How the Church Used Baroque Art for Its Top 5 Propaganda Wins

As the spiritual landscape of Europe fractured under unprecedented challenges, the Catholic Church found itself at a critical crossroads, demanding a decisive and visually compelling response.

The Church’s Artistic Counterattack: How Baroque Propaganda Reclaimed the Soul of Europe

The mid-16th century witnessed an unparalleled upheaval in the religious fabric of Europe. The Protestant Reformation, spearheaded by figures like Martin Luther and John Calvin, launched a direct challenge to the authority of the Pope, the doctrines of the Catholic Church, and the traditional forms of worship. This movement, emphasizing personal faith, scripture, and often rejecting elaborate religious imagery, resulted in widespread schism, loss of adherents, and a profound crisis of confidence within the Catholic hierarchy. In response to this existential threat, the Catholic Church initiated a comprehensive and decisive counter-movement known as the Counter-Reformation. This was not merely a theological reassertion but a strategic effort to reaffirm its authority, re-engage its faithful, and win back those who had strayed.

The Council of Trent: Forging a New Artistic Mandate

The strategic origin point for this new artistic direction was the Council of Trent, which convened intermittently between 1545 and 1563. While primarily focused on doctrinal clarification and internal reforms, the Council also issued crucial directives concerning the role of sacred art. Recognizing the profound power of images to instruct and inspire, the Council called for art that was:

• Clear and Legible: Easily understood by the common worshipper, avoiding ambiguity or complex allegories that could lead to misinterpretation.
• Compelling and Instructive: Designed to teach Catholic doctrine, illustrate the lives of saints, and depict biblical narratives with accuracy and impact.
• Emotionally Resonant: Capable of stirring devotion, inspiring piety, and moving the viewer’s soul towards God and the Church.

This mandate effectively transformed art into an indispensable tool in the Church’s campaign, shifting its purpose from mere decoration or theological exposition to active evangelism and persuasion.

Baroque: The Chosen Aesthetic Weapon

To meet this ambitious artistic challenge, a new aesthetic style emerged and rapidly proliferated: Baroque art. Far from being a subtle suggestion, Baroque was conceived as the chosen aesthetic weapon—a style meticulously designed not just to be seen, but to be felt, directly engaging the viewer’s emotions on a profound and visceral level. Its hallmarks include:

• Drama and Movement: Dynamic compositions, swirling drapery, and energetic poses that capture peak emotional moments.
• Grandeur and Scale: Often monumental in size, intended to impress and overwhelm the senses, creating awe and reverence.
• Intense Emotion: Figures depicted with palpable suffering, ecstasy, or devotion, inviting the viewer to share in their spiritual experience.
• Realism and Detail: A focus on naturalistic depiction, often heightened, to make biblical scenes and saintly struggles relatable and immediate.
• Rich Color and Chiaroscuro: Deep, vibrant hues and stark contrasts between light and shadow (chiaroscuro) to amplify dramatic effect and emotional intensity.

The Baroque style, with its unapologetic theatricality and passionate appeal, was perfectly suited to the Counter-Reformation’s goals. It sought to re-establish the Church’s spiritual supremacy and reinforce faith through an immersive and awe-inspiring experience.

This post will explore the five most effective ways the Catholic Church utilized the inherent drama, compelling realism, and overwhelming grandeur of Baroque art as a powerful propaganda tool to reaffirm its authority and inspire unwavering faith among the populace. The first of these powerful strategies focused on an audacious manipulation of the senses, crafting divine spectacle and illusion to draw the faithful ever closer.

As the Counter-Reformation sought to reassert its spiritual authority, the burgeoning Baroque style offered a potent weapon, delivering its first decisive blow by overwhelming the faithful with an unparalleled visual experience.

Dissolving Walls, Opening Heavens: The Baroque’s First Stroke of Divine Propaganda

The Counter-Reformation’s initial triumph in its artistic campaign was a strategic masterstroke: to inundate the senses, not merely to inform them. This "Win #1" aimed to transport the observer from the mundane into a realm of divine glory, making the power and magnificence of the Catholic Church unmistakably tangible. Baroque artists achieved this by orchestrating an all-encompassing spectacle, designed to inspire profound awe and reverence.

