Art and the Religious Impulse

This collection explores the relationship between religion and arts and challenges presumptions held in society about these two fields. Topics covered include church architecture, folk art, nineteenth-century classical music, contemporary fiction, recent film, performance art, and the battles over public funding of the arts. The essays also explore the religious impulse in contemporary society and argue that, while the religious impulse has become deinstitutionalized, it has suffered no significant diminution of importance. This leads to two conclusions. First, in such an environment, the investigation of religion can no longer be limited to institutional settings but must include all aspects of human activity. Second, it explains how seemingly secular forms of human expression can be viewed as religious threats to traditional religious worldviews. If religion in contemporary society is to be understood at all, it must be explored in all aspects of human activity -- including the arts.