The British Museum and The Ashmolean Museum are both hosting exhibitions of religious art. Living with Gods: Peoples, Places and Worlds Beyond. The British Museum, London WC18. Until 8th April. Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Until !8th February. Art and religion have been intrinsically linked since history began. The earliest art we have record of was made in hard to access caves and would seem to have had 'magic' intention - actions performed in private expected or hoped to influence the wider world. Religions formed as the stories people created to explain the how and why of humanities existence and its relationship to the universe became more elaborate and then regulated, absorbing and reframing many folk beliefs as it did so. Every culture of the world had its own answers and its own way of visualising what it understood to be the whys and wherefores of being and the significance of 'the other'. The imagination and inventiveness people have demonstrated could make you proud to be a fellow human. It is not necessary to be a believer of any kind to at least a little awed by the creativity and emotional power of the beliefs and moved by the art made in their name. Both museums seem a little shy of putting images from the exhibitions on the internet hence the limited number that appear here but since most art was religious for so many for so long I can only imagine there will a feast of objects on show. It wouldn't be difficult to make a connection between religion and comics but it seems a little impious to do it in this company. http://www.ashmolean.org/imaginingthedivine http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/living_with_gods.aspx

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