However, twentieth century art has been one big reaction against Western, religiously sanctioned principles and toward other world views such as African or Asian. The artist has replaced the mystic with his schools, sects, and codes. The mystic sees reality as full of endless possibilities, endless combinations and potentialities. For example, Kabbalists see the very letters of the Torah as arranged in there present order only as one possible combination, and that largely an accommodation to a fallen world in a state of entropy. The true essence of the Torah is described as black fire and white fire.
Religion provides an order, a purpose, and an explanation of the inherent pain of living.
Where justice may seem lacking in the world, religion teaches that wickedness will be punished and righteousness rewarded. When religion degenerates into mere form and no longer provides the comfort or the answers, it is time for a renewal. This was the role of the prophets in the Bible, of the Jewish revival movements in Spain and Safed, and later in Russia and Poland. This also holds true with the founding of many Christian denominations. The mystic uses tradition only as a loose infrastructure upon which to hang his own revolutionary interpretation.