1. The Age of Faith – Chapter 18
BCE – Before the Common Era
CE – Common Era

2. Early Christian and Byzantine Art
Christianity spread rapidly due to the missionary zeal of St. Paul.
Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 CE.
Early Christian places of worship were rectangular structures call basilica.

11. Mosaics -- an art in which small pieces of stone, glass or tile are fitted together to form an image, which is set in cement.

12. Christian Art in Europe
Romanesque architecture (art) which retained many basic features of Roman architectural style – most notably round-headed arches, and leaf decoration.
Romanesque Art – its recognized by its geometric masses – rectangles, cubes, and cylinders.

13. Christian Art in Europe
Gothic art was a style of Medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD.
In the Gothic age, stained glass windows became the main form of interior church decoration. 
Gothic Art included sculptures, panels, paintings, stained glass, frescos, and illuminated objects.

14. Coptic Christian Art
Coptic art, the distinctive Christian art of Egypt (Ethiopia), includes works of a diverse character because there was no separation between ``art'' and ``craft'' in the early Christian era;
The persistence of ancient Egyptian symbolism in early Christian art is pretty much accepted among biblical historians. It is both easy and natural to recognize evidence of that influence in early Christian art.

15. Coptic Christian Art
For example, it is accepted that the ansate cross, the ``ankh'' or Hieroglyphic sign for the word ``life'', was intentionally adopted by early Christians.
In fact, many relief slabs show both the ``ankh'' and the Christian ``cross'' together, frequently flanked by the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, the Alpha (A) and the Omega (W),

16. Religious Art Structures of Africa
House of St. George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

17. Rock-Hewn Churches
In a mountainous region in the heart of Ethiopia, some 645 km from Addis Ababa, eleven medieval monolithic churches were carved out of rock.
Their building is attributed to King Lalibela who set out to construct in the 12th century a ‘New Jerusalem’, after Muslim conquests halted Christian pilgrimages to the holy Land.
Lalibela flourished after the decline of the Aksum Empire.