The sum and substance of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another. So, if you attended an exhibition of metaphorical contemporary religious art, you could expect to be spiritually motivated by imagery that does not bludgeon you with didactic, smarmy, visual cliche.

Such is the case in the new show "Metaphorically Speaking: Contemporary Religious Art," at Brigham Young University's Museum of Art through Jan. 8, 2005, where viewers will encounter more than 40 works by 12 artists who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

There is no heavy-handed preaching in the group's art, and viewers will be pleased to see that each of the 12 are consummate craftsmen, creating works that rarely appear overtly religious.

"This isn't the kind of high, serious art that you'd find in a cathedral," said Herman DuToit, head of Audience Education and Development at the MOA, "It's not canonized in that kind of iconography. It's personal, perhaps even bordering on — in some cases — what looks like whimsy but is in fact rooted in deep personal experience. These artists all have a very positive attitude towards their faith."

In his book "Varieties of Visual Experience," Edmund Feldman stated that many artists today question traditional dogmas and "philosophies about the nature of man, the purpose of his existence, his relations to other men, and his relation to the divine." They express this doubt and uncertainty in their art, which is often cynical and occasionally grotesque.

The artists in "Metaphorically Speaking" are also concerned with the world and its problems. However, even while employing the same art techniques of more sardonic artists, they are influenced by the positive outlook of their church; their art speaks to peace, love, hope and faith.

Some viewers might consider this approach a throwback to a more naive time, when man was ignorant of the world's many problems and inconsistencies. But the artists in "Metaphor" would disagree, and their art, with sophistication and panache, tells the viewer so with paintings, installations and three-dimensional works that encourage contemplation and reflection while deciphering the visual metaphors; it is one of the more engaging aspects of the show.

"We have become very used to deciphering symbols, "DuToit said, "whether they be parables or similes or allegories, in our text, in our scriptures, but we're less comfortable with the visual images that artists produce. This show is an attempt to make people look beyond the paint and to see beyond the composition to the connotations that lead into the religious domain."

"Searching and pondering the meaning of symbols," said Dawn Pheysey, the show's curator, "whether literary or visual, can result in edifying and meaningful experiences for the participant."