Philosophy, Art, and Religion
Understanding Faith and Creativity

Systematically explores the affinity and the rivalry between art and religion, focusing at length on music, visual art, literature, and architecture in turn.

Gordon Graham (Author)

9781107132221, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 September 2017

184 pages
23.6 x 15.7 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

'Gordon Graham's Philosophy, Art, and Religion has a claim to being the best book on art and religion published over the past several decades. The book's philosophical thought and prose are exceptional.' Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology Emeritus, Yale University, Connecticut

At a time when religion and science are thought to be at loggerheads, art is widely hailed as religion's natural spiritual ally. Philosophy, Art, and Religion investigates the extent to which this is true. It charts the way in which modern conceptions of 'Art' often marginalize the sacred arts, construing choral and instrumental music, painting and iconography, poetry, drama, and architecture as 'applied' arts that necessarily fall short of the ideal of 'art for art's sake'. Drawing on both history of art and philosophical aesthetics, Graham sets out the historical context in which the arts came to free themselves from religious patronage, in order to conceptualize the cultural context in which religious art currently finds itself. The book then relocates religious art within the aesthetics of everyday life. Subsequent chapters systematically explore each of the sacred arts, using a wide range of illustrative examples to uncover the ways in which artworks can illuminate religious faith, and religious content can lend artworks a deeper dimension.

1. Religion, art, and the aesthetics of everyday life
2. Sacred music
3. Art, icon, and idolatry
4. Literature and liturgy
5. Glorious and transcendent places
6. Re-thinking the sacred arts.

Subject Areas: Theology [HRLB], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Philosophy: aesthetics [HPN], Religious subjects depicted in art [AGR]