Really like this iconostasis (a wall of religious paintings with a door that separates the altar from the rest of the church) in a small Orthodox church in Kotor, Montenegro. When I was a lot younger, I read quite a bit about the Eastern Orthodox church including books on church history and the monks living on Mount Athos in Greece.
Have always thought that through its incredibly beautiful iconography and choral music, the Orthodox church understands a fundamental principle about the aesthetic function of religion: if religious phenomena and imagery is attractive to the human senses, people will be more inclined to follow the religion:
Yes, I found myself captivated by the various religious images on the iconastasis inside the small Orthodox church. The fact that Orthodox churches often seem to be somewhat dark inside only adds to a kind of mystical atmosphere.
Must stress that through not being Orthodox, I'm only speaking as an outsider here. I've often heard that Eastern Orthodoxy is difficult for a Western person to understand as he/she lacks the 'Slavic soul' to fully feel and digest the Orthodox experience, and, as a layman, I would go along with this. For me, Orthodoxy represents high Eastern European cultural expression in a way that pre-Vatican II Catholicism represents high Western cultural expression.
Below, there is a much older icon from the small Eastern Orthodox church in Kotor:
Through its small labyrinthe of Orthodox (and Catholic) churches, Kotor is a magical place for me, symbolically hidden and perhaps protected from the encroachment of the Western politically 'correct' world by the incredible hills surrounding it:
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