Re-Enchantment

by James Elkins (Editor), David Morgan (Editor)

The near-absence of religion from contemporary discourse on art is one of the most fundamental issues in postmodernism. Artists critical of religion can find voices in the art world, but religion itself, including spirituality, is taken to be excluded by the very project of modernism. The sublime, "re-enchantment" (as in Weber), and the aura (as in Benjamin) have been used to smuggle religious concepts back into academic writing, but there is still no direct communication between "religionists" and scholars. Re-Enchantment , volume 7 in The Art Seminar Series, will be the first book to bridge that gap. The volume will include an introduction and two final, synoptic essays, as well as contributions from some of the most prominent thinkers on religion and art including Boris Groys, James Elkins, Thierry de Duve, David Morgan, Norman Girardot, Sally Promey, Brent Plate, and Christopher Pinney.

Genres: Art, Religion

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

About the author

James Elkins (1955 – present) is an art historian and art critic. He is E.C. Chadbourne Chair of art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He also coordinates the Stone Summer Theory Institute, a short term school on contemporary art history based at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Reviews

[Giovanni García-Fenech · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the two essays by David Morgan, the Elkins excerpt is best read in the context of his great On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art, and the rest of the book was a bit of an academic free-for-all with decidedly mixed results.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful essays on the theological implications of art in a postmodern world.

[Virginia Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is amazing, in an age of so much technical advancement, how much confusion exists regarding the connection with art and spirituality. Perhaps this is in part because the idea of spirituality has been denigrated so long in our money/material culture. What is really disappointing is the confusion of religion and spirituality, especially among such a highly distinguished group of scholars? To repeat, spirituality is a path to freedom, and religion is a method of societal control. There are some thought provoking contributions and some interesting scholarly leads. Many of these questions would be the central focus of our time, if we were to be optimistic, and perhaps this is a good start.