SACRED AND PROFANE BEAUTY: The Holy in Art

From Holland's Van der Leeuw, a philosopher and theologian of enormous erudition, we have a study of the paths which join and the boundaries which separate the holy and the beautiful, both of the East and West and of times primitive, classical and modern. For him, in the ideal, the dance reflects the movements of God, the drama develops the dialogue between man and God, architecture reveals the heavenly city, painting envisions the sacred image, poetry hymns the eternal and music echoes the Gloria. But the original unity of these creative endeavors historically ""split"" into secularization; now we must attempt an approach towards reintegration, even though, or because, ""religion and art are parallel lines which intersect only at infinity and meet in God"". That's the essence; the particulars cover just about every thing from Medieval mystery plays to the Kabuki, Cicero and Bach, Dakota hunting songs and Rilke, Stefan George and Galsworthy. A sort of impressionistic intellect, sometimes blurred, sometimes bright, in both detail and design. For the scholar.