Can Art Open the Door to God? | Alfonse Borysewicz

Why It Matters

This perspective links the cultural value of art to spiritual well-being and suggests institutions, artists and audiences can cultivate meaning and community through everyday encounters with art. It reframes debates about religion and spirituality by proposing art as a practical pathway to transcendent experience.

Summary

Artist Alfonse Borysewicz argues that authentic art—paintings, music, sculpture, poetry—gradually dismantles the ego and opens viewers to spiritual or religious insight by revealing the deeper self beyond personal narrative. He says these moments are often ordinary and intimate rather than dramatic, criticizing popular media for distorting expectations of religious experience. Borysewicz cites a Marsden Hartley family painting and his own handcrafted accordion books as instances where art produced awe, hope and a sense of being a conduit for something larger. He also draws a distinction between spiritual experience and organized religion, advocating for community-embedded faith rather than purely individualistic spirituality.

Original Description

Can a work of art become a religious experience?

Alfonse Borysewicz suggests that authentic art can gradually dismantle the self, opening a space for mystery, beauty, awe, and what he sees as a deeper encounter with reality.

0:00 How Art Dismantles the Self

2:03 A Painting as Religious Experience

4:20 Religious Experience and Spiritual Insight

Alfonse Borysewicz is a Brooklyn-based painter. He received his B.A. from Sacred Heart Seminary and M.A. from St. John’s Provincial Seminary.

More from Alfonse Borysewicz on Closer To Truth:

* Art Seeking Understanding - Closer To Truth - Core Topic: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFJr3pJl27pKhXbGNemPBfdv1maRou5P2

* Closer To Truth contributors: https://closertotruth.com/contributor/alfonse-borysewicz/

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Closer To Truth, hosted by Robert Lawrence Kuhn and directed by Peter Getzels, presents the world’s greatest thinkers exploring humanity’s deepest questions. Discover fundamental issues of existence. Engage new and diverse ways of thinking. Appreciate intense debates. Share your own opinions. Seek your own answers.

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