Can art be a medium for connection with God: reflections on Taylor, Aquinas and Maritain

This research project is dedicated to exploring fresh expressions of the Church's mission in the context of a secular generation. It aims to raise important questions at the intersection of theology, art, culture, and Christian mission, and to illustrate how the Church can engage a secular generation through art. The project proposes a bridge that connects philosopher Charles Taylor’s concept of fullness with the theological understanding of how individuals in a secular age might connect with the transcendent God through art. To achieve this, the project critically examines Taylor's influential analysis of secularization, Neo-Thomist anthropology, and Jacques Maritain’s theory of art.

This dissertation proceeds through a triangulation of concepts. First, Taylor’s secularization theory is the necessary context for understanding and developing his notion of fullness. Taylor coined this term to describe experiences that make life worth living. Fullness provides the pathway, the trajectory to transcendence. Transcendence is the end goal. The term transcendence has a variety of definitions and concepts associated with it. The definition employed in this research project is the presence of God as he is manifest in the immanent frame. Second, Thomas Aquinas’ concept of humanity as imago Dei answers the question of why a person is capable of experiencing fullness. Perhaps more importantly, Neo-Thomist anthropology proposes that human beings are the horizon between heaven and earth. This understanding of humanity allows this study to go beyond Taylor and suggest that aesthetic experiences of works of art can be experiences of the transcendent God. Third, Neo-Thomist philosopher Jacques Maritain’s theory of art answers the question of how a person might experience fullness through the experience of art. The study will conclude with a case study of a modern ballet that will demonstrate the plausibility of the research’s claims.

The contribution of this research is to build on the foundation laid by Taylor and then take Taylor a step further to provide a theological bridge between the philosophical concepts of Taylor and Maritain. This theological bridge connects the notion of the experience of fullness and the experience of art to conclude that art can be a medium for an encounter with the transcendent God. This study’s main findings are, first, that Taylor’s philosophical search for fullness and transcendence is the theological longing for God, which exists in each person. Second, while Taylor offers many possible options for the experience of fullness - events, activities or conditions - this study focuses specifically on the aesthetic experience of art as a medium for the experience of fullness. However, this study will take Taylor a step further. Art is a locus theologicus, a theological space. It is a space in which the presence of God is active and can be encountered. Therefore, this study maintains that art and the aesthetic experience of art can be a medium through which the Christian Church can help people in a secular age move toward the transcendent God.