Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art available in Hardcover
Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art
- ISBN-10:
- 0195223802
- ISBN-13:
- 9780195223804
- Pub. Date:
- 08/28/2006
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press, USA
- ISBN-10:
- 0195223802
- ISBN-13:
- 9780195223804
- Pub. Date:
- 08/28/2006
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press, USA
Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art
Hardcover
Buy New
$94.00Buy Used
$76.94-
SHIP THIS ITEM— Temporarily Out of Stock Online
-
PICK UP IN STORE
Your local store may have stock of this item.
Available within 2 business hours
Temporarily Out of Stock Online
-
SHIP THIS ITEM
Temporarily Out of Stock Online
Please check back later for updated availability.
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, USA |
| Publication date: | 08/28/2006 |
| Series: | AAR Texts and Translations Series |
| Edition description: | New Edition |
| Pages: | 388 |
| Product dimensions: | 9.30(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.30(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