Art and Spirituality. Explored on the Levels of Experience, Meaning and Research

The area where literature, art, music, religion, spirituality, and philosophy split off from, run parallel to each other, and merge again is like a delta. This essay explores the complex interrelations between art and spirituality on three levels. First on the level of spiritual experience, exemplified by experiences of the art of still life (the painter Morandi, the poet Kopland). On the second level, several questions about meaning are analyzed, beginning with the question of meaning posed by the work of art itself. Both art and spirituality presuppose an open and receptive attitude. In philosophical reflections on the meaning of art, some aim primarily at its relevance for our insight into the reality of things, people, and animals, while others are more concerned with its significance for human action. Thirdly, some problems on the level of research are discussed. Research invites us to come to a critical relativization of what we have seen, heard, or read and also allows us to see that the often presupposed ‘immediacy’ of our experience is in fact mediated by pre-given schemes and habits. Three reasons are given to answer the question why it is meaningful to research these mediations and to search for the authentic meanings of art works (in particular works of literature) themselves.