Interpretations of Poetry and Religion

"Interpretations of Poetry and Religion" by George Santayana is a philosophical exploration from the late 1800s that finds common ground between artistic expression and spiritual faith. It explains that, at their core, both poetry and religion are ways of talking about what we wish were true, instead of reporting just the facts around us. The book starts by setting up the main idea: religion and poetry are two sides of the same coin, even though they show up differently in how we live. It digs into how we think and dream, as well as how those things touch what we believe and how religion must focus on dreams and ideals to really make sense and be important to the mind. The author looks at how the human mind interacts with the cold, hard facts of reality, and he pushes us to see imagination as a key tool we use to understand the world, and argues that poetry and religion should be thought of as that, too.