ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an attempt at cognitive mapping of Faust's path to salvation against the backdrop of religious belief, ancient myth, and neuroscience. Myth and rational insight are Goethe's access points to understanding the world and our consciousness of it. Art was one of his main vehicles for exploring these connections. For this reason, he connect three prototypical representations — Adam, Venus, Faust — in exploring the process of 'salvation' in an era of secularization. 'Salvation' not in the Christian sense of redemption from sin and the experience of eternal bliss, but as release from the belief that we must transcend the earth, matter and energy. That is also the reason for calling Faust 'process art'; like salvation, art emerges and is not simply 'there', not simply a given. In the Hexenkuche scene Faust is famously fascinated by the image of a reclining beauty. The specific Faustian reference to the beautiful woman has strong parallels to Giorgione's Sleeping Venus.
