Art Seeking Understanding: Conceptual, Empirical, and Experimental Approaches

by Christopher R. Brewer

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2025

Overview

A groundbreaking volume that brings together art, philosophy, theology, and the sciences to explore a new research area: art seeking understanding
 
In this cutting-edge collection, scholars working in the fields of philosophical aesthetics, religious and theological aesthetics, and empirical and neuroaesthetics come together to investigate aesthetic cognitivism, a theory about the value of the arts. According to this theory, art isn’t merely a source of delight, amusement, pleasure, or emotional catharsis; rather, art can be a source of knowledge and understanding.
To test the theory, the authors address a range of complex questions, such as:

• Is there an empirically demonstrable connection between art and understanding vis à vis spiritual reality?
• What distinctive cognitive value does engagement with art generate?
• How does participation in artistic activities stimulate spiritual understanding and growth?
• If art’s primary function is to facilitate understanding, then what is the role of beauty? Is it an unrelated aim, or is it essential to understanding?
• What advantages, if any, does beautiful art have over non-beautiful art with reference to understanding?

These and other questions are taken up here by a diverse research community that includes artists and art researchers, philosophers and theologians, and scholars in the psychological, cognitive, and social sciences. Together, they are developing empirical and experimental studies of the cognitive significance of art with respect to spiritual realities and the discovery of new spiritual information. Their work will be of particular interest to scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion, theology, and art who value innovative interdisciplinary research and discovery.

Contributors

Garrick V. Allen, Marlene Sophie Altenmüller, Alejandro Bahena-Rivera, Bahador Bahrami, Jonathan Berger, Julio Bermudez, Christopher R. Brewer, Kutter Callaway, Eileen Cardillo, Anjan Chatterjee, Alexander P. Christensen, Kelly James Clark, Guy Dammann, Ophelia Deroy, Lexi Eikelboom, Jamal J. Elias, Alejandro Erut, Julie J. Exline, Stacie Friend, Caleb Froehlich, John Gibson, Mario Gollwitzer, Carlos Miguel Gómez-Rincón, Madeleine E. Gross, Faiz A. Hashmi, Marina Iosifyan, Zorana Ivcevic, Alison Jack, Robin M. Jensen, Cristine H. Legare, Elizabeth Mason, Valerie van Mulukom, Yoshio Nakamura, Kate Nevin, Fiona Newell, Carl Plantinga, Kelsie G. Rodenbiker, Christoph Scheepers, Elisabeth Schellekens, Jonathan W. Schooler, David Shepherd, Zachary Taylor, Pablo P. L. Tinio, Joshua A. Wilt, Brendan Wolfe, Judith Wolfe, Taylor Worley 

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Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction 
          Christopher R. Brewer

1. Art as Revelation
          Judith Wolfe, Marina Iosifyan, and Brendan Wolfe

2. Measuring the (Im)measurable in Real Life
            Kutter Callaway

3. The Impact of Sacred Art on Viewers
            Robin M. Jensen

4. A Scientific Inquiry into the Impact of Art
            Eileen Cardillo, Alexander P. Christensen, and Anjan Chatterjee

5. Experimental Theological Aesthetics in Secular and Sacred Architecture
            Julio Bermudez and Yoshio Nakamura

6. Screen Stories and Moral Understanding
            Carl Plantinga

7. Paratexts, Manuscripts, Literature, and Understanding
          Alejandro Bahena-Rivera, Kelsie G. Rodenbiker, Christoph Scheepers, and Garrick V. Allen

8. Sound, Space, and the Aesthetics of the Sublime
            Jonathan Berger

9. Practice-Based Investigations of Art and the Sacred at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
            Caleb Froehlich and Alison Jack

10. The Power of Art to Build Understanding and Creativity
            Pablo P. L. Tinio and Zorana Ivcevic

11. The Hermeneutic Role of Artistic Creation in Spiritual Experience
            Carlos Miguel Gómez-Rincón

12. Understanding Existence and the Self through Art
            Joshua A. Wilt and Julie J. Exline

13. Spiritual Understanding in a Secular Age and Art as Religious Ritual
            Lexi Eikelboom and Valerie van Mulukom

14. Islam, Arts, and Artists
            Jamal J. Elias

15. The Process of Spiritualization through Artistic Activity and Training
            Faiz A. Hashmi, Alejandro Erut, Zachary Taylor, and Cristine H. Legare

16. Thinking about Thinking with Conceptual Art
            Taylor Worley

17. Can Art Be a Bridge to Engagement with the Adversities of Our Time?
            Marlene Sophie Altenmüller and Mario Gollwitzer

18. A Social-Cognitive Approach to Experiencing Art as Communal Understanding
            Bahador Bahrami and Ophelia Deroy

19. Knowledge, Perception, and the Prospects of Criticism
            Guy Dammann, Elisabeth Schellekens, and John Gibson

20. Light Variation and the Perception of Religious Stained Glass
            David Shepherd, Kate Nevin, Elizabeth Mason, and Fiona Newell

21. The Cognitive Processes Promoted by Exposure to Art
            Madeleine E. Gross and Jonathan W. Schooler

22. Imagination and Perspective in Film
            Stacie Friend

23. A Cognitive Exploration of the Arts and Empathy
            Kelly James Clark

List of Contributors
Index

Praise for Art Seeking Understanding

“This book is, in the proper sense, groundbreaking. The astonishing range of the studies on which it reports prepare a terrain from which wholly new ways of thinking may come to fruition. Much remains to be done, but Art Seeking Understanding is now the essential starting point for anyone working at the intersection of aesthetics, theology, and empirical psychology.”
—Gordon Graham, chair of the Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation and emeritus professor of philosophy and the arts, Princeton Theological Seminary

