Do you remember the controversy about the
Danish cartoons of Muhammed? It enraged some Muslims to the point of violence. Their understanding of the images used in the cartoon was deeply personal – it touched the very core of their beliefs.
Christians may get similarly upset about other images. Thus our reaction depends on our personal context and expectations.
The same way the people react differently to images from outside the church, members of a congregation build their own mental models for visual images within the church. An example is our reaction to the image of the priest raising the communion wafer and chalice with wine. On Sunday, we may all see the same image but its meaning probably subtly differs for each of us. A congregation is always a group of individuals that appear similar only to an outsider.
On the other hand, a congregation behaves like single person with own context and memory. Images have different meanings for different congregations and trigger different reactions (as I found out when praying the `stations of the cross’ amidst a Catholic congregation).
Belonging to a group (congregation) is often defined by the shared meaning of images.
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