Around 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens stood out in the natural competition and finally conquered the world, while other human species, including Homo neanderthalensis, Homo erectus, Homo soloensis and Homo denisovans, become extinct one by another. One of the most prominent differences between the winner and the extinct is that Sapiens has the capability to “create facts” that are not real, such as legends, myths and religions. As a result, human language started to describe fictive things. This is the “cognitive revolution” in human history.
Sapiens further created various “imagined communities” as the diversified units of social cooperation, from tribes to city-states, nations, the human community, and ultimately the world as a whole. In this process, to promote wide-spread social cooperation, these “imagined communities” have to win the belief of the targeted population. Therefore, appealing objects, events or behaviors were made up by Sapiens, with language (the storytelling capability) serving as the first and foremost foundation. Perceptible settings are also deployed to arouse empathy, which may later turn into belief. These perceptible settings are what we now refer to as “art”, which originates from ars in Latin – a translation of techne in Greek – meaning human activities and artifacts.
Contemporary artists have produced abundant artworks themed on belief or incorporating religious elements as they delve into the history and tradition of the community they belong to. Benefiting from the inclusiveness of contemporary arts, they are further tapping into the deep value of human civilization.
大约7万年前在各种人属中的“智人”（Homo sapiens）最后脱颖而出，成为了新世界的主人，而相反其他种族的人类，如尼安德特人、直立人、梭罗人、丹尼索瓦人等都相继灭绝。“智人”和他们最大的区别在于一种“虚构”现实的能力，并以这种方式创造出了莫须有的各种传说、神话、宗教等，随之语言在此进入了抽象化的领域。这便是所谓的“认知革命”（Cognitive Revolution）。
“智人”通过虚构的能力创造出了各种“想象的共同体”，形成了形式灵活的社会协作，从部落到城邦，从城邦到国家，从国家到人类共同体，从人类共同体到世界之整体（whole）。而为了实现普遍的社会协作，这些“虚构”必须要在目标人群中完成从不信到信仰的过程。这需要通过一种人为的方式创造出拥有感染力的物、事件或行为等，其中包含了最为重要的语言（讲故事的能力），并用这些感性设置去烘托某个“虚构”，并促成共通感的形成，那么信仰才会发生。而这些感性创造在今天被我们称为“艺术”（art），它源自拉丁文ars对于希腊文techne的翻译，即一切人为的活动（Activities）和人造品（artifacts）。
当代艺术家们在审视和发掘自身历史传统的探索中，创作了很多以信仰为主题以及包含宗教元素的当代艺术作品。他们立足于当代艺术的开放性，将人类文明的深层价值进行有益的延展和生发。