Sacred and Profane Beauty

The name of Gerardus van der Leeuw is currently related to the phenomenology of religion. He wrote, it is true, the first important treatise on the subject. But as with Rudolf Otto, the multilaterality of his work does not permit a too rigid classification. Although he studied oriental languages as a young man and obtained his doctorate with a thesis on Egyptian religion, van der Leeuw later published two excellent books on primitive religion and innumerable articles and monographs on various other religions, the problem of Urmonotheismus, and the psychology of religion. In addition, he was a poet, a musician, a man of the Church, and the author of an important book, The Holy in Art. Ultimately, however, his inexhaustible curiosity and his many-sided interests did not serve van der Leeuw's work. He was also an extremely gifted writer. He wrote beautifully and always with crystalline clarity. His books are easily understood; they do not need elaborate commentaries. In an epoch when dry, difficult, enigmatic writing has become almost a fashion in philosophical circles, clarity and artistic excellence are in danger of being confused with superficiality, dilettantism, or lack of original thinking.