Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art

Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art

ISBN-10:
0195223802
ISBN-13:
9780195223804
Pub. Date:
08/03/2006
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0195223802
ISBN-13:
9780195223804
Pub. Date:
08/03/2006
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art

Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art

Hardcover

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Overview

Gerardus van der Leeuw was one of the first to attempt a rapprochement between theology and the arts, and his influence continues to be felt in what is now a burgeoning field. Sacred and Profane is the fullest expression of his pursuit of a theological aesthetics, surveying religion's relationship to all the arts — dance, drama, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music. This edition makes this seminal work, first published in Dutch in 1932, newly available. A new foreword by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona analyzes the continuing relevance of van der Leeuw's thought.
Van der Leeuw's impassioned and brilliant investigation of the relationship between the holy and the beautiful is founded upon the conviction that for too long the religious have failed to seriously contemplate the beautiful, associating it as they do with the kingdom of sensuality and impermanence. Similarly it has been alien to literati and aesthetes to reflect upon the holy, for they choose to consider this physical world to be permanent, and therefore to be glorified through beauty alone. In truth, as van der Leeuw undertakes to show in Sacred and Profane Beauty, the holy has never been absent from the arts, and the arts have never been unresponsive to the holy. Whether one considers the Homeric epics, the dancing Sivas and Vedic poems, the sacred wall paintings of ancient Egypt, the primitive mask, or the range of sacred arts developed out of Latin and Byzantine Christianity, primordial creation in the arts was always directed toward the symbolization and interpretation of the holy. The fact that in our day this original connection is obscured and the artistic impulse is more generally regarded as wholly individualistic and autonomous does not contradict van der Leeuw's thesis; indeed, the breakdown of the unity of the holy and the arts is central to his thesis.
Van der Leeuw was the rare thinker who combined profundity of insight, grace of style, and a willingness to take daring intellectual chances. In Sacred and Profane, he describes each of the arts in its original unity with the religious and then analyzes its historical disjunction and alienation. After a penetrating investigation of the structural elements within the arts which illumines a crucial dimension of the religious experience, van der Leeuw points toward the reemergence of an appropriate theological aesthetics on which a reunification of the arts could be founded.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195223804
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 08/03/2006
Series: AAR Texts and Translations Series
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 388
Sales rank: 962,580
Product dimensions: 9.48(w) x 6.55(h) x 1.19(d)

About the Author

Gerardus van der Leeuw was Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Several of his works are considered classics, including Religion in Essence and Manifestation and Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion.

