symbolism

• bad to extent original worshipful idea displaced by

85:3.5In re­li­gion, sym­bol­ism may be ei­ther good or bad just to the ex­tent that the sym­bol does or does not dis­place the orig­i­nal wor­ship­ful idea. And sym­bol­ism must not be con­fused with di­rect idol­a­try wherein the ma­te­rial ob­ject is di­rectly and ac­tu­ally wor­shiped.

• every inspiring ideal grasps for perpetuating

87:7.1The cult type of so­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion per­sisted be­cause it pro­vided a sym­bol­ism for the preser­va­tion and stim­u­la­tion of moral sen­ti­ments and re­li­gious loy­al­ties. The cult grew out of the tra­di­tions of “old fam­i­lies” and was per­pet­u­ated as an es­tab­lished in­sti­tu­tion; all fam­i­lies have a cult of some sort. Ev­ery in­spir­ing ideal grasps for some per­pet­u­at­ing sym­bol­ism—seeks some tech­nique for cul­tural man­i­fes­ta­tion which will in­sure sur­vival and aug­ment re­al­iza­tion—and the cult achieves this end by fos­ter­ing and grat­i­fy­ing emo­tion.

• mobilizes feeble spiritual insight

91:5.7But the minds of greater spir­i­tual il­lu­mi­na­tion should be pa­tient with, and tol­er­ant of, those less en­dowed in­tel­lects that crave sym­bol­ism for the mo­bi­liza­tion of their fee­ble spir­i­tual in­sight. The strong must not look with dis­dain upon the weak. Those who are God-con­scious with­out sym­bol­ism must not deny the grace-min­istry of the sym­bol to those who find it dif­fi­cult to wor­ship De­ity and to re­vere truth, beauty, and good­ness with­out form and rit­ual. In prayer­ful wor­ship, most mor­tals en­vi­sion some sym­bol of the ob­ject-goal of their de­vo­tions.