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About this quote

What does it mean?
Artistic thought feels definitive while divine thought remains obscure and fluid.
In plain terms
Art seems clear but thinking about god is vague.
What can you take from it?
Accept ambiguity in spiritual thought.

Where it applies

  • theological reflection
  • art criticism
  • philosophy

Putting it to work

  • comparing art and faith
  • writing about the unknown

Questions to consider

  • Is art truly final?
  • How do you view divine thought?

Another view

Art often resists finality just as much as theology.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. Do not speak to us of the greatness of poetry, Of the torches wisping in the underground, Of the structure of vaults upon a point of light. There are no shadow…

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  2. It is the sun that shares our works. The moon shares nothing. It is a sea. When shall I come to say of the sun, It is a sea; it shares nothing; The sun no long…

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  3. So that's life, then: things are they are? It picks its way on the blue guitar. A million people on one string? And all their manner in the thing, And all thei…

    Permalink to quote #64

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