ABSTRACT
Expressionism has, of course, been a recurring theme in twentieth century art: the attempt to portray inner feeling unadorned and unsoftened by form or beauty. To judge a work of art by artistic or religious standards, to judge a religion by religious or artistic standards should come in the end to the same thing; though, it is an end to which no individual can arrive. In his Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, T. S. Eliot insists that he is treating religion and its relationship to the rest of human culture sociologically. The challenge raised by Eliot to the non-religious is to show how art can retain its cultural and human significance and authority, and how an artistic tradition can be regarded as 'great' without implicitly borrowing authority from religion. Eliot says that spiritual perception must be extended into aesthetic sensibility.