Engineering Divine Spectacle on an Unprecedented Scale

Baroque architecture and art leveraged several key elements to create this overwhelming experience:

• Monumental Scale: Buildings stretched skyward, domes swelled, and frescoes enveloped entire ceilings, creating spaces that dwarfed the individual and hinted at the infinite. This grandiosity was not merely for aesthetic appeal; it was a deliberate choice to convey the boundless power and majesty of God and, by extension, His earthly representative, the Church.
• Opulent Materials: No expense was spared in material selection. Gilt, shimmering gold leaf, rich marbles of various hues, and shimmering bronze were deployed lavishly. These materials caught and reflected light, creating a dazzling, ethereal glow that suggested the very radiance of heaven.
• Complex Compositions: Baroque artists eschewed simple, static arrangements. Instead, they embraced dynamic, often spiraling or upward-thrusting compositions, filled with a multitude of figures, swirling draperies, and dramatic gestures. These compositions guided the eye through a narrative, often culminating in a celestial vision, creating a sense of movement and ecstatic drama.

Together, these elements ensured that upon entering a Baroque church, the faithful were immediately enveloped in an environment that transcended ordinary experience, signaling entry into a sacred, extraordinary space.

The ‘Total Work of Art’: A Unified Vision of Glory

At the heart of this sensory onslaught was the concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or "total work of art." This approach sought to obliterate the traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines, forging painting, sculpture, and architecture into a single, cohesive, and overwhelming theatrical environment. In a Baroque church:

• Architecture provided the majestic framework, often with soaring naves and grand domes.
• Sculpture burst from niches, adorned altars, and populated every corner, often seeming to move and interact with the architectural space.
• Painting, particularly in vast ceiling frescoes, dissolved the physical limits of the structure, opening up into what appeared to be infinite skies.

The result was an immersive spectacle where every element worked in concert, pulling the viewer into a unified vision of heavenly splendor. It was not merely a collection of beautiful objects but a meticulously crafted experience, designed to evoke spiritual ecstasy and submission.

Andrea Pozzo’s Masterclass: Dissolving Reality at St. Ignatius

No artist exemplified this mastery of illusion better than Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit painter and architect. His ceiling fresco in the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome stands as a paramount example of trompe-l’œil, a French term meaning "to deceive the eye."

Pozzo’s genius lay in his ability to manipulate perspective and foreshortening with such skill that the flat ceiling and walls appear to recede into boundless space. He painted a continuation of the church’s architectural lines, extending them upwards into a breathtaking, open sky populated by divine figures and angels ascending to heaven. The effect is so convincing that when viewed from a specific marked spot on the floor, the architecture seems to dissolve entirely, and the viewer is left with the stunning illusion of looking directly into the heavens, where St. Ignatius is welcomed by Christ and the Virgin Mary.

This breathtaking trompe-l’œil created an unprecedented visual journey, effectively "opening the heavens to the viewer below" and dissolving the earthly confines of the church.

The Strategic Goal: Awe, Reverence, and Affirmation

The strategic goal behind these overwhelming sensory experiences was crystal clear: to visually represent the immense power and magnificence of the Catholic Church and, by extension, the divine truth it proclaimed. By creating spaces that left the faithful in a state of profound awe and reverence, the Church sought to:

• Reinforce Belief: Witnessing such "heavenly glory on Earth" served as powerful visual evidence of God’s presence and the Church’s role as His intermediary.
• Inspire Devotion: The grandeur and beauty were designed to stir intense emotional and spiritual responses, fostering deeper piety and loyalty.
• Project Authority: The sheer scale and opulence demonstrated the Church’s wealth, influence, and unwavering conviction, serving as a powerful counter-narrative to Protestant criticisms.

This initial victory in visual grandeur laid the groundwork for the next crucial strategy: making the divine not just seen, but deeply felt, through intense emotional connection.

While the first strategy aimed to overwhelm the senses with grand spectacle and illusion, the next sought to root the divine firmly in human experience, making the miraculous emotionally palpable.

