the extravagant, in-your-face superfluity of it all,
这种奢华无际扑面而来
the sheer excess...
不仅于此
The basic point is clear that this is a building
显然这一建筑被设计成
designed to unify the natural,
将自然 俗世及神界
the human and the divine worlds.
统一到一起
For millennia, art has been used
千百年来 人们使用艺术
to bring the human and divine together.
联系人类与诸神
And it's given us some of the most majestic
这带给我们一些史上
and affecting visual images ever made.
最宏伟动人的视觉盛宴
I want to explore what really lies behind
我想要挖掘这些杰作背后
these extraordinary creations.
究竟有着怎样的意义
And reveal the kind of religious work that art does
并揭示在世界各地艺术
all around the world.
在宗教中的作用
But, for me, the story of religious art
然而对我来说
is about more than this.
宗教艺术的故事不仅仅于此
It's about controversy and conflict,
它是争议与冲突
danger and risk.
危局与风险
Whether it's Muslim or Christian, Hindu or Jewish,
无论穆斯林 基督教或印度教徒还是犹太人
I want to expose
我想要展示所有宗教
the dilemmas that all religions face
在试着让神明显露于人前时
when they try to make gods visible in the human world.
所面对的困境与矛盾
When does the worship of an image
对肖像的崇拜何时变成
turn into dangerous idolatry?
危险的盲目崇拜
Where does divine glorification end
神圣的荣耀在哪里终结
and worldly vanity begin?
俗世的虚荣又从何处开始
What actually counts
什么才算是真神之像

as an image of God or of God's word?
什么才是真正的神谕
Treading these fault lines, I'll even show how the defacement
沿着这些断层 我还会展示宗教艺术的损毁
of religious art is fraught
又是如何满载着
with its own problems and paradoxes,
自身所拥有的问题与矛盾
and I want to end on what we often think of
最后我会在公认的
as the cradle of Western civilisation itself
西方文明摇篮
to ask what it is we now worship
问出我们现在究竟信仰什么
and how far we still look
以及用信仰之眼
with the eye of faith.
我们究竟还能看到多远