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Experiencing Christian art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

DAVID EFIRD  and
DANIEL GUSTAFSSON
DAVID EFIRD
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK e-mail: david.efird@york.ac.uk
DANIEL GUSTAFSSON
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK e-mail: dg538@york.ac.uk
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Abstract

In this article, we argue that a secularist cannot experience Christian art in the same way that a Christian can. To defend this claim, we argue that Christian faith is best conceived as an engagement with God, such that coming to have faith is a transformative, second-person experience where a person comes to know what it is like to be loved by God and that Christian art is best conceived as iconic, such that it is an occasion for, and a mode of, experiencing God. Thus, for the Christian, but not for the secularist, experiencing Christian art consists in an experience of God himself.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 51 , Special Issue 3: Religious Studies at 50 , September 2015 , pp. 431 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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