The Soul’s Embrace: Bernini and the Tangible Miracle

The Baroque era, a period of profound artistic and spiritual reawakening, harbored a deep fascination with capturing the ‘decisive moment’ – that singular instant of peak emotional and spiritual intensity within a narrative. Artists of this period sought to arrest the fleeting, the ephemeral, and the transcendent, immortalizing it in a form that evoked an immediate, visceral response from the viewer. This was not merely about depicting an event, but about rendering its emotional core, allowing the audience to feel the raw, intense experience as if it were their own.

Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa: A Mystical Vision Made Real

No work encapsulates this ambition more profoundly than Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, housed within the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. This masterpiece transforms a mystical vision into a breathtakingly physical and undeniably real encounter. Bernini depicts Saint Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish Carmelite nun, experiencing a divine vision where an angel repeatedly pierces her heart with a golden spear, causing her both intense pain and profound spiritual rapture. The genius of the work lies in its ability to translate an internal, spiritual experience into a tangible, almost theatrical spectacle.

Techniques of Divine Immersion

Bernini employed an array of masterful techniques to achieve this remarkable effect, making the spiritual encounter feel immediate, profoundly human, and intensely relatable:

• Realistic Rendering of Textures: Bernini’s skill in carving is evident in the exquisite rendering of diverse textures. The viewer can almost feel the soft, rumpled fabric of Saint Teresa’s habit, contrasting sharply with the ethereal, cloud-like base upon which she reclines. The smooth, supple flesh of the angel and the saint’s face and hands are rendered with an astonishing lifelike quality, making their interaction feel utterly human and immediate.
• Dynamic Use of Swirling Drapery: The drapery in Ecstasy of Saint Teresa is far from static. It billows and swirls around the figures, creating a sense of dynamic movement and heightened emotion. This fluid, agitated fabric not only emphasizes the dramatic intensity of the moment but also visually suggests the invisible forces at play – the divine wind, the spiritual energy of the angel’s descent, and the saint’s ecstatic tremor. It serves as an extension of their emotional states, amplifying the drama.
• Theatrical Lighting: Bernini meticulously designed the chapel space to integrate natural light, making it an intrinsic part of the sculpture’s impact. Hidden windows above the altar direct golden rays onto the scene, illuminating the figures from above. These gilded rays, appearing to descend from heaven, create a halo effect and make the spiritual encounter feel not only immediate but divinely sanctioned. This theatrical lighting transforms the chapel into a stage, where the miraculous event unfolds before the viewer’s eyes.

Connecting Art to the Counter-Reformation

This artistic choice was not merely an aesthetic preference; it was directly tethered to the strategic goals of the Counter-Reformation. Faced with the Protestant challenge that emphasized a more personal, unmediated relationship with God and critiqued the perceived excesses of Catholic veneration of saints, the Catholic Church sought to reaffirm the power and beauty of saintly intercession and mystical experience. Bernini’s Ecstasy served as a potent tool:

• Relatability of Saints’ Experiences: By making Saint Teresa’s intense spiritual vision so physically vivid and emotionally accessible, the Church aimed to make the experiences of saints feel real and attainable for the ordinary worshipper. It bridged the gap between the divine and the mundane, suggesting that such profound encounters were not abstract but deeply felt and, in a sense, reproducible through fervent faith.
• Inspiring Personal, Passionate Devotion: The raw emotion depicted in the Ecstasy was designed to stir a deep, personal, and passionate form of devotion among the laity. It encouraged an empathetic connection, inviting viewers to share in the saint’s rapture and inspiring them towards a more fervent, emotional engagement with their faith, countering the intellectualized or iconoclastic leanings of Protestantism.

Through such masterpieces, the Church sought to make the intangible realities of faith – divine love, spiritual ecstasy, miraculous intervention – profoundly tangible, moving hearts and minds with an intensity that left an indelible mark. This profound emotional resonance paved the way for a broader strategy: bringing dramatic realism directly to the common worshipper.

While the previous "win" captivated the faithful through intense emotional experience, the Counter-Reformation also recognized the power of bringing the sacred down to earth, making it intensely relatable.

