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Using Religious Images to Teach 
Visual Literacy
A Unique Opportunity for Theological 
Libraries
Daniel Smith, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

ABSTR AC T Over the last few years, many publications have 
appeared that focus on ways of teaching visual literacy and its 
importance in research. Today’s researchers must be equipped with 
the tools to interpret and make meaning from visual materials to 
succeed in their studies. The theological/religious world is uniquely 
well-suited for this discussion, as it already has much to offer in 
terms of familiar images and icons. These offerings are diverse 
and filled with much meaning and potential. This Listen and Learn 
session explored ways to use religious art as a way to teach visual 
literacy. The hope was that participants would leave with a clearer 
idea of visual literacy and the ways that theological libraries can 
engage and teach it to our students. By equipping our students with 
these skills, they will hopefully become more solid and informed 
in their scholarship and research and more comfortable using and 
engaging images.

INTRODUCTION

As a way of beginning the session, participants were invited to expe-
rience visio divina, a way of focusing upon a visual and meditating 
upon its spiritual potential. To center ourselves, we all took three 
deep breaths and then focused upon a specific image. The image 
that was chosen for the session was Van Gogh’s “The Great Samari-
tan,” painted in 1890. As we focused upon the image, we were given 
a series of prompts that invited us to focus upon what we saw initially, 
what the colors/lines might communicate, how God might be speak-
ing to us through this painting, etc. As we continued to gaze at the 
painting, a reading of the Great Samaritan story from Luke 10:30–4 
was read. We closed by looking at the painting in light of the Bibli-
cal narrative.



Listen and Learn Sessions  263

With the end of this experience, I explained how my experience 
of visio divina prompted me to explore how this exercise might be 
used as a way of teaching visual literacy in theological education. 
Through my experience, I realized that I did not have adequate skills 
to engage deeply with images and, as a result, I began to explore 
how I might improve those. I have been compelled by the conver-
sations about contemplative pedagogy and libraries, and I see this 
as a viable tool for our work in theological libraries, but I wonder 
how we might uniquely teach visual literacy and what the specific 
needs of theological students might be. We must explore this because, 

“Images often function as information, but they are also aesthetic and 
creative objects that require additional levels of interpretation and 
analysis” (ACRL 2011).

PARTICIPANTS’ EXPERIENCE

Before moving into an exploration of visual literacy, participants 
were polled about their experience of visual literacy. They were 
asked if they had taught visual literacy and if they had any learn-
ing objects dedicated to visual literacy in their libraries. Most 
participants answer no to both of these questions. I also invited the 
participants to think about how they had seen images used in their 
institutions and whether they use images with intentionality. These 
questions and answers helped to organize the rest of the sessions, 
where I introduced the concepts of visual literacy.

VISUAL LITERACY

So, what exactly is visual literacy? In the words of the Association 
for College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2011):

Visual literacy is a set of abilities that enables an individual to 
effectively find, interpret, evaluate, use, and create images and 
visual media. Visual literacy skills equip a learner to understand and 
analyze the contextual, cultural, ethical, aesthetic, intellectual, and 
technical components involved in the production and use of visual 
materials. A visually literate individual is both a critical consumer 
of visual media and a competent contributor to a body of shared 
knowledge and culture.

Despite living in an increasingly visual culture, various researchers 
and librarians have found that most students do not know how to 
effectively engage with images and do not use images appropriately 



264  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

when they do. While they may incorporate images into presenta-
tions, students are particularly hesitant to use images in their papers 
(Matusiak, Heinbach, Harper, and Bovee 2019). Clearly, we cannot 
take visual literacy for granted and, as I have found, students are 
very interested in utilizing and engaging images in their coursework 
and ministries.

As identified in the quote from the ACRL, visual literacy involves 
distinct abilities. A visually literate person is able to find, interpret, 
evaluate, and use images. Librarians can help students become visu-
ally literate by focusing upon these abilities.

First, by focusing upon finding images, librarians can highlight 
places to look for visuals, like library databases and credible websites. 
They can also highlight effective search strategies that may help 
students better locate images. By describing how images are classi-
fied and labeled, librarians can help students better understand how 
to find images. As the ACRL (2011) states, “Finding visual materials 
in text-based environments requires specific types of research skills.”

