Art (n.) took over part of religion's job in the 1770s, and that quasi-religious role still marks modern civilization.
Art (n.) is where conscious effort fuses with inspiration from unconscious nature, so that freedom and necessity become one.
Art (n.) that merely says what is already clear in thought is an empty husk; Greek poetry was great because its poets could bring what fermented in them to expression only in that form.
Art (n.) has ceased to be the highest need of spirit, Hegel said; yet for many moderns art has taken the place of religion, a sign of how far we have moved out of his synthesis.
Art (n.) is higher than nature, Hegel insists: even the most perfect human body is full of contingency, while the artwork leaves things out so that every part makes manifest the necessity of spirit.
Art (n.) was the paradigm expression of Greek civilization because its reconciliation rested on unreflecting feeling; later religion is better said in theology and philosophy.
Art (n.) is the one mode of contemplative consciousness that is not representation: a Bach cantata conveys a vision of God, Christ and salvation without portraying or describing any of them.