From Sacred Altars to Smoky Taverns: Caravaggio’s Gritty Invitation

In the fervent atmosphere of the Counter-Reformation, a revolutionary artistic voice emerged, one that profoundly altered how sacred narratives were perceived and consumed. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, universally known as Caravaggio, spearheaded a dramatic departure from the idealized forms and harmonious compositions prevalent in the High Renaissance. His genius lay in his audacious decision to strip away traditional idealization, instead depicting biblical figures and saints as raw, ordinary, and often flawed people. These divine encounters were no longer confined to celestial realms or pristine classical settings; they unfolded in the contemporary, rustic, and sometimes gritty environments familiar to the common worshipper, fostering an unprecedented sense of immediacy and connection.

Caravaggio’s pioneering style ushered in the Baroque era’s emphasis on drama, emotion, and dynamic realism, contrasting sharply with the High Renaissance’s pursuit of balance and idealized beauty.

Characteristic	High Renaissance Art	Baroque Art (as exemplified by Caravaggio)
Overall Impression	Calm, balanced, harmonious, intellectual	Dramatic, emotional, dynamic, theatrical
Composition	Symmetrical, ordered, stable, often pyramidal	Asymmetrical, diagonal, energetic, sense of movement
Subject Matter	Idealized figures, classical themes, serene religious scenes	Realistic figures (often ordinary people), intense religious drama, martyrdom
Figure Portrayal	Idealized, beautiful, perfect proportions, noble gestures	Realistic, imperfect, relatable, expressive, sometimes grotesque
Light	Soft, even, diffused, illuminating all parts equally	Dramatic, sharp contrasts (chiaroscuro/tenebrism), focused spotlights
Color	Rich, subtle gradations, emphasis on disegno (drawing)	Vibrant, intense, often used for emotional impact, emphasis on colorito (color)
Viewer Engagement	Contemplative, distant, intellectual appreciation	Immediate, immersive, emotional, direct appeal to senses
Settings	Idealized landscapes, classical architecture	Contemporary, rustic, dark, everyday environments

The Calling of Saint Matthew: Divine Intervention in the Everyday

Nowhere is Caravaggio’s revolutionary approach more vividly demonstrated than in his masterpiece, The Calling of Saint Matthew (c. 1599-1600). The painting pulls the viewer into a dimly lit, common tavern or counting house, a setting far removed from any traditional sacred space. Here, amidst a group of men counting money at a table, Christ appears, almost unnoticed by some of the figures absorbed in their worldly pursuits. His outstretched hand, mirroring that of Adam in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, points directly at Matthew, the tax collector. This moment of profound divine summons happens not in a cathedral but in a shadowy, ordinary room, making the divine accessible, startlingly real, and deeply personal. It conveys the powerful message that the sacred can break into the mundane at any moment, touching the lives of ordinary people, regardless of their station or past.

Mastering Light and Shadow: Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism

Caravaggio’s unparalleled ability to create intense drama and focus was largely due to his signature techniques: Chiaroscuro and Tenebrism.

• Chiaroscuro (Italian for "light-dark") refers to the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is a fundamental technique for modeling forms and creating the illusion of volume on a flat surface.
• Tenebrism (from the Italian tenebroso, meaning "dark, gloomy, mysterious") is an even more extreme form of chiaroscuro, where shadows dominate, and only a few areas are brightly illuminated, often by a single, harsh, and unseen light source.

In The Calling of Saint Matthew, a powerful beam of light slices across the dark room, following Christ’s gesture and illuminating Matthew’s face, drawing the viewer’s eye directly to the moment of his transformation. This dramatic interplay of light and shadow not only creates an incredible sense of depth and realism but also serves a powerful narrative function, highlighting the spiritual drama unfolding in an otherwise unremarkable setting. It focuses the viewer’s attention with an almost theatrical intensity, making them feel like a witness to a pivotal, private moment.

A Counter-Narrative for the Common Soul

This gritty realism, so characteristic of Caravaggio’s work, was more than just an artistic choice; it was a potent propaganda counter-narrative in the service of the Counter-Reformation. By presenting saints and biblical events with such raw, unvarnished honesty, making them relatable to the common person’s daily struggles and experiences, the Catholic Church aimed to re-engage its flock. The stories of the Bible no longer felt distant or abstract; they were immediate, tangible, and relevant to the life of a peasant, a merchant, or a prostitute. Caravaggio’s art spoke directly to the heart, reminding worshippers that God’s grace was available to everyone, and that even the most flawed individuals could be called to a higher purpose, making the divine intimately understandable and powerfully inspiring.

