Christianity on display: a semiotic study of two museums of world religions (Glasgow, Taipei)

Figures & data

Table 1. Main types of functional discursive-epistemic strategies.

Strategies	Rhetorical Purpose
Directives	to influence the listeners’ future behaviour
Description	to present objects and relations in space
Narration	to present events and relations in time
Exposition	to introduce abstract concepts
Argumentation	to put forward a point of view

Table 2. Logico-semantic relations between text and image (Bateman 2014, 196).

Logico-semantic relations	Definition
Elaboration	One resource adds further information to another at the same level of generality, performing function equivalent to linguistic devices such as in other words; for example; to be precise; namely.
Extension	The verbal information and the image each make their own contribution but are not related to each other, i.e. unrelated information.
Enhancement	One resource qualifies information to another, to provide contextual information in terms of time, place, manner, reason, purpose, etc.

Table 3. Theme analysis in SMM.

Clause number	Theme	Rheme	Discursive-epistemic strategies
C1	Christians	believe that	Argumentation
C2	Jesus	is the only Son of God, the Christ, and the Messiah.	Exposition
C3	He	was born in Bethlehem and lived in Judea at the start of the Common Era (CE).	Narration
C4	Through his death and resurrection, he	saved all believers.	Narration
C5	He	taught people how to live and what God expected of them.	Narration
C6	The story of Jesus and his teachings	are recorded in the four Gospels of the New Testament.	Narration

Table 4. Theme analysis in MWR.

Clause number	Theme	Rheme	Discursive-epistemic strategies
Quote	‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them’ says Jesus Christ in the gospel of Matthew, one of the holy scriptures of Christianity.
C1	Over the nearly two millennia since, Jesus	lived on earth	Narration
C2	Christian communities,	collectively called the Church, have spread all over the globe, becoming immersed in many cultures.	Narration
C3	Christianity	is one of the world’s largest religions, with more than two billion followers.	Exposition
C4	As varied as the faces of these different Christians	are the myriad ways in which	Exposition
C5	they	express their experience of and devotion to Jesus Christ: […]	Narration
C6	Who	was this Jesus Christ, whose presence is felt even today and who inspires so many different women and men?	Exposition
C7	The various Christian traditions,	as they developed, sought in different ways to answer this question […]	Exposition
C8	After his death, old and new followers	gathered in his name and were soon called Christians.	Exposition
C9	They	proclaimed that	Argumentation
C10	Jesus Christ	was and is the Messiah	Exposition
C11	[that] Jesus
C12	the divinity	who was incarnated in human form, was resurrected after being dead for three days, and is now the King of heaven and earth;	Narration/Exposition
C13	and [that] Jesus Christ	is still alive today, giving strength to and being present in individuals and communities […]	Narration

Figure 1. Display case of Christianity in MWR (photo taken by the author).

Figure 2. (photo taken by the author) 聖伯多祿 Head of Saint Peter. Leader of the Apostles 油畫 Oil Painting 西元十七世紀 17th century 聖伯多祿, 本名西門, 為耶穌的十二使徒之首, 在耶穌遇難後, 擔起耶路撒冷教會的重責, 成為羅馬天主教會的第一位教宗。

Bateman, John A. 2014. Text and Image: A Critical Introduction to the Visual/Verbal Divide. London: Routledge.

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