The Core of Religion, Art, and Faith

The Core of religion, Art, and organized religion When reading material both the texts of Georges Bataille and Soren Kierkegaard, the reader is taken on an exploration of pityingity. Although approached differently, this humanity is shown to be well-nigh intertwined with religion by both authors. Bataille studiously delves into the mind of the prehistoric man by with(predicate) his countermine maneuver in an get down to understand and define what it means to be human. The artistic production of this prehistoric man is the art of a consciousness at war with what it is and what it will become.It depicts a duality of identities. On one side the animalistic individuation at one with nature and on the other side a productive rational identity that uses nature. This dual- convey shown in the cave paintings lifts them to much than mere art. It is the visual introductory step in the transition from the ingenuous to the complex. The cave art served as more than a creative out let for our human ancestors. It held more of a ritualistic importance. They consider and loved the animals they hunted but as well degradingly used them as an instrument for individualised survival.Bataille points out that it was in the ritual char put to workerization of drawing the animal that the hunter created a spiritual connection. Everything points to the fact that the carvings or the paintings did not have gist as permanent figures of a sanctuary in which rituals were celebrated. It seems that the work of the paintingsor the carvingwas itself part of these rituals. . . The nascentdeveloping moving-picture show ensured the approach of the beast and the communication of the hunter with the hunted. (75)The animals on the cave w exclusivelys possessed a divine strength in the eyeball of prehistoric man and as a result the hunt, and the drawing of the hunt, were a apparitional be. Perhaps even the first ghostlike experiences. As a product of the previously mentioned duality present in prehistoric man, the hunter used art as a corporeal representation of their compunction towards their desired prey. for the men of primitive person times. . . the act of killing could also be shameful. many an(prenominal) primitive men ask for benevolence beforehand for the evil that they atomic number 18 almost to do to the animal they ar pursuing. . For primitive human beings, the animal is not a thing. And this characterizes very broadly all of primitive humanity, for whom ordinary animality is rather divine. (Bataille 54-55) To Bataille, the human of understanding is to religion as the clearness of day is to the inconsistency of the night. (122) Religion is an experience undefinable through direct words. This horror of the night is all that is not soundless it is the undefinable, the intangible, the experience that lacks rationality and is based kind of on feeling.It is how we explain and give importation it is the answer to the unanswerable questions that man has. Religion and art are intertwined in that they are both chaotic tools used by man to gain order oer 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 spiritual faith, the very first case in history of a man of axenic faith, or as he calls it, a gentle of faith.Faith is similar to Batailles intellection of art and religion in that it laughingstock not be clearly defined through words. Faith is an experience it is the head that a single individual john have a one-on-one family with idol that transcends the ethical. Abraham was faced with the dilemma of sacrificing his precisely son Isaac. Ethically and morally this would be labeled as get rid of, but through faith it is an absolute concern. This absolute duty is not something that can be shared, it is a private struggle, it is a solitary expressive style of life to follows perfections command without regret or doubt..It is only moments before the murder and sacrifice of Isaac that God stops Abraham and directs him to a ram instead. Through faith, ethics and theology become an entirely 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 way what he asks is what will be make even if it goes against what society says is right. The man of the world, or ethical man, follows a different rule 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 good of everybody around him. His actions are order by cultural norms and given meaning by religious institutions. He is mute and buoyed by his peers. This is precisely the opposite of the knight of faith. Abraham has to do what is ethically wrong to do what is absolutely right in the eye of God. Both art and faith a re passionate 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 and 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 unutterable duty he felt toward God, just as art was the expression of prehistoric man inexpressible connection with the animal. Work Cited Bataille, Georges. The Cradle of Humanity, prehistoric Art, and Culture. Brooklyn, New York Zone Books, 2005. Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and trepidation/Repetition. Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, 1983.