Since the beginning of modernity, the relationship between art and religion has been a multifaceted one, characterized both by tensions and by productive exchanges. One can claim that the modern concept of “art” (and the corresponding modern institution of art) has been one of the “secular–religious” expressions of modernity. The language we have been employing to characterize thedomainof“finearts”and“esthetic”experienceshasbeenremarkably“religious”. We“meditate” in front of artworks; art allows us to experience a “spiritual” excitement; we make pilgrimages to see and venerate masterpieces in their (secular) sacred spaces (e.g., museums) that require a special decorum, inspiring the atmosphere of devotion. In this way (and following the lead provided by WalterBenjamin)wearewitnessinganexchangebetweenthe“aura”ofdevotional(religious-esthetic) objects, and the “aura” of (secular–religious) artworks. This exchange of “auratic” experiences can also be seen in the exchange of roles between traditional sacred spaces (churches) and modern (secular–sacred) museums: modernity has turned museums into places of silent worship of sacred objects (artworks), while churches have become exhibition spaces where most of the visitors go to see artworks and not to celebrate the Eucharist. The most recent developments testify to yet another reversal. Increasinglybusymuseumspaces—withtheirever-expandinguseoftechnologyandunder constantpressuretoembrace“participatoryculture”—arebecominglessandlessoftheold-fashioned quietspaceswithafocusonestheticcontemplationinfrontofapieceofart. Churches,onthecontrary, are providing such a context for carrying out practices associated with the traditional role of the museum, outside the time of church services. All of this presents us with the need to reconsider the question of the relationship between art, religion, and the sacred. How can we think of the “aura” of (sacred) contexts and (sacred) works? How to think of individual and collective (esthetic–religious) experiences? What to make of the manipulative dimension of (religious and esthetic) “auratic” experiences? Is the work of art still capable of mediating the experience of the “sacred” and under what conditions? What is the significance of the “eschatological” dimension of both art and religion (the sense of “ending”)? Can theology offer a way to reaffirm the creative capacities of the human being as something that characterizes the very condition of being human? This Special Issue aspires to contribute to the growing literature on contemporary art and religion, and to explore the new ways of thinking of art and the sacred (in their esthetic, ideological, and institutional dimensions) in the context of contemporary culture.

In the discussion of religion and art, it is quite difficult to exactly define what makes art ‘religious’. In this article, the author suggest six different perspectives in which a work of art—any work of art—could be interpreted as ‘religious’, as an embodiment of the complex relationship between art and religion. These perspectives are not mutually exclusive: one and the same art work could be approached on multiple levels at once. Nor do they disqualify other methodologies of studying art and religion. These perspectives provide conceptual windows to understand what people (could) mean when they discuss religious art. The six perspectives are: (1) material, (2) contextual, (3) referential, (4) reflexive, (5) ritual, and (6) existential. They vary from the more or less objective to the more subjective, and as such from artist-intended to viewer/listener-perceived (with or without help of clues provided by the artist and/or the object itself). The author illustrates who these diffe...

This three-way panel conversation aims to explore the relation between contemporary art and religion from a range of perspectives. Combining the insights of a leading contemporary artist, and two distinguished art historians and curators, it will be chaired by the theologian Professor Ben Quash of the Centre for Arts & the Sacred in London. This dialogue will be of interest both to art scholars and art enthusiasts—both those sympathetic to religion and those critical of it; those with faith as well as those with none. The abiding power of Christian motifs, ideas and styles in a host of modern and contemporary works that superficially look un- or anti-Christian indicates that visual art and Christian tradition have not become complete strangers. This invites analysis and understanding. How have religious artworks and artistic traditions found new articulations, caused new departures, or provoked new subversions in the last 100-150 years? What forms of engagement between theology and modern and contemporary art do such developments in the relationship between art and Christianity invite and reward? How do viewers (religious and non-religious) interact with historical Christian art today, and how do modern sensibilities affect our viewing of earlier Christian artworks and artistic traditions? Is contemporary art an alternative to religion or can it sometimes be an ally? How do contemporary art and religion each respond to human experiences of the absurd or the tragic? What do contemporary art and the spaces in which we encounter it, tell us about the histories of both Western Christianity and Western secularisation?

