Religions- und Kulturkontakt im Bild. Über Metaphern und Formulare in der materialen Missionsgeschichte

This article examines the impact of religious and cultural contact on material representations of missionary history.It employs the theory of forms to analyze how religious content is inscribed into art objects. By employing model form-theory, the study highlights examples of Christian art from China and Japan, developed within missionary contexts, thus demonstrating how visual metaphors and cultural motifs in relating text and objects synthesize artistic traditions and missionary messages. With a focus on the Ars Sacra Pekinensis group, he article demonstrates the importance of cultural and religious contextualization for integrating Christian symbolism into non-Western art traditions.