Judeo-Christianity has a long tradition of visual narratives progressively perceived beyond dogma to become integral to our culture and our understanding of artistique representation throughout centuries.

The Stations of the Cross has long been one of the most popular handles to religious devotion and it is central to western iconography along with religious icons. 

Whether our worlds are religious or not, we still exist within a dramaturgy that interplays the advent of humanity with its sins, evils, myths, divinities, saviors, curses, punishments, redemption and transfiguration, technology often being a “deus ex machina” as AI is sometimes perceived to be.

Via Crucis is here reinterpreted on a double track.

A planetary crisis
If its original intent was to secure the soul of sinners through a spiritual pilgrimage, today’s Via Crucis relates to a humanity condemned by a long trail of sins and with no savior in sight other than itself and perhaps the hope that progress will somehow be our savior. Indeed, Judeo-christian Modernity has driven humanity toward expectations and anxieties that permeates every aspect of society including the realms of religion. As such, Christians increasingly engage in ecological activism, thus responding to the Pope Francis 2015 Laudato si call to save the planet. 

But what are the links between ecology and the Church?

Christianity because of its anthropocentrism has sometimes been presented as one of those responsible for the current crisis, and some think that the role of religions is quite simply to awaken consciousness towards a better common world. If the Bible sometimes tells us to draw from nature what we desire, it also tells us to protect with gratitude the “divine creation” that we have inherited.