“Art Seeking Understanding is a cornucopia of reports of cutting-edge work. A recent development in philosophical aesthetics is the rise of interest in aesthetic cognitivism: the claim that engagement with works of art often enhances understanding. And a recent development in empirical psychology is innovative inquiries into the psychological dynamics involved in engagement with works of art. Art Seeking Understanding honors Sir John Templeton’s wish to promote empirical studies into spiritual experience by bringing together these two developments by reports of twenty-three empirical studies, sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, into ways in which engagement with works of art stimulates and enhances understanding of spiritual realities. Groundbreaking contributions to a beckoning new field of inquiry.”
—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University

“How is engaging art not just an aesthetic or affective experience, but also a cognitive one? With diverse methodologies and disciplinary perspectives, the contributors to Art Seeking Understanding offer rich and compelling accounts of how art provokes forms of knowing. In so doing, they chart a vast and fascinating new territory that they invite us to explore. The volume does not resolve the question of art’s cognitive significance; it proves why we must keep asking it. For anyone interested in aesthetic cognitivism, this is the place to begin.”
—Natalie Carnes, professor of theology, Baylor University

“By approaching the arts for their capacity to express forms of understanding that are closely connected to our religious sensibilities, Christopher Brewer’s team of contributors provide a series of explorations into aesthetic cognitivism. With its empirical and multidisciplinary focus, this volume will provide valuable stimulus for further work on the religious dimension of the arts.”
—David Fergusson, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge

“It has long been acknowledged that we seek meaning in art and interact with art to expand our understanding of the world and ourselves. In this volume, Christopher Brewer has provided leading scholars in various disciplines who are grantees of Templeton Religion Trust’s Art Seeking Understanding initiative an opportunity to provide updates on their projects, focusing on lessons learned as well as important questions and insights that have emerged in the course of their conceptual and empirical activities. As such, the book provides not only a rich summary of the advances within this grant-making strategy, but also an excellent summary of the state of our knowledge regarding why and how we interact with art.”
—Oshin Vartanian, associate professor of psychology, University of Toronto

“Aesthetic cognitivism maintains that art advances understanding. Through a variety of interdisciplinary projects, the Templeton Religious Trust sought to test this hypothesis empirically, particularly but not exclusively with regard to spiritual understanding. Art Seeking Understanding is a collection of essays written by grant recipients about their research. The papers detail original hypotheses, methods, pitfalls, preliminary results, and new questions that emerged from the inquiries. These essays afford valuable perspectives not only on the relation of art to understanding, but also on the promise and provisionality of research in progress.” 
—Catherine Z. Elgin, professor of the philosophy of education, Harvard University

“There is something very heartening about this collection of reflections which diversely brings art back to its familial intimacy with the religious. These two have been long drifting apart, especially since the Enlightenment, but this work is thought-provoking testimony against their divorce. Enabled and gathered under the auspices of the Templeton Foundation, it affirmatively reflects the fertility of the matters at issue. The distinctiveness of art is not lost in the recuperation of this intimacy, nor is the concern of religion with ultimacy diminished. The diverse explorations are wide-ranging, well-informed, and witnesses to impressive scholarship. They are illuminating from both the sides of the aesthetic and the religious, and perhaps most importantly, from the point of view of the challenging intermediation of the two. Impressively  brought together under the judicious editing of Christopher Brewer, the work as a whole adds significantly to the Templeton vision.”
—William Desmond, David R. Cook Chair of Philosophy, Villanova University

“In this rich and rewarding volume, Christopher Brewer brings together reports on research projects funded by the Templeton Religion Trust on the theme of ‘Art Seeking Understanding.’ In an echo of Anselm’s ‘faith seeking understanding,’ the participants explore how works of art are themselves able to deepen our understanding of relations between different aspects of our experience. The research projects bring together historians of art, philosophers, theologians, and representatives of the empirical sciences, especially psychology and neuroscience. Not only do the participants explore visual art (including conceptual art, Indian miniature painting, and paratexts in manuscripts), but they also examine architecture, dance, film, music, the novel, and ritual. While much of the volume focuses on issues of morality and character, attention is also given to spiritual values and the way in which aesthetic cognition might open up consideration of transcendent realities. So there is something here for everyone. Careful analysis of aesthetic judgements can indeed provide an alternative access to true knowledge. Brewer’s researchers have opened up a plausible path for others to follow.”
—David Brown, Emeritus Wardlaw Professor of Theology, Aesthetics, and Culture, University of St Andrews

Product Details

• Title: Art Seeking Understanding: Conceptual, Empirical, and Experimental Approaches
• Author: Christopher R. Brewer
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2025
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Pages: 350
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781467469609, 9780802885166, 0802885160, 1467469602
• Resource ID: LLS:9781467469609
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-07-04T01:58:09Z

About the Author

Christopher R. Brewer is principal advisor for the Templeton Religion Trust’s “Art Seeking Understanding” grant-making strategy. He is the executive producer of the “At the Threshold: Theology on Film” series, the author of Understanding Natural Theology, and the editor or coeditor of seven volumes.