The Core of Religion, Art, and Faith

The substance of Religion, Art, and Faith When reading both the texts of Georges Bataille and Soren Kierkegaard, the reader is taken on an geographic expedition of tenderity. Although approached differently, this hu creationity is shown to be intimately intertwined with religion by both authors. Bataille studiously delves into the mind of the prehistorical man by dint of his sabotage art in an attempt to understand and define what it means to be human. The art of this prehistoric man is the art of a consciousness at war with what it is and what it go out become.It depicts a duality of identities. On one side the toolistic individuality at one with nature and on the other side a creative rational identity that uses nature. This dual-importee shown in the hollow out paintings lifts them to more than continent art. It is the visual first step in the transition from the simple to the complex. The cave art served as more than a creative outlet for our human ancestors. It held m ore of a ritualistic importance. They respected and loved the animals they hunted still also degradingly employ them as an instrument for personal survival.Bataille points out that it was in the ritual act of drawing the animal that the hunter created a unearthly connection. E trulything points to the fact that the carvings or the paintings did not have moment as eonian figures of a sanctuary in which rituals were celebrated. It seems that the execution of the paintingsor the carvingwas itself transgress of these rituals. . . The nascentdeveloping image ensured the approach of the beast and the communication of the hunter with the hunted. (75)The animals on the cave walls possessed a divine strength in the eyes of prehistoric man and as a result the hunt, and the drawing of the hunt, were a apparitional experience. Perhaps even the first religious experiences. As a result of the previously mentioned duality present in prehistoric man, the hunter used art as a corporeal repr esentation of their contriteness towards their in demand(p) prey. for the men of primitive times. . . the act of killing could also be shameful. many primitive men ask for forgiveness beforehand for the evil that they be about to do to the animal they argon pursuing. . For primitive human beings, the animal is not a thing. And this characterizes very broadly all of primitive humanity, for whom customary animality is rather divine. (Bataille 54-55) To Bataille, the world of understanding is to religion as the lucidity of day is to the horror of the night. (122) Religion is an experience undefinable through come in words. This horror of the night is all that is not understood it is the undefinable, the intangible, the experience that lacks ground and is based instead on feeling.It is how we explain and give meaning it is the resultant to the unanswerable questions that man has. Religion and art are intertwined in that they are both chaotic tools used by man to gain high society over the chaotic horrors of the night. Kierkegaard, on the other hand, arrives at religion through the avenues of faith. To Kierkegaard, the man Abraham in the Bible is the perfect model of religious faith, the very first case in history of a man of sheer faith, or as he calls it, a knight of faith.Faith is similar to Batailles idea of art and religion in that it can not be clearly defined through words. Faith is an experience it is the idea that a single individual can have a one-on-one family with God that transcends the ethical. Abraham was faced with the dilemma of sacrificing his only son Isaac. Ethically and chastely this would be labeled as murder, but through faith it is an tyrannical duty. This absolute duty is not something that can be shared, it is a unavowed struggle, it is a solitary path to follows Gods command without remorse or doubt..It is only moments before the murder and sacrifice of Isaac that God gelt Abraham and directs him to a ram instead. Thro ugh faith, ethics and morality become an in all different thing. He who loves God without faith reflects upon himself he who loves God in faith reflects upon God. (Kierkegaard 37) Gods will is the only correct trend what he asks is what will be done even if it goes against what society says is the right way. The man of the world, or ethical man, follows a different code of conduct. He is moral through and through and has a universal duty to others.He follows the laws and commandments of God for the costly of everybody around him. His actions are dictated by cultural norms and given meaning by religious institutions. He is understood and buoyed by his peers. This is precisely the turnaround of the knight of faith. Abraham has to do what is ethically wrong to do what is absolutely right in the eyes of God. Both art and faith are enthusiastic pathways connecting with the divine. They give humanity a structure in that they give meaning to our emotions and guidance to our actions. Faith is a marvel, and yet no human being is excluded from it for that which unites all human life is passion, and faith is passion. (Kierkegaard 67) Faith was Abrahams way of expressing the inexpressible duty he felt toward God, just as art was the materialization of prehistoric man inexpressible connection with the animal. Work Cited Bataille, Georges. The Cradle of Humanity, past Art, and Culture. Brooklyn, New York Zone Books, 2005. Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling/Repetition. Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, 1983.