About Novalis’ idea that art and nature are not, in fact, the
spirit, but nevertheless can honestly represent the spiritual. In order for them to do so, the encounter
must truly be authentic—hence Thomas Merton’s position that nothing is less
religious than bad, kitschy, sentimental “religious art.” Rouault’s clowns and prostitutes and
condemned prisoners contain as much of a spiritual message as his saints and
biblical scenes. Nature, too, must not
be sentimentalized, as not only beauty, but ugliness, suffering and death (as well
as spring—the resurrection) are part of the spiritual experience.