Next, we can focus upon the ways of interpreting images. Vari-
ous conversations about the role of librarians in interpretation have 
concluded that this may best be reserved for disciplinary specialists, 
like professors; however, we can identify resources that may help 
students better understand the work of interpreting images.

Third, we can focus upon the act of evaluation, and we have 
much to offer in this regard. There are digital tools like InVid and 
Google Image Search that can be very helpful. They allow you to see 
if images have been altered and to see how images have been used by 
others. Participants were invited to share tools that they have used or 
recommended to others. They were also invited to share additional 
criteria that would be helpful for evaluating images.

Finally, we can teach students how to effectively use images 
as well. According to the ACRL’s (2011) visual literacy standards, 

“The use, sharing, and reproduction of visual materials also raise 
particular ethical and legal considerations.” By discussing the ways 
that copyright and licensing interact with images, we can empower 
students with a keener sense of acceptable use. We can discuss the 
public domain, Creative Commons, fair use, and other concepts in 
this regard. We can also talk about image creation and the impor-
tance of associating metadata with images so that they are searchable 
and accessible to all. In addition, we can highlight the importance of 



Listen and Learn Sessions  265

appropriate citing images and giving credit so that folks can easily 
locate images later. 

Images are a part of scholarly communication and have much to 
teach us when we engage them deeply. Like with any search process, 
these four steps are iterative and require a continual engagement 
through the research process. While I focused upon teaching visual 
literacy to students, this process can also be helpful with other 
constituencies, like faculty and staff, who also use images in their 
research and work.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

The work of teaching visual literacy is best done in partnership with 
others, like faculty and centers/committees. At Garrett-Evangelical, 
there are several faculty who are very interested in religious art 
and often incorporate it in their scholarship and teaching. Some 
even teach courses that focus upon religious art. They are clearly 
viable partners. Likewise, we have an Art Committee that works to 
display art and preserve the seminary’s collections. I invited all of 
the participants to think about who might be partners for this work 
at their institutions.

The work of teaching visual literacy is also best accomplished 
with additional learning objects, like LibGuides or tutorials, which 
help students further explore how they can become visually literate. 
A guide can highlight image sources, tools, resources, etc. It can also 
help the students begin to critically engage images by presenting 
them with questions. I shared an example from our library’s guide 
(bit.ly/stybergvl). Of course, it is also important to think about the 
ways that we might assess visual literacy. I shared some assessment 
ideas with the participants (bit.ly/vlassess). 

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I share this quote from the ACRL (2011):
Across disciplines, students engage with images and visual materials 
throughout the course of their education. Although students 
are expected to understand, use, and create images in academic 
work, they are not always prepared to do so. Scholarly work with 
images requires research, interpretation, analysis, and evaluation 
skills specific to visual materials. These abilities cannot be taken for 

http://bit.ly/stybergvl
http://bit.ly/vlassess


266  AT L A 2020 PROCEEDINGS

granted and need to be taught, supported, and integrated into the 
curriculum.

Recognizing that we all come from various religious traditions, with 
various theologies and histories with religious art/images, I encour-
aged the participants to think about how they might teach visual 
literacy in their libraries. Images teach us, and we interact with 
them daily. We must learn to engage them deeply and recognize their 
potential within theological education. Perhaps spiritual practices 
like visio divina might be one way of beginning to do just that.

To learn more about visual literacy, I recommend Visual Literacy 
for Libraries: A Practical Standards-Based Guide (Brown et al. 2016). 
It is a very helpful, how-to introduction that includes various impor-
tant questions to consider as well as exercises for the reader and 
teacher of visual literacy.

WORKS CITED

Association for College and Research Libraries. 2011. “ACRL Visual 
Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education.” www.ala.
org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy.

Brown, Nicole E., Kaila Bussert, Denise Hattwig, and Ann Medaille. 
2016. Visual Literacy for Libraries: A Practical Standards-Based 
Guide. Chicago: American Library Association.

Matusiak, Krystyna K., Chelsea Heinbach, Anna Harper, and 
Michael Bovee. 2019. “Visual Literacy in Practice: Use of Images 
in Students’ Academic Work.” College & Research Libraries 80, no. 
1: 123–39. doi.org/10.5860/crl.80.1.123.

http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy
http://doi.org/10.5860/crl.80.1.123

