CC BY
13PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES
EXTRAPOLATION OF TRADITIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE CULTURAL ART OF CATHOLICISM IN THE CONTEXT OF SYMBOLIC CONTENT
Melnychuk M.
Associate Professor of Philosophy (Ph.D) National University of Water and Environmental Engineering(Ukraine, Rivne)
Abstract
This article is devoted to the religious and philosophical analysis of the symbolic content of the sacred component of the religious symbolism of Catholicism. The semantic backbone of the religious art of one of the branches of Christianity and its symbolic meaning is extrapolated. The author explores the details of the modernization of traditional designs of Catholic worship. The reasons for the need for renewal that emerged under the influence of both historical and social factors are being explored.
Keywords: extrapolation, symbolism, globalization, religious art, sacred art, religious art, modernization.
Formulation of the problem.An alternative to traditional religious art was the time, which, especially in the twentieth century, began to rapidly transform the entire arsenal of the sacred in art. Everything changed -architecture, fine arts, music, literature... New forms of art were emerging, and traditional ones, under the pressure of socio-economic changes and globalization processes, underwent significant deformations both in form and content.Extrapolation of these tendencies into the life of the Christian church and its sacred power in religious art has provoked a violent reaction, resistance and confusion. Christianity had previously encountered similar processes, adapted to the demands of the times, but the scale of change that life in the modern world required took other forms.
The level of development of the problem.In the process of scientific research, a significant role played in our scientific exploration, the study of a number of cultural scientists, philosophers, and religious scholars (D. Batson, A. Dondane, M. Berdyaev, B. Uspensky, V. Bychkov, A. Losev, D. Ugrinovich, J. Verush-Kovalsky, Zh. Mariten, G. Gusen, G. Reed, and others), which have largely shed light on such a complex and contradictory problem as the presence of modernization tendencies in the cult art of Catholicism.
The purpose of the article.The purpose of our scientific exploration is to investigate modern trends in the traditionalism of the religious art of Catholicism with its symbolic and symbolic content, against the background of the complex political, social, and cultural and historical transformations of the modern world.
Presenting main material.The problem of the religious essence of cult art, the functioning of religion in the system of arts acts as the basic element of the manifestation of the theurgical meaning of art of its aesthetic and spiritual grounds. The question of the relationship between Christian religion and art in different periods emerged as a contradiction between the freedom of creativity and was confined to the religious understanding of creativity, so the understanding of true creativity also underwent different interpretations. An important aspect of the formation of religious consciousness is the aesthetic
expression of the symbolism of sacred art, designed to express a deep analogous meaning of religious works. Aesthetic feeling may be a necessary condition for the perception of the Christian worldview, reflecting the essence of reality.
One of the first in the Christian world to respond to the cardinal changes brought about by globalization processes is the Catholic Church's vector of modernity. The decisive step towards the up-to-date transformation of cult art was the decisions of the Second Ecumenical Council (1962-1965), which were forced to "canonize" the modernist wave of religious art that had already prevailed here. Among the documents adopted by the Council, the Constitution of the Liturgy is particularly prominent. First of all, they responded to changes in the architectural appearance of churches, their interiors and stained glass windows. There was a time when the construction of the Catholic Church in Ronschan, France, caused a sensation, the appearance of which contrasted sharply with the traditional forms of Catholic temples. Hundreds of modern-day Catholic temples are being built around the world today. Many of them bore considerable resemblance to the theater, circus, gym. The church in Grenoble (France), for example, resembles a cut cone. There is no familiar cross in the temple, so it can be seen more quickly as a sports facility. The site below is almost nothing like the usual Catholic altar. Only from the ceiling hangs a simple shape and large size black cross and in the center of the platform on the stand are burning traditional candles. The walls of the temple are treated with plastic materials of different colors [10, p. 175].
