Artistic Theology or Theology of Art; A Critical Study about George Pattison

In the following papers, we look George Pattison, and focus on his theory about art- religion relationship. It seems, he designs a new way and prepares a new idea about religious dimension of art, which he have called it theology of art. In constituting this new idea, Pattison refers to Zen- Buddhism, with some contents of Existentialism, and he shapes his distance from Romanticism and Postmodernism. According to him, art can provide an aesthetic view, can cultivate its receptors, and finally can join human kind to the spiritual journey. But if we consider his approach, it is obvious that he couldn’t succeed to reach an authentic and reliable viewpoint. It seems we can call his theory an artistic theology, in contrast of theology of art.