Is ‘Religion’ Enough?

This paper responds to The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art (University of Notre Dame Press, 2025), affirming its landmark demonstration that religion remains present in contemporary art despite its marginalization within academic interpretation. While endorsing the book’s historiographical rigor and methodological clarity, the paper raises two broader questions: How much authority do academic interpretations of contemporary art retain in the algorithm-driven attention economy? And is the category of “religion” sufficient to address the deeper aesthetic and metaphysical assumptions shaping contemporary art institutions? Focusing on the book’s analysis of Kris Martin’s Altar, the paper argues that institutional validation often favors reductive and disenchanted forms of religious art while marginalizing works grounded in beauty and metaphysical richness. It asks whether making religion visible in interpretation is enough—or whether contemporary art must also confront its underlying commitments to disenchantment.