The invisible divine in Christian art

This book explores how Christian art has visually communicated the invisible divine from late antiquity to the present. While sacred images and church architecture originally functioned within liturgical and devotional use, today they are often encountered by audiences with mixed interests in museums, tourism, and digital media. This current shift raises questions about their authentic interpretation and spiritual understanding. The author proposes a transdisciplinary dialogue between art history, theology, communication, and visual studies. His integrated perspective on Christian imagery reveals how it functions as a visual medium through which the immediate presence of the divine is experienced. The study further highlights the materiality and performativity of Christian art, conceived as media salutis. By combining traditional art-historical and theological analysis with contemporary picture theories from the humanities, the book situates sacred images within the broader debates on visual culture. The concluding section surveys contemporary practices through which the iconography of the divine is communicated. In doing so, the study invites reflection on how the enduring dialogue between visibility and transcendence may continue to gain new depth across academic discourse, tourism, and religious life. Maciej Jan Jasiński earned his PhD in Communications from the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome (2024) and an MA in Theology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (2015). He currently teaches at both institutions. His research and teaching explore the invisible divine in Christian art and its communication within religious tourism, catechesis, and visual culture. Ordained a priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno, Poland, he combines academic inquiry with pastoral experience.