Arts, Spirituality, and Religion - 2nd Edition [editorial]

Abstract

The first edition of this Special Issue, “Arts, Spirituality, and Religion”, explored the dynamic intersections among art, spirituality, and religion across diverse cultural, historical, and media contexts. Bringing together studies ranging from biblical imagery and Marian theology to Chinese ritual space, poetic symbolism, musical cosmology, and contemporary visual reinterpretations of hell, the contributions examined how religious meaning was constructed, embodied, transformed, and transmitted through artistic practice.

The collected articles analysed visual art, ritual performance, music, poetry, and popular religiosity as sites where power, memory, and belief converged. Several contributions foregrounded the spatial and material dimensions of the sacred, investigating murals, ritual corridors, hand-waving sacrifices, and vernacular devotional structures as frameworks through which communities negotiated identity and resilience. Others addressed narrative and metaphor, revealing how theological concepts and cosmological imaginaries were rearticulated in modern and contemporary artistic languages. Across traditions and geographies, the volume highlighted the capacity of artistic expression to mediate between the sacred and the secular, the institutional and the vernacular, and the historical and the contemporary.

By combining theological reflection, cultural analysis, and aesthetic inquiry, this Special Issue advanced an interdisciplinary understanding of how art continued to shape, question, and renew spiritual experience in a globalised world. The first edition was well received, with many submissions from the research community, and helped expand scholarly dialogue across disciplines such as religious studies, theology, art history, cultural studies, anthropology, and media studies. Its academic impact was reflected in the diversity of approaches represented, the international scope of the contributions, and the way in which it encouraged further research into the relationships between artistic practices and spiritual expression in both historical and contemporary contexts.

The second edition of this Special Issue seeks to further deepen the critical exploration of the intersections between the arts, spirituality, and religion, with particular emphasis on cultural and pilgrimage routes and on universal accessibility. Building on the conceptual, historical, and cultural frameworks established in the inaugural edition, this new volume focuses primarily on contemporary challenges and future-oriented perspectives on inclusion, accessibility, and social transformation.

This Special Issue aims to examine how cultural and pilgrimage routes, ritual spaces, spiritual practices, and artistic interventions may be reimagined, with a focus on universal accessibility and inclusive participation, taking into account diverse physical, sensory, cognitive, social, and cultural contexts. At the same time, it seeks to expand current debates surrounding contemporary and emerging artistic practices—including digital arts, participatory and community-based projects, ephemeral interventions, and technologically mediated experiences—as well as the transformation of institutional religious narratives within increasingly secular and pluralistic societies.

In line with the journal Religions’ commitment to interdisciplinary research across the arts, culture, and humanities, this Special Issue contributes to ongoing academic discussions on spirituality beyond institutional religion, intercultural mobility, embodied experience, and social inclusion. Cultural and pilgrimage routes are understood here as dynamic spaces of dialogue among tradition and innovation, religion and secularism and continuity and change.

Contributions addressing a wide range of artistic forms are welcome, including visual arts, digital media, music, literature, performance, and architecture. Articles should explore how these practices foster spiritual connection, religious devotion, and existential reflection within pilgrimage contexts, while also considering strategies of accessibility and inclusion. Interdisciplinary perspectives from the arts, theology, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, technology, and related fields are strongly encouraged, as are studies examining the potential of the arts to promote interreligious dialogue, cultural inclusion, and the overcoming of physical, social, and symbolic barriers along cultural and pilgrimage routes.

By addressing these intersections, the issue seeks to deepen understanding of how artistic practices continue to shape—and be shaped by—spiritual and religious experiences in a rapidly changing world that is increasingly conscious of the need to ensure access and participation for all.