Publisher's Synopsis
This volume examines in various facets a research area that has hitherto been marginalized in academic art history. It is about the art politics and art promotion of the churches, whose aesthetic norms stood for a long time in the distance from the official art discourse. In recent times, however, there have been approaches that have attracted great media interest (such as the design of a window in Cologne Cathedral by Gerhard Richter). These modernizations, which in the case of the Catholic Church often relied on decisions of the Second Vatican Council, have been and are being discussed controversially within the churches among theologians and lay people. These debates are followed up in case studies and asked about the arguments that played a central role.
