Article January 12, 1974 Issue

Art, Its Forms of Extended Experience

ALFRED THOMAS GREEN

What is art in its highest, its spiritual, sense? Perhaps Mrs. Eddy hints the answer when she writes in Science and Health, "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love."^{Science and Health, p. 477;} The one Spirit and its "multifarious forms"—the infinite, eternal unity of good and the active, inviolable order that is its eternal self-expression—these define the substance of true art. As the artist rises in his conscious awareness of this unity and order, he may be said to practice art in its spiritual sense.

It is a limited sense of art that conceives of the artist as a separate person creating works of art on his own—or that conceives of art itself as separate from the whole of being, a special way of life with its own achievements and goals, limited by competition and providing grounds for vanity or self-satisfaction. Actually, the practice of art in its spiritual sense is open to all. Individuals, through inclination or force of circumstances, may follow many activities and professions, in all of which, so far as they are good and constructive, there are elements of true art.

Every valid way of life gives means of expressing spiritual qualities —qualities that promote unity and integrity instead of disruption, faith and confidence instead of suspicion and doubt. Since spiritual unity is the true condition of life, any manifestation of it is, in this higher sense, a work of art, revealing man's native soundness, vigor, and ability.

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