Mass Society and Its Culture and Three Essays concerning Etienne Gilson on Bergson Christian Philosophy and Art

A Medievalist And Defender Of The Notion Of Christian Philosophy Étienne Gilson Had A Lifelong Interest In The Philosophy Of Art. He Questioned Whether What Is Reproduced As Art In Contemporary Society Is Art At All. This Is Not A Simple Issue. A Cheap Version Of A Novel Is Still A Novel. A Picture Of A Statue Is Not A Statue Nor Indeed Is A Photograph Of A Painting A Painting. Recorded Music Has Particular Complications. The Organizer Of An Industrial Assembly Line Is Neither An Artist Nor An Artisan. Yet Thanks To Such Mass Production A Much Broader Population Has Knowledge Of Artworks Than Would Otherwise Be Possible. Religions Must Minister To Mass Societies And Provide Appropriate Liturgies. But In The Process There Is A Danger Of Misrepresenting Complex Religious Teachings. At The End Of His Own Life Henri Gouhier Gilson’S First Doctoral Student Prepared Three Essays On Gilson. The First On Bergson Gives A Sense Of Gilson’S Formation In Early Twentieth-Century French Philosophy. The Second Reconstructs The Development Of The Notion Of Christian Philosophy And The Heated Controversy It Provoked. Finally Gouhier Presents Gilson’S General Philosophy Of Art And Gives A Helpful Framework To Gilson’S Comments On Art In A Mass Society.