[362] We have lost one or two hours already by the manifoldness of our discussion of religion and art, and especially by the showing of the pictures. But what I hope is that the gain was greater than the loss, because these pictures, which I hope you all remember, at least vaguely-- or some of them, not only vaguely--have a great power of keeping us for the analysis of the

present situation into which we have to go now. This analysis could have been given, as I said, already at the beginning of this whole course, but then it would have been a little bit abstract. Now since it is given between the two main parts--or better, in the connection with the transitory part, namely the theoretical and the practical side of culture^a--it is more filled with content for your mind^b, and especially since you have seen, in the visual arts, an expression of our time^c and the whole reality in which we are living. One of the functions of art^d--and perhaps you remember that I said the main function of art is its revelation^e character and it reveals in unity two things: the human situation as such, or generally; and the special situation in which this general situation becomes concrete. This

statement has more implications than it seems to have. These sociologists, anthropologists^f and Marxists^g who analyze a concrete situation only from the point of view of its HISTORICAL^h reality would not accept my statement. They would say: what we can know of man is always limited to a concrete situation, let us say to the 20th century, and here again to a special period in this century and to a special place where this period takes place. If you follow this method, then you come to the point that you cannot say anything universally about man. And that is