Abstract

How can the sacred be artistically expressed? The answer to this question depends greatly on the precise relation of the aesthetic to the religious experience. F. David Martin considers them both to be participative experiences which reveal the ontological beyond the ontic. Yet while the aesthetic experience and its artistic expression only implicitly attain Being as transcendent, religious art conveys an explicit awareness of transcendence. Religious expressiveness is achieved by a strong embodiment of the iconic element present in all art. Still without the addition of conventional symbols iconic symbols can never become explicitly religious. The presence of conventional religious symbols alone, however, is not sufficient to sacralize art. A painting may remain secular even if it represents a Madonna. To function religiously it also needs what the author terms an "iconic foundation." Thus the religious dimension of art appears on three levels: 1) in the artistic expression as such which, even though it may not articulate religious feelings, is implicitly religious by letting Being shine forth; 2) in the evocation of Being-as-transcendent by means of iconic symbols, which remains still religiously ambiguous; 3) in the clear assertion of transcendent Being by iconic and conventional symbols, which is explicitly religious. The thesis is developed successively for music, painting, literature, and architecture. Each chapter is illustrated with appropriate examples testifying to the author’s unusual aesthetic sensitivity.