Sacred and Profane Beauty The Holy in Art

by Leeuw, Gerardus van der; Eliade, Mircea; Green, David E.; Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane

• ISBN13: 9780195223804
• ISBN10: 0195223802
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-08-03
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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	(8)
Rivalry or Ultimate Unity?	3	(1)
What Is the Holy?	4	(1)
Methodology	5	(1)
Can Art Be a Holy Act?	6	(1)
"Primitive" and "Modern"	7	(1)
Organization	7	(4)
PART ONE: Beautiful Motion
1 The Unity of Dance and Religion	11	(25)
Circles and Planes	11	(1)
Dance and Culture	12	(4)
Prayer, Work, and Dance	16	(1)
Pantomime	17	(7)
Ecstasy	24	(5)
The Dance as the Movement of God	29	(3)
The Dance and Contemporary Culture	32	(4)
2 The Breakup of Unity	36	(14)
The Dance in the Diversity of Life	36	(2)
Profane Dance	38	(1)
Procession	39	(5)
The Dance of Death	44	(1)
Labyrinth Dances	44	(4)
Love Dances	48	(2)
3 Enmity Between Dance and Religion	50	(7)
Hostility	50	(3)
Dance and Theater	53	(1)
The Body Cult or Culture?	54	(3)
4 Religious Dance: Influences	57	(10)
The Ancient	57	(2)
Apollonian Movement	59	(2)
Dionysiac Movement	61	(5)
The Human	66	(1)
5 Religious Dance: Harmony	67	(6)
The Heavenly Dance	67	(6)
6 The Theological Aesthetics of the Dance	73	(4)
PART TWO: Movements and Countermovements
1 Holy Play	77	(9)
Dance and Drama	77	(1)
Drama	78	(2)
Sacer Ludus	80	(4)
The Mask	84	(2)
2 The Breakup of Unity	86	(11)
Art Is Not Imitation	86	(2)
Tipi Fissi (Fixed Types)	88	(2)
Secularization	90	(2)
Liturgy	92	(5)
3 The Enmity Between Religion and Theater	97	(7)
The Enmity	97	(3)
The Nature of the Enmity	100	(4)
4 Influences: Harmony	104	(6)
The Broadening and Deepening of Life	104	(4)
The Human	108	(2)
5 The Theological Aesthetics of the Drama	110	(3)
Liturgy	110	(3)
PART THREE: Beautiful Words	113	(40)
1 Holy Words	115	(12)
The Work Song	115	(2)
Rhythm	117	(1)
The Image	118	(4)
The Poet	122	(2)
Word and Gesture	124	(1)
"...A God Gave Words to Tell My Suffering"	125	(2)
2 The Breakup of Unity	127	(5)
From Carmen to Literature	127	(1)
Rain Magic Becomes Poetry	127	(1)
Poetry Becomes Prose	128	(1)
The Fairy Tale Becomes the Short Story	129	(3)
3 The Rejection of the Word by Religion	132	(7)
The Forbidden Image	132	(4)
The Forbidden Word	136	(3)
4 Influences Toward Harmony	139	(6)
The Sublime	139	(1)
Light	140	(1)
Silence and Near Silence	141	(1)
The Human	142	(1)
Harmony	142	(3)
5 The Theological Aesthetics of the Word	145	(8)
Poet and Prophet	145	(2)
Inspiration	147	(2)
The Divine Word	149	(4)
PART FOUR: The Pictorial Arts	153	(40)
1 The Fixation of an Idea as a Holy Image	155	(14)
The Art of Movement and Pictorial Art	155	(1)
Image Is Not Likeness	156	(1)
Ornament	157	(1)
Representation	157	(3)
Imagination and Representation	160	(1)
Freezing Motion	161	(1)
The Image of God	162	(3)
Complete Stasis	165	(2)
The Living Image	167	(2)
2 Unhindered Pictorial Representation	169	(8)
Real and Decorative Nakedness	169	(2)
