Mediating Absence - Effecting Spiritual Presence Pictures and the Christian Imagination: "Image as Action, Image in Action"

The power of pictures cannot be understood by a sole focus on pictures, but needs to be based on a relational and contextual approach that probes into the constitution of human-picture relations through broader politics of representation, modes of governance, and practices of animation at specific times and places. Pleading for a broadened approach of "visual culture" that acknowledges the role of Christianity in spreading a Christian imaginary and organizing pictorial practices throughout the globe, this essay analyzes pictorial practices around the Sacred Heart of Jesus and other Jesus pictures in everyday life in Ghana. Such pictures are at the center of religious practices of mediation through which spiritual presence is effected.