Æsthetics in Worship

If we consider religious art, not as an end in itself, but from the religious point of view, we may distinguish two processes at work, the one a perfecting, the other a beginning. Just as machinery has two purposes, the one to produce leisure, the other to use that leisure, so two similar purposes may be discovered in religious art. It is either intended to lead from the senses to internal acts of religion -Faith, Hope, Charity and the rest; or it is intended to express these acts in the external world of sense. Men will sing to keep up their spirits under depressing conditions; but they will also sing for the very joyousness felt in their hearts. A sculptor may carve a statue of Our Lady because he venerates her deeply and wishes to express his devotion, or because the priest requires one in the village church to encourage among the villagers devotion to Our Lady. These may be termed the inward and the outward movements of religious art; for the one leads in from sense perception to prayer, the other goes out from prayer to the visible manifestations of prayer. In other types of art these movements may be quite accidental. In religious art they follow its primary purpose

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