This ground-level connection, however, was just one facet of the Counter-Reformation’s strategy, which also sought to project an image of undeniable power and vigorous, triumphant faith.

While dramatic realism effectively captivated the hearts and minds of the common worshipper, another powerful artistic strategy emerged, shifting from intimate engagement to a grand, public declaration of authority and might.

The Unstoppable Ascent: How Baroque Art Declared the Church’s Triumph

Following the transformative Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Catholic Church experienced a profound renewal of confidence and a robust, often militant, spirit. Having navigated the turbulent waters of the Protestant Reformation, the Church moved from a defensive posture to an assertive offensive, determined to reassert its spiritual authority and global preeminence. Art became an indispensable vehicle for expressing this invigorated identity, translating theological doctrine into compelling visual narratives that projected unwavering power and vigorous, triumphant faith.

A New Era of Militant Confidence

The Council of Trent clarified Catholic doctrine and initiated reforms aimed at purifying the Church and strengthening its spiritual mission. This period, known as the Counter-Reformation, demanded an art that was not only instructional and emotionally engaging but also inspiring and awe-inducing. The goal was to showcase the Church’s inherent power, the divine legitimacy of its saints and sacraments, and its ultimate victory over heresy. Artists were called upon to create works that visually reinforced the Church’s role as the sole conduit to salvation, leaving no doubt about its divine favor and unstoppable spiritual force.

Peter Paul Rubens: Epitome of Triumphant Baroque

No artist embodied this energetic, triumphant style more completely than the Flemish master, Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Rubens’s work became synonymous with the Catholic Church’s renewed vigor, characterized by a monumental scale, dynamic compositions, and an overwhelming sense of action and drama. His canvases exploded with rich, vibrant colors and powerful, muscular figures that seemed to surge with life and spiritual energy. Rubens skillfully fused classical influences with intense emotionality, creating a visual language that was both grandly theatrical and deeply moving. His ability to convey movement, passion, and an almost superhuman strength made him the quintessential painter for a Church eager to project its reawakened might.

Altarpieces: A Visual Declaration of Divine Power

Rubens’s large-scale altarpieces, often dominating the sanctuaries of newly constructed or refurbished churches, perfectly illustrate this dynamic and vibrant style. Imagine, for instance, a colossal canvas depicting a scene of martyrdom or a triumphant heavenly ascent. Viewers would be confronted with a swirling motion of figures, robes, and clouds, creating a vortex of divine and human action. Muscular angels, their forms imbued with physical exertion, might descend from above, while earthly figures below are caught in moments of dramatic action, their bodies twisting and turning with raw emotion.

The sheer physical exertion visible in these figures—whether they are saints being uplifted by divine grace or figures struggling against earthly bonds—conveys an almost tangible sense of unstoppable spiritual force. The compositions are rarely static; instead, they burst forth from the canvas, inviting the viewer into a world where the divine actively intervenes in human affairs. Every brushstroke, every ripple of muscle, every billowing drapery contributed to an overwhelming sensation of energy and purpose, reflecting the Church’s own vigorous drive.

This dynamic and vibrant style served as a resounding visual declaration of the Catholic Church’s victory and its unwavering role as the one true, powerful faith during the tumultuous Counter-Reformation. It was an art designed not merely to be seen, but to be experienced, imbuing worshippers with a sense of awe and reaffirming their place within a divinely sanctioned institution that was destined to prevail.

This grand vision of spiritual triumph laid the groundwork for an even more ambitious project, transforming the very urban fabric of its spiritual capital.

While individual masterpieces projected the Church’s triumphant spirit, the ultimate expression of this power was achieved by transforming the very fabric of Rome into a breathtaking theatrical experience.

The City as Spectacle: Staging the Counter-Reformation on the Streets of Rome

The Counter-Reformation’s masterstroke was to expand its artistic propaganda from the confines of church interiors to the sprawling urban landscape of Rome itself. The city was no longer just a collection of holy sites but was consciously redesigned to function as a grand, immersive stage. This urban theater was meticulously crafted to guide, awe, and overwhelm pilgrims, reinforcing the Catholic Church’s narrative of divine authority, unwavering strength, and glorious destiny at every turn.

