Imagen de Dios, arte y liturgia del templo histórico de San Agustín, Bogotá.

Abstract

This research proposes a theological reading of the Church of St. Augustine in the former Santafé de la Nueva Granada, built in the colonial context of the seventeenth century. The study approaches the church not merely as a historical, artistic, or heritage building, but as a material expression of a particular understanding of God, the human being, and the relationship between them. Taking Genesis 28:17 —“the house of God and the gate of heaven”— as a biblical horizon, the research proposes an anagogical interpretation that moves from visible realities toward their transcendent reference. Four fundamental categories are articulated: imago Dei, symbol, liturgy, and anagogy. From these categories, the architecture, spatial arrangement, light, images, altarpieces, and liturgical elements of the church are interpreted as mediations that orient the believer toward the mystery of God. The purpose is to show how sacred space can express and shape an understanding of the human being as the image of God and as one called to communion with Him. Thus, the church is studied as a theological and mystagogical space in which history, symbol, and liturgy converge in an openness to transcendence.