Table of Contents


Preface     v
Foreword     xi
Introduction to the New Edition     xxi
Introduction     3
Rivalry or Ultimate Unity?     3
What Is the Holy?     4
Methodology     5
Can Art Be a Holy Act?     6
"Primitive" and "Modern"     7
Organization     7
Beautiful Motion
The Unity of Dance and Religion     11
Circles and Planes     11
Dance and Culture     12
Prayer, Work, and Dance     16
Pantomime     17
Ecstasy     24
The Dance as the Movement of God     29
The Dance and Contemporary Culture     32
The Breakup of Unity     36
The Dance in the Diversity of Life     36
Profane Dance     38
Procession     39
The Dance of Death     44
Labyrinth Dances     44
Love Dances     48
Enmity Between Dance and Religion     50
Hostility     50
Dance and Theater     53
The Body Cult or Culture?     54
Religious Dance: Influences     57
The Ancient     57
Apollonian Movement     59
Dionysiac Movement     61
The Human     66
Religious Dance: Harmony     67
The Heavenly Dance     67
The Theological Aesthetics of the Dance     73
Movements and Countermovements
Holy Play     77
Dance and Drama     77
Drama     78
Sacer Ludus     80
The Mask     84
The Breakup of Unity     86
Art Is Not Imitation     86
Tipi Fissi (Fixed Types)     88
Secularization     90
Liturgy     92
The Enmity Between Religion and Theater     97
The Enmity     97
The Nature of the Enmity     100
Influences: Harmony     104
The Broadening and Deepening of Life     104
The Human     108
The Theological Aesthetics of the Drama     110
Liturgy     110
Beautiful Words     113
Holy Words     115
The Work Song     115
Rhythm     117
The Image     118
The Poet     122
Word and Gesture     124
"...A God Gave Words to Tell My Suffering"     125
The Breakup of Unity     127
From Carmen to Literature     127
Rain Magic Becomes Poetry     127
Poetry Becomes Prose     128
The Fairy Tale Becomes the Short Story     129
The Rejection of the Word by Religion     132
The Forbidden Image     132
The Forbidden Word     136
Influences Toward Harmony     139
The Sublime     139
Light     140
Silence and Near Silence     141
The Human     142
Harmony     142
The Theological Aesthetics of the Word     145
Poet and Prophet     145
Inspiration     147
The Divine Word     149
The Pictorial Arts     153
The Fixation of an Idea as a Holy Image     155
The Art of Movement and Pictorial Art     155
Image Is Not Likeness     156
Ornament     157
Representation     157
Imagination and Representation     160
Freezing Motion     161
The Image of God     162
Complete Stasis     165
The Living Image     167
Unhindered Pictorial Representation     169
Real and Decorative Nakedness     169
Expression of the Holy Becomes Expression of Holy Feelings     171
Transferences     172
Opposition Between Image and Likeness     173
Transition     176
The Prohibition of Images and the Iconoclastic Controversy     177
The Prohibition of Images     177
Iconomachy     182
The Holy Image: Influences     189
Paths and Boundaries     189
Fascination     190
The Awe-Inspiring     190
The Ghostly     190
Darkness and Semidarkness     190
The Human     191
Harmony     192
The Theological Aesthetics of the Image     192
The House of God and the House of Man     193
The Building of the House of God     195
The House of God     195
Building     196
The House of God Becomes a Human House: Alienation and Conflict     199
The House Can No Longer Be a Temple     199
The Temple Becomes a House     201
God Needs a House     202
Man Needs a House     204
No One Needs a House      204
Influences Toward Harmony     206
The Massive and Monumental     206
Profusion     207
Emptiness     207
The Theological Aesthetics of Building     209
Music and Religion     211
Holy Sound     213
Powerful Sound     213
The Transitional Structure     217
Liturgical Music Becomes "Church Music"     217
Passion and Oratorio     218
Words and Music     220
Refrain     221
Da Capo     222
Imitation     223
The Decline of Church Music     223
Music and Religion     223
Discord     225
No Conflict?     225
Music, not Tonal Art     226
Silence, neither Speaking nor Singing     227
Altercations     227
Influences     230
The Last Defense of External Continuity     230
The Sublime     231
Light     232
Suspension     233
The Heavenly     234
The Transition     234
Darkness and Semidarkness     236
Silence and Near Silence     236
The Endless     238
Objectivity     238
Harmony     243
The Theological Aesthetics of Music     245
Music, the "Telephone of the Beyond"?     245
Music Which Leads to the Depths     248
Program Music     254
In Praise of Opera     256
Music as a Game     258
The Theology of Music     259
Eschatological Music     261
Theological Aesthetics     263
Paths and Boundaries     265
To Seek, Not to Construct     265
"Religious Art"     267
The Antithetical Structure     271
"Artists"     271
Style     273
L'Art pour l'Art     275
Service     276
The World of Art     280
Absolutism     282
Psychological Parallels     283
Resistances     284
The Republic of the Arts     288
Words     289
Music     293
Conflict     295
The Holy Word     299
Holy Sound     300
Unity of Word and Music     300
The Hierarchy of the Arts     302
The Image of God     304
Phenomenological Component     305
Exegetical-Historical Component     307
Dogmatic Component     317
The Theology of the Arts     328
Independence and Interdependence     332
Point of Intersection     333
Harmony as the Creation of God     334
A Metaphysics of Art?     336
A Worship of Beauty?     337
Incarnation     339
Bibliographical Notes     341
Index     353
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