This introduction explores the connections between the worlds of art and religion over the past fifty years. Focusing on the discursive coherence of contemporary art and religion, Lerner examines the attempts to bring some order to a theme that has cyclically and persistently arisen in recent art making. In this overview of critical and curatorial interpretations, crucial areas of inquiry are: the religious and secular paradigms addressed within contemporary art practices; the relationships between works of art and institutional questions; the confrontations of new artistic modes; and the survival of religious symbolic structures.

Modernity and Postmodernity have witnessed secularization of the Western world and ultimate rationalization of thought. However, the rationalistic approach towards epistemological and ethical questions that characterizes Modernity has proven insufficient. Modern artists and philosophers directly or indirectly oppose the one-sided rationalistic view of the world and claim that the main subject and purpose of art is revelation of spiritual essences, connection with metaphysical reality. Eternal truths, Rothko claims, are the subject matter of all good art. This texts considers the modern tendency to associate art with spirituality in terms of themes, purpose and the role of the artist. I refer to contemporary philosophers and artists to elucidate the complex relationship between religion, art and spirituality today. I also explore the view that art is a kind of spiritual practice that can be compared to religious commitments. At the same time, art does not fully substitute religion. A crucial distinction is that art is inclusive, allowing agnostics and atheists to have spiritual experiences, while religion is exclusive. This however doesn't mean that art has priority in facilitating one's spiritual growth. Along with that, the paper aims at elucidating the role of art in individual and social life. In ancient times there was no boundary between art, spirituality and religion and art successfully served religion – it helped the supersensible get a sensible (visual) form. Works of art supported and fortified religious discourse and practices. Modernity is the period when traditional religion was challenged and often discarded completely. However, the interest towards spirituality, or the spiritual quest, as I call it, didn't vanish away. Spiritual matters and religious questions were 'transported' to the field of arts. This is perhaps due to the relationship that art and religion had in early history, after which, to a certain degree, art has continued to serve religious and spiritual purposes. Or it may be explained by the spiritual aspect of human nature. But the tendency to associate art with spirituality, especially in Modernity is also due to over

Since the nineteenth century's interest in "art for art's sake," many thinkers have argued that art would supplant traditional religion as the spiritual locus of the increasingly secular society of Western modernity. If art can capture the sort of spirituality, idealism, and expressive community of traditional religions but without being ensnared in the particular doctrines, rituals, and historical conflicts that make these religions such a persistent source of intellectual disbelief and transcultural discord, can art then provide a sturdy bridge between cultures that historical religions have violently divided? Can art achieve the spiritual unification of humanity that world religions purport to seek but always fail to achieve? The virtues as well as the problems of this proposal will be explored in this article by considering not only the arguments of philosophers but also a variety of religious attitudes exemplified in art and aesthetic experience.

The artworks under discussion detail the scope and breadth of art that can be described as spiritual by virtue of its revelatory, revitalizing and contemplative capacities. Rather than interrogating the relationship between art and religion, more pertinent questions in the contemporary age are: What is the nature of the dialogue between art and spirituality, how do the two come together, and what form does the meeting take? The range of multimedia brings novel forms of encounter that occur outside the gallery and other spaces and involve audiovisual and other means of articulating the spiritual. These new forms make different demands on viewers; they create greater intimacy (often through immersion), both physically and psychologically, and one of the consequences of having greater intimacy can be a heightened awareness that increases presentness and a sense of embodiment. What we learn is that there are potentially as many interpretations of spirituality as there are viewers. In the 21st century, the concept of spirituality is becoming increasingly important to various cultural discourses, including that of contemporary artwork. Art that is described as spiritual may reference or represent a spiritual and/or religious tradition. Whether referring to specific religious traditions or not, spirituality concerns the feelings stirred or probed by the art, which may prompt viewers to reflect on the meaning of life, often drawing on existential questions, such as: Why are we here? What are we doing? What happens after life ends? A sense of the spiritual also gives people the sense of belonging that they crave, a feeling that they are part of something greater than the self. The spiritual also contrasts with the material, where the material concerns acquisitiveness and worldly success. Spirituality seeks to transcend worldly goods and ambitions. The relationship between art and spirituality has been historically mediated through the relationship between art and religion, something which has been periodically problematic throughout the centuries. But in spite of the decline of organized religion in Western