Expression of the Holy Becomes Expression of Holy Feelings	171	(1)
Transferences	172	(1)
Opposition Between Image and Likeness	173	(3)
Transition	176	(1)
3 The Prohibition of Images and the Iconoclastic Controversy	177	(12)
The Prohibition of Images	177	(5)
Iconomachy	182	(7)
4 The Holy Image: Influences	189	(4)
Paths and Boundaries	189	(1)
Fascination	190	(1)
The Awe-Inspiring	190	(1)
The Ghostly	190	(1)
Darkness and Semidarkness	190	(1)
The Human	191	(1)
Harmony	192	(1)
The Theological Aesthetics of the Image	192	(1)
PART FIVE: The House of God and the House of Man	193	(18)
1 The Building of the House of God	195	(4)
The House of God	195	(1)
Building	196	(3)
2 The House of God Becomes a Human House: Alienation and Conflict	199	(7)
The House Can No Longer Be a Temple	199	(2)
The Temple Becomes a House	201	(1)
God Needs a House	202	(2)
Man Needs a House	204	(1)
No One Needs a House	204	(2)
3 Influences Toward Harmony	206	(3)
The Massive and Monumental	206	(1)
Profusion	207	(1)
Emptiness	207	(2)
4 The Theological Aesthetics of Building	209	(2)
PART SIX: Music and Religion	211	(52)
1 Holy Sound	213	(4)
Powerful Sound	213	(4)
2 The Transitional Structure	217	(8)
Liturgical Music Becomes "Church Music"	217	(1)
Passion and Oratorio	218	(2)
Words and Music	220	(1)
Refrain	221	(1)
Da Capo	222	(1)
Imitation	223	(1)
The Decline of Church Music	223	(1)
Music and Religion	223	(2)
3 Discord	225	(5)
No Conflict?	225	(1)
Music, not Tonal Art	226	(1)
Silence, neither Speaking nor Singing	227	(1)
Altercations	227	(3)
4 Influences	230	(13)
The Last Defense of External Continuity	230	(1)
The Sublime	231	(1)
Light	232	(1)
Suspension	233	(1)
The Heavenly	234	(1)
The Transition	234	(2)
Darkness and Semidarkness	236	(1)
Silence and Near Silence	236	(2)
The Endless	238	(1)
Objectivity	238	(5)
5 Harmony	243	(2)
6 The Theological Aesthetics of Music	245	(18)
Music, the "Telephone of the Beyond"?	245	(3)
Music Which Leads to the Depths	248	(6)
Program Music	254	(2)
In Praise of Opera	256	(2)
Music as a Game	258	(1)
The Theology of Music	259	(2)
Eschatological Music	261	(2)
PART SEVEN: Theological Aesthetics	263	(78)
1 Paths and Boundaries	265	(23)
To Seek, Not to Construct	265	(2)
"Religious Art"	267	(4)
The Antithetical Structure	271	(1)
"Artists"	271	(2)
Style	273	(2)
L'Art pour l'Art	275	(1)
Service	276	(4)
The World of Art	280	(2)
Absolutism	282	(1)
Psychological Parallels	283	(1)
Resistances	284	(4)
2 The Republic of the Arts	288	(16)
Words	289	(4)
Music	293	(2)
Conflict	295	(4)
The Holy Word	299	(1)
Holy Sound	300	(1)
Unity of Word and Music	300	(2)
The Hierarchy of the Arts	302	(2)
3 The Image of God	304	(24)
Phenomenological Component	305	(2)
Exegetical-Historical Component	307	(10)
Dogmatic Component	317	(11)
4 The Theology of the Arts	328	(13)
Independence and Interdependence	332	(1)
Point of Intersection	333	(1)
Harmony as the Creation of God	334	(2)
A Metaphysics of Art?	336	(1)
A Worship of Beauty?	337	(2)
Incarnation	339	(2)
Bibliographical Notes	341	(12)
Index	353