Imagine, for a moment, that you would like to teach history to someone who cannot read. Or maybe they can read, but there are no suitable materials available for teaching in their language. Maybe it would take more time to explain, using only words and hand gestures (what, you don’t move your hands when you talk?), than your students can afford. Maybe their attention span is too short, or perhaps they have to leave to go back to work. What do you do?
People tell stories with pictures when literary skills or written resources do not meet the need. Over the years I have seen many works of art — mosaics, paintings, drawings, and so forth — in churches as far flung as Hawaii, Italy, and places in between. Impressive as works of devotion and worship, I only recently realized that they were also tools for teaching. Each of them provides a springboard to speak about some historical event from the Old or New Testament, for discussing how God reveals Himself to men, or for sharing the Gospel. Were they always used that way? Admired or critiqued as works of art, they were probably also used as teaching tools more often than I realized.
With all of this in mind, here are some New Testament examples seen during our recent trip to Europe. For examples from the Old Testament, see my earlier post on Ravenna.
A Cup of Brouhaha 