The Metaphor of Religion and Art

This essay takes up the challenge of unpacking the nature of what Schleiermacher called the “inner affinity” between religion and art. Drawing on the work of philosophers of art such as Susanne Langer and Arthur Danto, and philosophers of religion like Loyal Rue and David Tracy, I suggest that religion and art have at their core a comparable metaphorical structure that lends them this common communion. From this shared structure, I deduce five principal conclusions that I take to be the key avenues of affiliation between religion and art.