Since Jesus declared poverty and humility to be the most important Christian virtues, the question inevitably arises as to why the church accepted architectural ornamentation and the public display of artistic pomp. At first glance, early Christian art appears to be a mere clone, or at best an identical twin, of its Greco-Roman counterpart, and there is indeed no denying the fact that early Christian art is based on the Greco-Roman artisan tradition and mindset. This chapter first discusses a broader context the issue of the acceptance of the pictorial religious image in Christianity. Next, it discusses baptism and baptisteries, and explores the impact the church has on the believer through the medium of art and architecture after acceptance of Christ and baptism. Then, the chapter examines how the church markets salvation to believers through the medium of art. Finally, it discusses subjects of Christian archaeology such as catacombs and mausoleums and their decorative accoutrements.

Most historians agree that few examples of recognizably Christian art and architecture can be identified and dated prior to the beginning of the third century. Although older scholarship sometimes argued that this 'late arrival' of Christian art was due to Christians original resistance to visual art or specially constructed worship spaces, more recent studies have pointed to the difficulty of distinguishing pagan artefacts from Christian ones or secular domestic architecture from house churches. Evidence of pre-Constantinian church building outside of Rome exists. A fifth-century octagonal church building at Capernaum was built over an existing domestic structure, believed to have been an early house church located in St Peter's basilica. Both the man and woman have companions, one of them in the posture of prayer. Such religiously ambiguous iconography might have come from artisans workshops, with a limited catalogue of motifs, which were patronised by pagan and Christian clients.