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Mrs. I had the opportunity to visit Rome two years ago, I saw some of the most beautiful wall paintings, statues and tapestry ever, some would take your breath away.
(I is a shame we have seemed to have lost that art form)
A very nice young man was pointing this or that out and made a really good point, something I am sure I should have thought about, all of these art forms representing the Glory of God, the Story of Creation, The Bible in general because most people could not read.
So the teachers of the time had to use visual means to teach the Scriptures, to make them come alive so to speak.
Which is why these church building Catholic/Christian are covered with art.....I thought yep he is probably right.

I think you are exactly right. Illiterate people are and were very much instructed by the message found in paintings, icons, stained glass and the like. Cathedrals are huge catechisms.

But it is not confined to the illiterate. All of us respond to beautiful things in a way that is quite different from the way we respond to a text or a verbal proposition. That's why so many FReepers use pictures in addition to words. And in a grander way, that's why Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" has fascinated millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people who otherwise would not be much interested in a bare text that says "God created man."

I am a RCIA teacher, and I have long said that one weakness of our (parish) RCIA program is "Too much Prose, not enough Poetry."

I love the True. I love the Good. And we shouldn't ever neglect or short-change those who are most moved by the Beautiful.

The Sacred Scriptures speak much of the Glory of God. And Glory is not just a five-letter word. It is an encounter will brilliance and splendor that blows your mind.