Religious image

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Religious image" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A religious image is a work of visual art that is representational and has a religious purpose, subject or connection. All major historical religions have made some use of religious images, although their use is strictly controlled and often controversial in many religions, especially Abrahamic ones.^{[citation needed]} General terms associated with religious images include cult image, a term for images, especially in sculpture which are or have been claimed to be the object of religious worship in their own right,^{[citation needed]} and icon strictly a term for Eastern Orthodox religious images,^{[citation needed]} but often used more widely, in and outside the area of religion.