Religious icons go back tens of thousands of years. As a matter of fact, religious art may well be the first art that was ever made. When most people picture religious iconography, they imagine sophisticated Orthodox art or ornamental Tibetan Buddhist paintings. In reality, a religious icon can be basically anything that has a special spiritual meaning to you. It could be a figure of a saint, but it could also be a leaf taken from a forest where you had some sort of awakening or realization. The key isn't the icon itself, but its symbolic value.
The use of religious imagery has really changed in the last several decades. People put up religious clip art on web pages all the time and don't even think twice about it, but few realize how much different this practice would have appeared not too long ago. Up until recently, religious icons were reserved for very special occasions in most cultures. It was not really appropriate to put a cross on the back of a pickup truck for example, or put up a Jesus loves you banner on your desk at work. Religious imagery was supposed to be specially display in a place where it could not be harmed.
In some ways, I like the new way of treating religious icons better than the old way. You see, unless it is a religious artifact, an icon doesn't really have any value in and of itself. A cross is just a cross and a picture of a saint is just as picture. The real value is what it means to you, and if it is important you should be free to display it.
My favorite thing about religious iconography, however, isn't so much the symbolic significance as the appearance. I have always loved spiritual icons. My biggest interest is in Buddhist artifacts. Tibetan thangka painting is so elaborate and so gorgeous. Every single stroke symbolizes something, but it all comes together as an artistic work as well. I find it much better than those large, realistic portraits of saints you sometimes see painted on murals. Anyone can do realism nowadays especially since the invention of photography but a good symbolic painting is still something special. You see this in Catholic icons a lot too, especially ones from the Middle Ages. It is neat to think that a religious lesson could be contained in a painting so readily.
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