It is worth noting that modern sculpture and painting have now become widely used. For example, in the Catholic Cathedral of St. Hedwig (Berlin), restored in the early 1960s (it was destroyed during the war), numerous paintings of the "Passions of Christ" were made by the expressionist artist. In the basement of the cathedral, a special place is occupied by modernist sculptures, the plot and content of which can only be understood through explanatory plaques. The contemporary design of many traditional Catholic images, including the crucifixion, has become increasingly visible. Thus, in the Vatican pavilion at the
Brussels World Exhibition, the crucifixion was central, which was solved entirely in the abstract-modernist style and only very vaguely resembled the contours of a crucified male figure. In 1973, an exhibition of works of "religious art" was opened in the Vatican, which featured paintings by Goya, Gauguin, Chagall, Dali, Picasso, Matissa, Modigliani, Liege, Guttuso, sculptures by Rodin, Barlach, Manzou. More recently, the Catholic Church has treated many of these artists harshly, condemning their attempts to interpret biblical themes and subjects as "free" and independent of church traditions and canons. Now the Vatican is demonstrating, and emphasizing, the utmost tolerance for contemporary art, trying to use it for its own purposes. Moreover, according to modern Catholic theologians, "... artistic creativity is a way of revealing the divine essence in man and in his affairs. If by his own will, God creates a human, then the painter uses in his creativity created for him with the divine "[7].
According to Catholic ideologues, the rapprochement of the Church with modernist art is primarily due to the fact that modernism, by distorting reality, schematizing or destroying natural terrestrial images of things, phenomena and people, allows to give these images a religious interpretation, to associate them with the supernatural. The desire for the supernatural is related to the contemporary artist with metaphysics. "The metaphysicist seizes the spiritual in the idea, the artist catches him in the flesh ... Both seek the surreality which one reaches in the nature of things and the other seeks to touch in some symbol" [11, p. 71]. According to Catholic ideologues, this "surrealism" is achieved most precisely by unrealistic art.
In one of the books on contemporary ecclesiastical art, Catholic theologians even attempt to justify, by means of theological arguments, the need to reject realistic images in religious art. "The church," Gathleen states, "does not need these images: the cult image in its own sense is alien to it. The images are by no means necessary to her cult ... What really must be given to church art is signs that signify of the infinite God: not a cult image that becomes God himself, not a visible embodiment of God, but only a reminder of Him "[4, p. 19]. Thus, Catholic theorists are increasingly resorting to substantiating the benefits of modernist methods of artistic embodiment of the supernatural, which, in their view, operate in "superhuman forms." But in appealing to the so-called superhuman forms, they are forced to abandon only the extreme abstract art in which artistic images completely "disintegrate". Such art, in their view, cannot fulfill its purpose in the Church, because it does not evoke an emotional attitude, unable to express God as a special supernatural being by artistic means. That is, Catholic modernism abandons the extremes of abstractionism, which is characterized by "impersonal symbols." According to G. Cope, the only possible solution to the problem of recognition as sacred can be "semi-abstract figures" and, in particular, the figures of Christ, created, for example, by the artist Georges Ruo. By the way, Maritin also welcomed the work of Ruo and Marc Chagall. "Every composition of Chagall," he wrote, "is a real explosion of poetry, a mystery along
with clarity; it is both realism and the most intense spiritualism" [6, p. 159].
The result of the Catholic ideologists reasoning was a compromise solution that acknowledges the importance of modernist, unrealistic forms of image to the church, but warns against the complete decay of the figurative basis of art. This compromise is not accidental. It is determined by the inability of Christian ideologues to overcome the persistent contradictions of ecclesiastical art - the contradiction between the idea of God "opposing" humans and the need to portray it in earthly, human forms.
In his first speech, John Paul II's "Urbi et orbi" ("City and World") called for the borders of states, economic and political systems, broad spheres of culture, civilization and development to be opened wide to the "saving power of Christ". The most characteristic feature of the Pope's program was the desire to maximize the use of the cultural sphere by the church for spiritual and socio-political influence on the world. To this end, the Vatican is even creating a new institution of the Roman Curia, the Pontifical Council for Culture. The purpose of the Council is to intensify the dialogue of the church with the cultures of the modern world and "to be the moon of the great cultural aspirations of our era" [8, p. 284]. Of particular importance in the plans of this institution was the strengthening of the Church's connection with the creative intelligentsia.
