The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 2 (of 4): Hegel's AesthetikHegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 2 (of 4): Hegel's Aesthetik
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Aesthetics
In this primary unity such as the latter cases involve, there is
no such distinction between soul and body, notion and reality, as
is implied in the former. That which we describe as corporeal and
sensuous, natural and human, is not merely an expression for a
significance which proceeds at the same time to a point of distinction
from it[38]; but the phenomenon is itself conceived as the immediate
reality and presence of the Absolute, which does not in addition
possess some other mode of self-subsistent existence, but is confined
exclusively to the immediate presence of an object of sense, which
is God or the Divine. In the service of the Lama, for example, this
particular, actual human being is immediately known and adored as
God, just as in other natural religions the sun, mountains, rivers,
the moon, particular animals, such as the bull, ape, and so on, are
looked upon as immediately Divine existences and worshipped as sacred.
We may observe a similar directness, if under a mode of profounder
application, even now in many aspects of the Christian consciousness.
According to Catholic doctrine, for example, the consecrated bread
is the real body, and the wine the real blood of God, and Christ is
immediately present therein; nay, even according to the Lutheran faith,
both bread and wine are converted into such real body and blood by
virtue of the faith of the recipient. In this mystical union it is not
merely a symbolism which is expressed, a point of view which comes into
prominence as the result of it for the first time in later doctrines
of the reformed Church, where we find as a result the spiritual
significance is expressly severed from the sensuous object, and the
external medium is then accepted as merely pointing to an import which
is distinct from itself. In the same way the power of this Divine is
held to operate in the miracle-working images of the Virgin as a Divine
force that is immediately present within them, and not merely under
symbolical guise through the significant import of such pictures.
We find, however, the most thorough and universal exemplification of
this absolute and immediate unity of sense-perception in the life and
religion of the ancient Zend-people, whose conceptions and institutions
are preserved for us in the Zend-Avesta.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account