AIMS AND SCOPE

Journal of Visual Theology provides a forum for the expression of independent and critical reflection on matters of current academic interest in iconology, hierotopy, ars sacra and religious imagery, as well as on visual aspects of the beliefs, practices and theological discourse of past and present.

Visual articulation and communication of theological statements and norms is one of the essential features of religious cultures. Visual forms, expressing theological knowledge or moral-theological precepts, constitute a vast and diverse field of religious theory and practice. The visual, along with the verbal, carries significant content both with regards to the systematization of doctrine and in the realm of liturgical actions, in the organization of the sacred τόπος as well of the everyday inhabited space and also as the display of hierarchical status and confessional identity.

This thematic field is of particular importance for the study of Christianity. Various forms of the visualization of faith are inseparable from the entirety of Christian sacred practices, and the history of Christian theology contains a rich experience of theoretical interpretation of visible forms. In the era of the ‘visual turn’, Christian practices that consolidate and preserve religious experience attract particular attention and require careful research. Finally, theological knowledge is not complete without a detailed scientific analysis of its ‘visual’ premises and their ‘optical’ representation.

Scholarly research in the field of visual theology will contribute to a deeper understanding of such humanitarian phenomena as the connection of image and meaning in semiotic practices, the cultural heritage of the nation and of regional communities, the visual code of modern inhabited space as well as the manifestation of cultural and civic identity.