Catholic University of America Press The Religion of Reality: Inquiry into the Self, Art and Transcendence

Once gods walked among humans, but, friends, we have come too late! The Gods are...up there in another world. Thus the poet Holderlin evoked the godlessness in modern life, which, ruled by reason and science, has chased transcendence out of our understanding. Yet is it true that we moderns walk without gods? ""The Religion of Reality"" takes to task this common assumption according to which the modern intellect is devoid of appeal to the transcendental. The book first argues that religious feeling persists in the secular western mind; that it has taken refuge in the unlikeliest of camps, indeed with the supposed debunker of religious creed: the rationalist existential ego. The autonomous, individual self is more than just an idea: it is the pillar of modern times - a deity that anchors our morals, politics, and society, and defines what is crucial about human existence. On this score, ""The Religion of Reality"" makes two points: first that the philosophic primacy of the self rests on a leap of faith; and second that its religious centrality cannot ultimately satisfy the transcendental thirst that it kindles. The book constructively inquires into the artistic paths that lead away from this anthropocentrism. Art, it is often said, is the religion of the modern secular mind. This study argues that there are good reasons for this status. Taking seriously the age-old connection between art and religion, the book presents just how the spiritual is active in the artistic experience, whether of religious or secular stamp. Artworks are attempts to overcome the limits of expression and knowledge, hence of the human standpoint. ""The Religion of Reality"" is not an attempt to resuscitate the religion of art; rather it is a demonstration of the religious in art. About the Author Didier Maleuvre, associate professor of French and comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is author of Museum Memories: History, Technology, Art.