Orientalist biblical art shored up Christianity against scientific challenge

Evidence

As Malcolm Warner has argued, these artists were able to provide a quasi-scientific foundation for Christianity at a time when it was under severe challenge by scientific discovery. Furthermore, they saw their romanticized description of Islamic worship as a metaphor for the simple and sincere Christianity of the Middle Ages, for which many Christian conservatives longed. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 197 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Museum of the Bible dressed a sectarian Christian mission in secular language — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 223; The Holy Land was primarily imagined as a Christian land by orientalist art; Biblical artists used romanticized Islamic scenes to defend Christianity against scientific doubt — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 197 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Biblical artists used romanticized Islamic scenes to defend Christianity against scientific doubt #corroborates (0.97) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 197
• Orientalism once fueled Enlightenment critiques of dogmatic Christianity. #complicates (0.72)