Kirchanov Maksym

Imitation and americanization of christian cultural discourse in mormon art

Abstract

The author analyses the features and contradictions of Mormon visual art. It is assumed that Mormon art is the number of artistic forms and means used by Mormon intellectuals to visualise the project of Mormon identity, inspiring its consolidation and the formation of a positive image of Mormons as the community. The author believes that Mormon art cannot be defi ned as Christian because it does not develop the values of Christianity, but only imitates and simulates Christian cultural discourse. The article shows that the historical and portrait genres in Mormon painting are more developed than other ones. The author analyses how Mormon artists formed and invented the images of the Church, its history, and Jesus Christ also. The author believes that the Mormon art in its attempts to form the images of Christ contributed to his Americanisation. It is presumed that the most of the contemporary Mormon art reflect and actualise the religious and political experiences of American Mormons in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author believes that the tendencies of the historicisation of Mormon “high art” became an important factor in its development, but they also reproduced the clichés of mass culture, imitating and simulating the language of mass art. It is assumed that Mormon art became secondary because it assimilated the achievements of Western secular painting, integrating secular cultural discourse into the Mormon contexts. Analysing Mormon art in general, the author believes that it cannot be described in terms of Christian art, because it serves the interests of Mormonism as a political and ideological factor.

Keywords

Mormonism, art, religious art, painting, Jesus Christ, Christology, Americanisation of Christianity

References

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Information about the author

Kirchanov Maksym

Academic Degree: Doctor of Sciences* in History;
Place of work: Voronezh State University; 88, Moscovsky Prosp., Voronezh, 394 068, Russian Federation;
Post: associate professor of the Department of regional studies and foreign economies, Faculty of international relations;
ORCID: 0000-0003-3819-3103;
Email: maksymkyrchanoff@gmail.com.

*According to ISCED 2011, a post-doctoral degree called Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) is given to reflect second advanced research qualifications or higher doctorates.