representation and recollection

I've been thinking some about images and representations, especially those used in the church. For some time I've been uncomfortable hearing how an image or action represents something else. Specific parts of an image represent certain ideas or ideals.

I'm uncomfortable with this because of the distinction made between objects which represent something, and objects that do not. This extends to the interpretation of sections of scripture, when the language is looked at for metaphors and representations and symbols. This is uncomfortable to me because of the assumption made that there is language which is not metaphorical, representative, symbolic. All language functions in those ways, and trying to make a distinction between what language is metaphorical and what isn't is a waste of time.

I'm also uncomfortable because of the jumps made between the image, action, text, and what those things represent. The idea is that they really do represent something which is being discovered and pointed out, rather than a connection that is being made in the mind of the interpreter. The jump is still a jump even if the explanation and interpretation are made by the creator of the object, text, action. Meaning and object are not fixed together!

But I really do like artwork in church, I like texts and stories, I like traditional practices which supposedly represent something. But what I dislike is the explication of these phenomena.

What I would like to see is a move towards seeing all of those things as reminders, as objects which aid recollection. Being splashed with water does not represent our baptism, it reminds us of baptism. Communion bread and wine does not represent the body and blood of Christ, it reminds us of them (or actually is so). Texts dont represent reality or history, they remind us of it.

But what history are we reminding ourselves of? This is where I'm stuck, because I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that history or reality is out there just waiting to be discovered and grasped and represented as a whole instead of as fractions, which it is. Still, that's one of the benefits of thinking of these things in terms of memory rather than representation: all of us are aware of how fragmented memory is, and we dont have to pretend that our objects or texts or practices are complete.