of the Abrahamic God changed throughout history originally had to do with trying to make a leitmotif for Christianity to start its own canon with. Early Christian stories were often told visually using poses and symbols taken from Jewish or Roman religion in order to make them relatable or palatable to the everyday ancient Christian or Christian-curious person. This continued on as Christianity grew in power, eventually creating more expensive and stunning images using techniques such as colored glass and grand domed spaces of worship. Today this continues on as the face of Jesus often changes depending on the culture one is steeped within; I would argue that many current images of Jesus in America do not really reflect what an average Middle Eastern person of the era looked like and represent something closer to a white Anglo-Saxon protestant ideal. I think many white, modern Christian artists try to make “their Jesus” resemble “them” and that that is unfortunately the Jesus I imagine when prompted, but that they also fall into pits of Jesus being a visual representation of internalized racism, whether or not they are truly considering it.

2- A different worldview was explored by early Christian artists. They focused on symbolic representation in order to express a spiritual essence in the service of their new faith. Inspired by the, “stylized and abstracted art forms of the Late Roman Empire” allowed for the art itself to come to life undoubtably leaving an impression on viewers that it is a depiction of a secular force. In Jewish contexts there are no representations of God, in fact the second commandment was against the creation of idols. The art as much as the religion focused around not an idol or idols but the religion as a whole and the greater significance behind it. Largely due to colonization religion and religious art has become white washed in an effort to spread white supremacy. The typical depiction of Jesus is not congruent with the people who lived in that region at the time nor is it congruent with the actual words in the contemporary bible, Beyond that religion has altered and shifted into idolizing a “being” which has largely aided in the genocide of indigenous people, slavery, and assimilation in the hopes to gain land and power. Irrefutably religion and religious art (for the most part) no longer represents a complex symbol of divine nature it is unfortunately now a propaganda tool that benefits select people.