The secularized world, according to the Pope, deprived religion of magical power to inspire artists. There is only one thing for the church - to pursue the artistic development of modern reality and to take into your assets what is capable of serving its purposes. As stated by the Vatican's representative at the Budapest Forum (1986) E. Carrie, the Catholic Church recognizes the natural connections with the world of education, art, science, literature, music, all manifestations of the creative power of the human spirit [9, p. 84]. Thus, the Vatican makes an active effort to restore to the Church the former glory of the patron saint of artists and masterpieces of masterpieces in all fields of art and to shape the artistic culture of the present in accordance with his plans for a "second evangelization". This case started slowly and for other reasons. In 1982, just when the Pontifical Council for Culture was created, he was counted among the blessed and then proclaimed patron of art by the prominent Florentine school painter Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Fra Angelico), who lived and worked in the first half of the 15th century. His art was deeply religious. One hundred years later, the brilliant Michelangelo said of him: "This great man drew his heart. With the help of a brush and paints, he was able to express his piety and faith. I do not succeed - perhaps because my heart is not so noble and selfless" [3, p. 3].
With the beatification of Fra Angelico, the stage of the evangelization of art conceived by the Vatican began. Just as in the nineteenth century. The church proclaimed Thomas Aquinas an "angelic doctor", hoping, with the help of "eternal philosophy" and the doctrine of the harmony of faith and reason, to realize the synthesis of Christianity with philosophy, and at the end of the twentieth century. something similar is being done in the field of artistic culture when an "angelic brother" was
proclaimed an exemplary Christian artist. "His creation is an eternal message of living Christianity, deeply human, based on the subliminal power of religion, by virtue of which any person who comes into contact with God becomes a creature resembling Him in holiness, beauty, and bliss, that is, a man of bliss. by the Creator "[8, p. 312].
The contemporary interpretation of art, characteristic of Catholicism, was expressed by Vatican Secretary of State A. Casaroli. Emphasizing the Church's desire for dialogue with the art world, the cardinal even put forward the basic provisions of "art theology", which focuses on the personality of the artist and the attitude of the Church to the freedom of creativity. In culture, Casaroli emphasized, a person embodies his time and place in the wealth of all that he has in common with other representatives of humanity of this era. But it embodies the only thing that is in man and is peculiar only to him. This is especially true of "people of culture", and especially of artists who are zealous for their personality, even if they belong to a particular school. But at the same time, the artist differs from other people in that he is not a slave to his cultural environment.
Significantly, in our view, the signs of "true art" high Vatican dignitary calls declarative individualism, a sense of novelty, bold, even risky quest. Although they carry the danger of not being understood, it is these qualities that lead to significant results [8, p. 319].
The realization of this theoretical project was an exhibition of contemporary religious art in the Sistine Chapel. More than six hundred works by two hundred and fifty artists of the world laid the foundation for the Museum of Contemporary Art here. Experts consider it the largest such gathering. The exhibition featured works by many celebrated modernist artists for whom the appeal to religious subjects was an attempt to express in a symbolic way the dramatic meaning of modernity. The church also presented the work of these masters as "the search for the human dimension in religion."
Contemporary artists use "divine" and "religious" to express "truly human," because for many centuries the language of religious symbols has been the common language of art and the "Christian world," the clearest and closest people. The interpretation of religious subjects by artists such as Picasso, Liege, Guttuso, Barlach, and others is a clear testimony to the language of human rather than religious vision of reality. Dorothy and Frank Getlane rightly state in their book, "Christianity and Contemporary Art," that, in the nineteenth century, the Church lost the working class, then in the twentieth century it lost the "intellectual class," the "class of artists." From the nineteenth century, almost all intellectuals cultural and artistic discoveries in Europe and America were made outside the Church and even in direct opposition to Christianity "[4, p. 113].Therefore, the Catholic Church seeks to do everything in its power to make them their property. Catholic ideologues openly admit that the Church now prefers to call "Christian" all the art inspired by the teachings of Christ, because in that sense it does, though, encompass a narrower circle than non-religious art, it is still of greater importance. [1, p.34].
This formulation of the question is consistent with the general tradition of the Church's attitude to culture, which was at one time defined by Thomas Aquinas, and in the recent past in Catholicism, headed by J. Maritin, and characterized by the pedaling of the distance between Christianity and secular culture, the desire to put Catholics over culture and civilization. "Catholicism creates a civilization," he noted, "but not created by it." However, from civilization, Catholicism takes the language it uses in liturgy and catechism, architecture and art, borrows the human wisdom delivered by theology, collects inspired saints - some Gertrude or Jean de la Croix - flowers of poetry or human art that God was embodied in man. The highest meaning of works of art, according to Mariten, is to be a sensual sign of divine being. "Art for people is absurd. I offer art for God," he categorically stated [6, p. 159].A little earlier he said: "Similarity, but similarity is spiritual - if you want, then realism, but realism is transcendent. It is necessary to give holiness in an image that creates the illusion of reality" [5, p. 32].
