The Kingdom of God is Within You; What is Art?

Encounter with a train carrying soldiers to establish order among famine-stricken peasants--The cause of the disorder--How the mandates of the higher authorities are carried out...

The meaning of the Christian doctrine, which is clear for the minority, has become unintelligible for the majority of men--The cause of it is the false conception of Christianit...

Men do not endeavor to destroy the contradiction between life and consciousness by a change of life, but educated men use all their power to stifle the demands of consciousness...

Concerning the book "My Religion"--Information called forth by this book--Letters of Quakers--Professions of Garrison--Adin Ballou, his works and Catechism--"The Net of Faith" o...

USELESSNESS OF VIOLENCE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF EVIL. THE MORAL ADVANCE OF MANKIND IS ACCOMPLISHED, NOT ONLY THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF TRUTH, BUT ALSO THROUGH THE ESTABLISHMENT OF...

The external life of Christian nations remains pagan, but they are already penetrated by the Christian life-conception--The issue from this contradiction is in the acceptance of...

Christianity is not a legislation but a new life-conception; hence it was not obligatory, nor has it been accepted by all men in its full meaning, but only by a few; the rest ha...

The relation of scientists to religions in general--What are religions, and their significance to human life--Three conceptions of life--The Christian doctrine is the expression...

Men consider that they may accept Christianity without changing their life--The pagan life-conception no longer corresponds to the present age of humanity, which the Christian l...

In consequence of their unbelief, the art of the upper classes became poor in subject-matter. But besides that, becoming continually more and more exclusive, it became at the sa...

I have accomplished, to the best of my ability, this work which has occupied me for fifteen years, on a subject near to me--that of art. By saying that this subject has occupied...

General military conscription is not a political accident, but the extreme limit of contradiction contained in the social life-conception--Rise of power in society--The basis of...

Art, like speech, is a means of communication, and therefore of progress, _i.e._ of the movement of humanity forward toward perfection. Speech renders accessible to men of the l...

The fate of the book, "My Religion"--The evasive answers of religious critics to the questions propounded in that book--1st answer, Violence does not contradict Christianity--2d...

According to Baumgarten,[45] the object of logical knowledge is Truth, the object of æsthetic (_i.e._ sensuous) knowledge is Beauty. Beauty is the Perfect (the Absolute) recogni...

The condition and organization of our society is shocking; it is upheld by public opinion, but can be abolished by it--Men's views in regard to violence have already changed; th...

Becoming ever poorer and poorer in subject-matter, and more and more unintelligible in form, the art of the upper classes, in its latest productions, has even lost all the chara...

Art is one of two organs of human progress. By words man interchanges thoughts, by the forms of art he interchanges feelings, and this with all men, not only of the present time...

For the production of every ballet, circus, opera, operetta, exhibition, picture, concert, or printed book, the intense and unwilling labor of thousands and thousands of people...

I know that most men--not only those considered clever, but even those who are very clever, and capable of understanding most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic...

In our society three conditions coöperate to cause the production of objects of counterfeit art. They are--(1) the considerable remuneration of artists for their productions, an...

To what an extent people of our circle and time have lost the capacity to receive real art, and have become accustomed to accept as art things that have nothing in common with i...

People talk of the art of the future, meaning by "art of the future" some especially refined, new art, which, as they imagine, will be developed out of that exclusive art of one...

But how could it happen that that very art, which in ancient times was merely tolerated (if tolerated at all), should have come, in our times, to be invariably considered a good...

To what do these definitions of beauty amount? Not reckoning the thoroughly inaccurate definitions of beauty which fail to cover the conception of art, and which suppose beauty...

Take up any one of our ordinary newspapers, and you will find a part devoted to the theater and music. In almost every number you will find a description of some art exhibition,...

The scene represents a wood, and in the wood there is a cave. At the entrance of the cave sits a third actor in tights, representing another gnome. It dawns. Enter the god Wotan...

What is art, if we put aside the conception of beauty, which confuses the whole matter? The latest and most comprehensible definitions of art, apart from the conception of beaut...

But if art is a human activity having for its purpose the transmission to others of the highest and best feelings to which men have risen, how could it be that humanity for a ce...

The unbelief of the upper classes of the European world had this effect--that instead of an artistic activity aiming at transmitting the highest feelings to which humanity has a...

From the time that people of the upper classes lost faith in Church Christianity, beauty (_i.e._ the pleasure received from art) became their standard of good and bad art. And,...

Siegfried, who has lost his way, appears. The nymphs ask him for the ring, but he won't give it up. Hunters appear. Siegfried tells the story of his life. Hagen then gives him a...

The cause of the lie into which the art of our society has fallen was that people of the upper classes, having ceased to believe in the Church teaching (called Christian), did n...

Art, in our society, has been so perverted that not only has bad art come to be considered good, but even the very perception of what art really is has been lost. In order to be...

In this book I have endeavored to show that our modern Christianity has been tried and found wanting, that the armed camp of Europe is not Christian, but Pagan, as is latter-day...

Valkyrie Brünnhilda arrives on horseback, bringing Siegmund's body. She is flying from Wotan, who is chasing her for her disobedience. Wotan catches her, and as a punishment dis...

command his gnomes to bring them all the gold. The gnomes bring it. Alberich gives up the gold, but keeps a magic ring. The gods take the ring. So Alberich curses the ring, and...

his sister in marriage. Hagen, the king's wicked brother, advises him to marry Brünnhilda and to give his sister to Siegfried. Siegfried appears; they give him a drugged draught...

question to whom they shall award the victory. Wotan, approving of Siegmund's incest with his sister, wishes to spare him, but, under pressure from his wife, Fricka, he orders t...

him advice. Siegfried appears, quarrels with Wotan, and they fight. Suddenly Siegfried's sword breaks Wotan's spear, which had been more powerful than anything else. Siegfried g...

ring. Siegfried comes, tells how he has obtained a bride for Gunther and spent the night with her, but put a sword between himself and her. Brünnhilda rides up, recognizes the r...

THE QUALITY OF ART, CONSIDERED ACCORDING TO ITS SUBJECT-MATTER--The better the feeling the better the art--The cultured crowd--The religious perception of our age--The new ideal...

Results of absence of true art--Results of perversion of art: Labor and lives spent on what is useless and harmful--The abnormal life of the rich-- Perplexity of children and pl...

Loss of comprehensibility--Decadent art--Recent French art--Have we a right to say it is bad and that what we like is good art?--The highest art has always been comprehensible t...

Uselessness of violence for the destruction of evil--The moral advance of mankind is accomplished, not only through the knowledge of truth, but also through the establishment of...