ABSTRACT
The ancient Hebrews believed that there is one God and that the meaning of life consists in conforming to his will. Consequently, the art of the Hebrews, as one finds it in the Psalms, the words of the prophets, or the book of Genesis, was intended to express that attitude. Throughout the ancient world, one finds that what is good or bad in the art of a society is determined by what is considered to be fundamentally important for the society as a whole. Tolstoy turns to the relation between art and society in the Christian era. Amongst the early Christians, he says, art was marked by its simplicity. Christian art had one great virtue. It gave expression to beliefs and feelings that were genuinely held, not simply by the artists themselves but by the whole community.
