GRAPHIC IMAGES, SYMBOLS AND ICONS AS RELIGIOUS DIFICATION TOOLS

Abstract

Humans, though physical by nature, are configured for religiosity. This is as a result of the innate and almost insatiable desire to fill a spiritual void deeply seated there in within the soul. In the anxious quest to fill this void, the urge therefore arises to commune with the spiritual realm. This spiritual journey has endeared some to go wide and deep in seeking ephemeral solutions in various places of worship, even as far as to the occult. At the threshold of this seemingly divine connection, deific mode of worship is activated. This spiritual odyssey continues often for an entire lifetime. However, since the physical and spiritual realms are never at par, it often behooves the worshipper to crave and formulate tangible methods, portals or objects by which to facilitate as well as open up channels of divine communication. This spiritual endeavor has metamorphosed into the use of physical, albeit, graphic images or objects for deific worship such as the Christian Cross/Roman Catholic Crucifix, the Islamic Crescent and Star, the mythological Eye of Horus, Effigies and figurines in African Traditional Religion as well as other memorabilia. This paper discusses and gives reasons why graphically crafted images are a major part of religious worship globally irrespective of diversities in creed, race and ethnicity.