Introduction: On the Relations of Religion and Images

In this special issue, we explore the role of depictions and images in religious traditions from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, covering a broad spectrum of religious traditions from Asia to Europe. Our focus is on examining the range of religious attitudes towards images, which can range from indifference (aniconism) to admiration (iconism) to outright rejection and destruction (anti-iconism). Our contributors discuss the hypothesis that religious attitudes towards images often fluctuate between these three categories, and that it is not possible to strictly classify a particular religious tradition as either hostile or friendly towards images. This introduction provides an overview of the central and complex concepts that form the basis of the individual contributions, including representation, icons, media and materiality, and an/iconism.