RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY
Ethical Interface of Nigerian Knowledge Society
Keywords:
Religious Iconography, Symbolism, Ethical Knowledge, Nigeria, , Society, UNESCO, Africa, Pope FrancisAbstract
Nigeria’s present political and economic backwardness is evidence of the absence of moral and ethical standards among its populace. The study looks at the ethical motif of religious symbols in the domain of religious iconography and uses the same as an ethical interface in knowledge societies. The research is qualitative and uses a participant observation approach to achieve its results. The research demonstrates how religious icons interact with society in a critical and creative-ethical way. The study is significant for promoting social ethics and morals as a prerequisite for a developed Nigeria and society in general. It concludes that religious symbols contribute to the development of a strong ethos that conveys society’s moral principles since they are essential to the sustainability of knowledge societies; hence, they should be given special values such that they could lead to national integration that eliminates the vices and tendencies that limit any knowledge society.
References
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane. “Arts, Architecture, and Religion,” in Segal, Robert (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005,
Cort, John E. “Art, Religion, and Material Culture: Some Reflections on Method.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 64.3 (1996): 613–632.
DeCosse, David E. and Green, Brian P. “Ethics and Pope Francis’s Encyclical Letter Laudato Si.” 2016. <https://www.scu.edu/media/ethics-center/environmental-ethics/encyclical-instructors.pdf>
Griffin, E.M. A First Look at Communication Theory. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012.
Gusfield, Joseph and Michalowicz, Jerzy. “Secular Symbolism: Studies of Ritual, Ceremony, and the Symbolic Order in Modern Life.” Annual Review of Sociology, 10 (1984): 417-435.
Hackett, Rosalind I. J. Art and Religion in Africa. London: OUP, 1996.
Handberg, Charlotte, Sally Thorne, Julie Midtgaard, Claus Vinther Nielsen, and Kirsten Lomborg. “Revisiting Symbolic Interactionism as a Theoretical Framework Beyond the Grounded Theory Tradition.” Qualitative Health Research, 25.8(2015):1023–1032.
Kovacevic, Vlaho, Malenica, K. and Kardum, G. “Symbolic Interactions in Popular Religion According to Dimensions of Religiosity: A Qualitative Study.” Societies, 11.2(2021): 30.
Mann, Vivian. Jewish Texts on the Visual Arts. Cambridge: CUP, 2000.
Mansell, Robin and Tremblay, Gaetan. “Renewing the Knowledge Societies Vision: Towards Knowledge Societies for Peace and Sustainable Development.” WSIS+10 Conference. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, 2013.
Mazur, Eric M. (Ed.). Art and the Religious Impulse. Lewisburg, Pa.: Pavilion Press, 2002.
Milliken, Paul J. and Schreiber, Rita. “Examining the Nexus between Grounded Theory and Symbolic Interactionism.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11.5(2012):684–96.
Morgan, David. Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice. Berkeley, Calif.: Mk., 2005.
Nandhikkara, Jose (Ed.). “Editorial.” Ethical Interface: Literature, Economics, Politics, and, Religion. Bangalore, India: Dharmaram Publications, 2014, pp. vii-xiv.
Nandhikkara, Jose. “Logos and Mythos in Building up Knowledge Societies.” Journal of Dharma, 44.1(2019): 3-8.
Nandhikkara, Jose. “Homo Religious at the Service of Ethical Societies.” Journal of Dharma, 45.3 (2020): 305-310.
Naumenko, V. “The Ethical Content of G.H. Mead’s Conception of Symbolic Interactionism.” Philosophical Almanac, 7-8(2018): 138-148.
Ottuh, P. O. O. and Aitufe, V. O. “Kidnapping and Moral Society: An Ethico-Religious Evaluation of the Nigerian Experience.”European Scientific Journal, 10.14(2014): 420-434.
Ottuh, P. O. O., Idjakpo, O. G. and Uviekovo, A. A. “Computerisation for Religious Organisations in Nigeria Promoting Sustainable Prosperity.” Journal of Dharma, 47.3(2020): 301-320.
Ottuh, Peter O.O. “Religious Approach to Non-Anthropocentric Ethics in Environmental Philosophy.”Cogito: Multidisciplinary Research Journal, XII.1 (2020): 7-24.
Ottuh, Peter O.O. “A Critique of Eco-Feminism: An Attempt towards Environmental Solution.” International Journal of Environmental Pollution and Environmental Modelling 3.4 (2020): 167-179.
Promey, Sally. “The ‘Return’ of Religion in the Scholarship of American Art.” The Art Bulletin, 85.3 (2003): 581–604.
Vannini, Phillip. “Nonrepresentational Theory and Symbolic Interactionism: Shared Perspectives and Missed Articulations.” Symbolic Interaction, 32.3(2020): 282–286.
Worth, Sarah E. “The Ethics of Exhibitions: On the Presentation of Religious Art.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 62.3(2004): 277–284.
Wuthnow, Robert. Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist. Berkeley, Calif.: Mk, 2001.