Sacred and Profane Beauty: The Holy in Art

by Gerardus van der Leeuw, David E. Green (Translator), Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (Editor)

Preface
Beautiful motion. The unity of dance & religion
The breakup of unity
Enmity between dance & religion
Religious dance: influences
Religious dance: harmony
The theological aesthetics of the dance
Movements & countermovements. Holy play
The breakup of unity
The enmity between religion & theater
Influences: harmony
The theological aesthetics of the drama
Beautiful words. Holy words
The breakup of unity
The rejection of the word by religion
Influences toward harmony
The theological aesthetics of the word
The pictorial arts: The fixation of an idea as a holy image
Unhindered pictorial representation
The prohibition of images & the iconoclastic controversy
The holy image: influences
The house of God & the house of man. The building of the house of God
The house of God becomes a human house: alienation & conflict
Influences toward harmony
The theological aesthetics of building
Music & religion. Holy sound
The transitional structure
Discord
Influences
Harmony
The theological aesthetics of music
Theological aesthetics. Paths & boundaries
The republic of the arts
The image of God
The theology of the arts
Bibliography
Index

Genres: Religion, Art

388 pages, Hardcover

Published August 3, 2006

About the author

Gerardus van der Leeuw was a Dutch historian and philosopher of religion.
He is best known for his work Religion in Essence and Manifestation: A Study in Phenomenology, an application of philosophical phenomenology to religion. It was first published in 1933 under the German title Phänomenologie der Religion and translated into English in 1938.
From 1945–1946 van der Leeuw was minister of Education of the Netherlands for the Labour Party. Before the war he had been a member of the conservative Christian Historical Union.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book may have been assigned for the first psychology class I took at Union Theological Seminary in New York, a class taught by a teacher with considerable interest in aesthetics. Later I was to read the more philosophical van der Leeuw, his Religion in Essence and Manifestation, with little profit. This book was more accessible in parts.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my religious studies class at CNU (RSTD 312 - Religion & Art).

I absolutely despise this book. Whether because of the author's original intent in his native Dutch or because of the poor translation or through some combination of the two, I either do not understand or completely disagree with everything I have read.

[Tyson Guthrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sacred and Profane Beauty was possibly the most thought-provoking book I've read in years. In the end, VanderLeeuw and I will differ theologically [I think] in ways that affect his thesis. However, this did not prevent me from enjoying and benefiting from his work.

[Erik]

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 11, as one of Five Books about Art and Beauty.