Excerpt from The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity The art of the catacombs is the first outward manifestation of Christian culture, and shows in a remarkable Way how the external forms of the old roman-hellenistic culture were assimilated and modified by the new Spiritual forces. Early Christian art took over the traditional commonplaces of the Hellenistic house - decorator, and infused them with a pro found Spiritual meaning. The subjects are mere generalised types or symbols_ - a fish, a clove, or a figure borrowed from heathen mythology - the value of which consists entirely in their hieratic and mystical significance to the initiated. Of these figures the most popular is that of a woman in an attitude of prayer - the oransma figure that symbolised at once the soul of the deceased, the freed and enlightened Spirit of man, and also the Virgin Church, the Bride of the Spirit. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.