inexhaustible love and creative power of Spirit, in its eternally unfolding itself into new individuals out of the womb of its plenitude … .“ [21F-TDI: p. 137]
[P. 430] “[re Ludwig Feuerbach’s book Thoughts on Death and Immortality, Wagner states that:]“I found it elevating and consoling to be assured that the sole authentic immortality adheres only to sublime deeds and inspired works of art. (…) [P. 431] The fact that he proclaimed what we call “spirit” to lie in our aesthetic perceptions of the tangible world … was what afforded me such useful support in my conception of a work of art which would be all-embracing while remaining comprehensible to the simplest, purely human power of discernment, that is, of the drama made perfect at the moment of its realization of every artistic intention in ‘the art-work of the future’ … .” [387W-{?/49} ML: p. 430-431]
“… the wisest-constituted States fall through, ay, the sublimest Religions outlive themselves and yield to superstition or unbelief, whilst Art eternally shoots up, renewed and young, from out the ruins of existence.” [729W-{9-12/67} German Art and German Policy: PW Vol. IV, p. 79-80]
“What has Science not pinned its faith to, and not so very long ago, that to-day lies on the dust-heap? The contrary with works of Art; alter, transform your views and sciences as ye will – there still stands Shakespeare, there Goethe’s Faust, there the Beethoven Symphony, with undiminished power!” [900W-{78-82?} Notes of uncertain date, presumably from 1878-1882: PW Vol. VIII, p. 392]
“R. says in the evening. ‘Art makes religions eternal.’ ” [826W-{6/20/72}CD Vol. I, p. 502]
And, finally, Wagner sums this argument with the following appeal to sacrifice the gods for the sake of love, his figure for authentically inspired secular art, through which humanity can emancipate itself from religion:
“… we recognize the glorious necessity of love [Wagner’s metaphor for his unconsciously inspired secular art, the music-drama], we call upon it and welcome each other with a force of love which would not be possible were it not for this painful recognition; and so, in this way, we acquire a [P. 285] strength of which natural man had no inkling, and this strength – increased to embrace the whole of humanity – will one day lay the foundations for a state on earth where no one need yearn for the other world (a world which will then have become wholly unnecessary) [i.e., a transcendent realm of the spirit, such as Valhalla], for they will be happy – to live and to love. For where is the man who yearns to escape from life when he is in love? – Well then! Now we suffer, now we must lose heart and go mad without any faith in the hereafter [reminding us of Loge’s (archetypal artist-hero) critique of the gods, that they had staked everything on Freia’s golden apples of sorrowless youth eternal]: I too believe in a here-after: -- I have just shown you this hereafter: though it lies beyond my life, it does not lie beyond the limits of all that I can feel, think, grasp and comprehend [i.e., it does not transcend Erda’s real world, all that was, is, or will be], for I believe in humanity and – have need of naught else!” [598W-{4/13/53} Letter to Franz Liszt: SLRW, p. 284]
