Open Theology invites submissions exploring how religious art manifests, legitimizes, contests, and transforms power, authority, and agency.
Interlacing culture and society, religious art has traditionally been a hub of social reflection. As a field of creativity, intuitive expression, professionalism, communication, and social agency, religious art appears in diverse forms and activities. It can be studied through architecture, dress, photographs, artifacts, narratives, bodily communication, dance, music, and song.
Artistic expressions often incorporate reflections on power, whether affirmative and legitimizing or critical and resistant, including at the level of vernacular religiosity. Religious art can address contemporary forms of "mundane" power and urgent issues such as climate change, crises, war, migration, and social discrimination.
Art is not merely a tool for expressing critical positions on social, cultural, and political power; it can also function as an agent that shapes and affirms power.
This special issue seeks novel approaches to these intertwined subjects, focusing on how power, authority, and agency operate at vernacular and institutional levels, and how power is bestowed, legitimized, and subverted through social and spiritual frameworks.
The editors encourage:
Submissions should articulate proposals with normative and operational traction, with attention to feasibility, measurable change, and transferability.
Submissions should primarily, but not exclusively, address questions such as:
Submissions will be accepted until 15 September 2026 through the online submission system.
When submitting, please select the section/category special issue "Religious Art and Power."
All contributions will undergo peer review before acceptance for publication.
Open Theology is published under an Open Access model. As a rule, publication costs are covered by Article Publishing Charges (APCs) paid by authors, their affiliated institutions, funders, or sponsors.
Authors without access to publishing funds are encouraged to discuss potential discounts or waivers with OA Portfolio Manager Magdalena Skoneczna before submitting their manuscripts.
For questions concerning the content of the thematic issue, contact:
For technical problems with submission, contact Assistant.Managing.Editor@degruyterbrill.com.