Since the nineteenth century's interest in "art for art's sake," many thinkers have argued that art would supplant traditional religion as the spiritual locus of the increasingly secular society of Western modernity. If art can capture the sort of spirituality, idealism, and expressive community of traditional religions but without being ensnared in the particular doctrines, rituals, and historical conflicts that make these religions such a persistent source of intellectual disbelief and transcultural discord, can art then provide a sturdy bridge between cultures that historical religions have violently divided? Can art achieve the spiritual unification of humanity that world religions purport to seek but always fail to achieve? The virtues as well as the problems of this proposal will be explored in this article by considering not only the arguments of philosophers but also a variety of religious attitudes exemplified in art and aesthetic experience. (Contains 26 notes.)