Sacred and Profane Beauty

The Holy in Art. An investigation of the relationship between the holy and the beautiful. Van der Leeuw undertakes to show that the holy has never been absent from the arts and the arts have never been unresponsive to the holy. Primitive creation in the arts was always directed toward the symbolization and interpretation of the holy. Gerardus Van der Leeuw, late professor of the history of religion at the University of Groningen, is generally regarded as the most important, systematic and scientific historian of religion of his generation. His Religion in Essence, and Manifestation and Introoduction to the Phenomenology of Religion, are both regarded as classics.