Beauty contra God

Abstract

The mainstream of sociology has argued that the process of modernization is inevitably accompanied by secularization. In spite of some recent questioning of the argument, the churches of the Western world, with the partial exception of the United States, have continued to steadily empty. Yet signs abound that individuals still seek metaphysical experience, but are more likely to do so in the secular realm. Above all, transcendence is sought aesthetically, through the experience of beauty, whether, to name a few domains, in Romance, through sport or out in nature. Nietzsche asserted that existence and the world can only be justified aesthetically. Major modern poets have agreed with him. This article takes up the question of whether aesthetic experience has replaced the religious in modernity.