In order to prove the closeness of "non-subject art" to religious consciousness, to argue that this art can be useful to strengthen religious consciousness in the modern world, Catholicism uses different arguments. Principal considerations were made by the German researcher W. Warringer. "The desire for abstraction," he wrote, "stands at the origin of any art ... What are the psychological preconditions for the desire for abstraction? We must seek them in the sense of peace ... of peoples, in their practical relation to space ... The desire to abstraction is the result of a great internal conflict between man and the outside world, and in religious terms is echoed with a strong transcendental color of all ideas [5, p.469]. " The author asserts that the religious desire for abstraction inherent in the primitive peoples has been lost in Greek and European art, but in modern times it has erupted with great force and is leading today to the revival of religious faith. In defense of abstract art, the famous English aesthetist G. Reid becomes: "The development of modern art goes more and more to the unknowable. Compositions of formless, twofold, mysterious are created, and abstract works do not mean anything known, similarly they do not portray the unknowable. this is the so-called deification of works of contemporary art ... Contemporary art in this sense always seems to be deification, because it remains a mystery to man. It ... almost turns ... into a subjective and mysterious as magic [9, p. 120] ".
The idea of "religious filling" abstractionism is advocated by neo-tomists, while appealing to the theory of "dual truth". Professor of the University of Louvain Catholic University A. Dondayne states that belief in God is not contrary to science, and the recognition of eternity of matter, they say, has nothing to do with the existence of God [2, p. 11]. And if art and poetry do not interfere with science, then science cannot interfere with faith. The purpose of neotomism is not new and demonstrates an effort to subordinate science, art, morality to the interests of religious faith. Moreover, this idea is based on an existential factor. K. Jaspers believes that choosing the earth's path (or learning to live) means learning to die. The idea of dying, the idea of despair,
permeates all areas of existentialism and ultimately unites them with the religious idea of the vanity of human life, the inevitability of suffering on a sinful earth. This degeneration of reality exacerbates the fideistic nature of literature and the art of existentialism in general.
Conclusions.In today's Catholic world, the resonance of the processes that take place in the arts in general and religious in particular is somewhat ambiguous. In contemporary art, religious images and plots are increasingly becoming abstract categories. The latter, as if overcoming the boundaries of the present day, go beyond the actual religious idea, aimed at the future. Unlike the Orthodox tradition in the West, the main tendency for the development of temple art is the process of secularization of liturgical art, the history of which has been various periods, which as a result led to a great separation from traditional forms of liturgical art. In architecture, the avant-garde art, music, cinema, etc. that are actively used by the Church, there is a kind of demythologization of Christian subjects and images. They are often transformed into a form of philosophical generalizations, a martyr's comprehension of present problems from the standpoint of eternity, in search of universal, transient values. Having a longstanding and stable tradition in the arts, religious issues and its attributes in contemporary art often become a way of revealing the pain points of our lives.
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CAUSES OF RELIGIOUS CONFLICTS: PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS
Nesprava N.
Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Dnipropetrovsk State University of Internal Affairs, Ukraine ПРИЧИНЫ РЕЛИГИОЗНЫХ КОНФЛИКТОВ: ФИЛОСОФСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ
Несправа Н.
доктор философских наук, Днепропетровский государственный университет внутренних дел, Украина
Abstract
The article analyzes demographic, elitist, dialectic, reactionist, and reformist approaches to identifying the causes of religious conflicts. The failure of the reformist approach is shown, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the demographic, elitist, dialectic, and reactionary approaches. The study offers the integrated and systematic application of the approaches that are strong in taking into account the objective and subjective causes of religious conflicts.
Аннотация
В статье проанализированы пять подходов к выявлению причин религиозных конфликтов - демографический, элитаристский, диалектический, реакционистский и реформистский. Показана несостоятельность реформистского подхода, а также сильные и слабые стороны демографического, элитаристского, диалектического и реакционистского подходов. Высказано предложение о комплексном и системном применении подходов, которые эффективны в учёте объективных и субъективных причин религиозных конфликтов.
Keywords: religious conflict, philosophy, religion, philosophy of religion, religious studies
Ключевые слова: религиозный конфликт, философия, религия, философия религии, религиоведение
