On The Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, chapter 2, "A Very Brief History of Religion and Art" By James Elkins

https://www.academia.edu/163554/On_The_Strange_Place_of_Religion_in_Contemporary_Art_chapter_2_A_Very_Brief_History_of_Religion_and_Art_ See note to chapter 1. This is a chapter in the book On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art (New York: Routledge, 2004), available on Amazon. Chapter 2 was originally published with two "verys": "From Bird-Goddesses to Jesus 2000: A Very, Very Brief History of Religion and Art," Thresholds [MIT] 25 (2002): 76–83, including a discussion with Caroline Jones. Later it was reprinted in Faith, exh. cat., edited by James Hyde (Hartford CT: Real Art Ways, 2005-2006), 79-90. This is about as brief as a history can get: the idea is to show that in Western practice before the Renaissance, the concepts of "religion" and "art" did not exist in their current forms, so it does not make sense to talk about "religious art" in all centuries and cultures. The chapter also points to developments from the 16th to the 19th centuries, in which "art" became increasingly detached from "religion." Without these very abstract, very sweeping observations, it can sometimes be difficult to know what is being claimed in conversations on religion and art.