Abstract:

The creativity at a symbolic level was always present in the history of Christianity. In their writings, prayers, customs and holidays, Christians created and used different symbols. They represent the expression of Church’s fate and of the Christian tradition’s richness. Even if nowadays society seems to be secularized, it operates with many symbols coming from Christianity, symbols that sometimes have origins and significations hard to perceive. The historian’s and theologian’s mission is to understand these significations, to decode them, not only to keep and to transmit a cultural legacy, but also to rediscover in them the meaning of life through a Christian vision. The article presents the characteristics of a few christian symbols (the blessed water, the baptisteries, the chalice, the incense, the cross, the ring, the praying statue) and their clues for interpretation necessary for a pedagogical and catechetical debate. The christian symbols play an important role in the religious education. We have to be familiar with the interpretation of the symbols in order to understand them. The emphasis is placed on the education of the symbols perception.