From Haphazard Streets to a Pilgrim’s Path

Before the Baroque era, Rome was a labyrinth of medieval streets. A pilgrimage was often a confusing and physically arduous journey. The popes of the 16th and 17th centuries, however, envisioned a new Rome—one that would streamline the pilgrim’s experience into a powerful spiritual procession. Architects and urban planners were tasked with a monumental goal: to rationalize the city’s layout to create a cohesive and emotionally resonant journey.

This was achieved by:

• Creating Grand Avenues: Long, straight avenues were carved through the city to connect the seven major pilgrimage basilicas. These "pilgrim paths" not only made navigation easier but also created dramatic lines of sight, with a magnificent church facade or an ancient obelisk serving as a rewarding focal point at the end of a long walk.
• Strategic Placement of Monuments: Obelisks, repurposed from ancient Rome, were erected in key public squares. These towering monuments acted as spiritual and physical waypoints, symbolizing the triumph of Christianity over paganism and guiding the faithful from one sacred location to the next.

This redesign transformed a simple visit into a carefully choreographed experience, turning the entire city into a testament to the Church’s organizational power and historical permanence.

Bernini’s Embrace: The Colonnade of St. Peter’s Square

Nowhere is this concept of urban theater more brilliantly realized than in Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s design for the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Colonnade is not merely an architectural flourish; it is a profound piece of propaganda designed to elicit a specific emotional response.

Bernini himself described the two massive, free-standing colonnades as the "maternal arms of the Mother Church," reaching out to embrace humanity. Its function was threefold:

1. To Welcome the Faithful: For Catholic pilgrims completing their long journey, the arms of the Colonnade offered a symbolic and physical embrace, drawing them into the heart of their faith. The vast, open space was designed to inspire a sense of community and shared belief among the thousands who could gather there.
2. To Reconcile Heretics: The open arms were also a gesture of invitation to those who had strayed during the Protestant Reformation, a welcoming gesture beckoning them to return to the fold.
3. To Awe Unbelievers: For skeptics or non-believers, the sheer scale, geometric perfection, and breathtaking grandeur of the square were meant to be an undeniable demonstration of the Church’s power, wealth, and divine favor.

Emerging from the narrow streets of the city into the expansive, light-filled piazza was a moment of pure theatrical revelation—a climactic scene designed to leave every visitor speechless.

The Urban Ensemble: Fountains, Facades, and Avenues in Unison

The genius of Baroque Rome lies in how these individual elements worked in concert. The city’s design ensured that the Church’s message was inescapable. Grand avenues built anticipation, leading the eye and the body toward a dramatic destination. Imposing church facades, like that of Santa Susanna by Carlo Maderno, served as dynamic, sculpture-laden "title pages" for the sacred stories held within.

Public squares became open-air theaters, centered around spectacular fountains designed by masters like Bernini. His Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, for example, is not just a water feature; it is a dynamic, swirling vortex of allegorical figures and raw energy that celebrates the global reach and life-giving power of the Papacy. The sound of rushing water, the sight of dramatic sculptures, and the monumental scale of the architecture all combined to create a multi-sensory experience that reinforced a single, cohesive message: the Catholic Church was powerful, glorious, and triumphant.

This masterful fusion of art and urban planning created a powerful legacy whose influence continues to echo through the centuries.

From the heaven-shattering illusions of church ceilings to the raw, visceral humanity in a saint’s ecstasy, the Baroque was the Catholic Church’s masterstroke. By overwhelming the senses with divine spectacle, making miracles tangible through intense emotion, grounding faith in gritty realism, projecting an image of triumphant power, and transforming Rome itself into an immersive stage, the Counter-Reformation forged an unforgettable language of persuasion. It was a calculated and brilliant campaign that weaponized beauty to defend doctrine.

The enduring power of this movement echoes today in the hushed awe we feel before a Bernini sculpture or the jolt of recognition in a dark and dramatic Caravaggio painting. The Catholic Church didn’t just create art; it engineered experiences. In doing so, it forever cemented the potent, and often complex, relationship between faith, institutional power, and the profound ability of art to shape what we believe.