Signs and Symbols in Christian Art and Archbishop Archive and

I knew after the visit to the church on Monday as well as other churches that I have visited, that Christianity places a large importance on displaying aspects of their religion through mediums such as artwork.  I was surprised, however, to discover in the reading Signs and Symbols of Christianity that there were some many scenes of important moments throughout the development of Christianity that were made into art. The section in Painting the Word also highlights how the same scenes were painted over and over again by different artists with some variation in the artists' interpretation.  After being made aware of just how significant it was for the Church to have these scenes painted many times and kept in the churches on display such as in the one that we visited, it was then not a surprise that there were so many books preserved in the Archbishop's Archive.  The video about the library in the Vatican showed the same thing.  Holy figures liked to have written documentation about history and keep it preserved for future use just as they create and display so many religious paintings in all of their churches.  Preserving history through various mediums is important to Christianity as demonstrated in the readings and class visits.