The Work and the “Boundary of Meaning”
The Work and the “Boundary of Meaning”

Summary/Abstract: We accept that an authentic work of art discloses or at least intends to reveal or render closer that, which in a domain other than reflection on art is described as the boundary of meaning. This term comes from the philosophy of religion or, to put it as extensively as possible, the study of religion. Religion in Essence and Manifestation: A Study in Phenomenology by Gerardus van der Leeuw disseminated this term, borrowing it from a today already less known work, namely, Types of Men by Eduard Springer (published in 1914), who wrote that the religious meaning of things is the one beyond which no further or more profound meaning may hide. This is the sense of entirety, the last word. Such meaning, however, will be never comprehended and such a word will be never uttered. They shall always remain above us. Ultimate sense is an ever-revealed mystery that, however, keeps on being concealed. It denotes a path leading to the ultimate boundary where only one thing is comprehended: all understanding remains “on the other side”. Ultimate sense is thus the very limit of meaning.

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