As I see it,  the attempt to make philosophy useful to the arts is OK if philosophy is used as a source of inspiration but dubious if it is used as a source of instruction…One way to tell the difference between a work of art being inspired by a religious or philosophical view and its being an application of that view by asking yourself: do I need to know about the view in order to appreciate the work? This is not a very good test, however: appreciation is a matter of degree, so the more you know about all the circumstances surrounding the creation of the work, the better you can appreciate it.  A slightly less crude test is: do I have to believe in the view in order to take an interest in the work? Is the work the sort of thing that only a follower of Ficino, or only a convinced reader of A VISION, or only a pious Hindu, or only a devout Mormon, or only a passionate Heideggerian, can really get into it?