How Christianity Shaped Art

Incarnation and culture

Christianity began as an obscure religion in a remote strip of land in the ancient world. Within 300 years, it was the official religion of the world’s most powerful empire.

But it wasn’t Christianity’s political power that changed the world. It was a simple idea: the Incarnation. 

The doctrine that Jesus is simultaneously both fully man and fully God might seem confusing at first. However, it was an idea powerful enough to reshape not just art, but every aspect of human culture — and for that reason alone, it’s worth investigating.

Here’s how the concept of the Incarnation shaped the history of culture, and why it’s still the foundation of great art today…