The Radical Wager on Real Presence

Book: Real presencesAuthor: George SteinerSteiner's "Real Presences" presents a profound philosophical argument against the modern obsession with secondary discourse, such as academic criticism and journalistic reviews, which he believes distances us from the immediacy of art. He proposes a "city of the primary" where the true interpretation of art occurs through lived experience, performance, and the act of "ingestion" rather than mere consumption. Central to his thesis is the "wager on transcendence," the idea that any coherent understanding of meaning in language, music, or painting inherently relies on the presumption of a "real presence" or a divine underwriter. Steiner contends that while modern secular thought views God as a "phantom of grammar," the very vitality of our speech and creativity actually depends on a metaphysical dimension. He critiques the application of scientific theory to the humanities, arguing that aesthetic experience is a "singularity" that cannot be verified or falsified by logic. Ultimately, the text calls for a return to "answerability," a state where humans engage with the mystery of creation through personal, moral, and spiritual accountability.