Christianity had compromised the immediacy of man's relationship with reality, and ironic detachment had alienated him from his deepest feelings. Hegel's "Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics" were delivered in Berlin in the 1820s, and stand as a passionately argued work that challenged the...

Christianity had compromised the immediacy of man's relationship with reality, and ironic detachment had alienated him from his deepest feelings. Hegel's "Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics" were delivered in Berlin in the 1820s, and stand as a passionately argued work that challenged the ability of art to respond to the modern world.