The Avant-Garde Path to God

CultureThe Avant-Garde Path to GodA new book explores how contemporary art can offer glimpses of the divine.By Luis ParralesHeritage Images / GettyApril 28, 2026, 11:39 AM ET ShareSave Listen−1.0x+Seek0:007:47Early in his 2009 BBC documentary, Why Beauty Matters, the late conservative philosopher Roger Scruton described seeing Michelangelo’s Pietà for the first time. Gazing on the 15th-century sculpture, which depicts Mary holding Christ after the crucifixion, was a “transporting experience” for Scruton and informed his later view that art can, in its pursuit of beauty, “raise us to a higher moral or spiritual plane.” As he said in the film, “My life was changed by this.”To Scruton, the contemporary art popularized in Europe and North America throughout much of the 20th century could…

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