ABSTRACT
The ancient Christian dance, danced on graves at the time of the Black Death and a children's game, provides an image through which to reflect on the aesthetic dimension of religious education (RE). The most coherent defence of the life theme was based on a Christian incarnational theology. Within a particular religious community, this rationale makes sense. In societies where one religion dominates, as in medieval Europe, art and religion are clearly seen to be one. Story, dance, drama, and social order are all part of one circle. In such a world the images live; they reverberate, for individuals find in them echoes of their own life and experience and respond with the creation of fresh forms. Traditional religious forms of festival, rites of passage, and ritual serve the same function. In space, the sense of wonder and of possibility are developed through contemplation of the very small and infinitely great.
