Beauty and Spirituality For Christ In The World

I have already posted a few times this month on art and spirituality: one here on the making of a film called The Colour Of Love, and an earlier post last week here on New York artist Brother Mickey McGrath.Brother Mickey  made a comment that Beauty Will Save Us.

These posts also mesh with two books by one of my favourite authors, John O'Donohue that I am reading : one called Beauty and the other Divine Beauty : The Invisible Embrace.


"We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender. 

Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more.

 At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. 

At death we will surrender again to the dark and become invisible. 

Awakening and surrender: they frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty."

Excerpt from the book Beauty by John O’ Donohue




A German Dominican priest of the 13th century.




So when I came across these videos that speak about about bearing witness to the mark of beauty that participates in the work of Christ on Earth it seemed a natural follow on to  earlier posts. 

"Beauty stands over against all the destructive and dehumanizing effects of the Fall, and it is our God-given, God-blessed privilege to participate in His work of making beauty abound upon the earth.

"You and I, each and every one of us without exception, can be defined as an aching need for the infinite. Some people realize this; some do not.


 But even the latter illustrate this inner ache when, not having God deeply, they incessantly spill themselves out into excitements and experiences, licit or illicit. They are trying to fill their inner emptiness, but they never succeed, which is why the search is incessant. 

Though worldly pleasure seeking never fulfills and satisfies in a continuing way, it may tend momentarily to distract and to dull the profound pain of the inner void. If these people allow themselves a moment of reflective silence (which they seldom do), they notice a still, small voice whispering, Is this all there is?

 They begin to sense a thirst to love with abandon, without limit, without end, without lingering aftertastes of bitterness. In other words, their inner spirit is clamoring, even if confusedly, for unending beauty. 

How they and we respond to this inner outreach rooted in our deep spiritual soul is the most basic set of decisions we can make: they have eternal consequences." - Thomas Dubay

In hollow embraced (2005-09-512)
In hollow embraced (2005-09-512) (Photo credit: Argenberg)


 In these three videos David Taylor, a Texan evangelical artist  I have not previously heard of,  talks about the place of the arts in church.

The first one has the engaging title of Christ and Oranges:  How Beauty Will Save The Earth. 

In the second he recommends books and films that can help Christians catch a passion for the arts. In The third video he paints a portrait of art in Austin, Texas and explains the importance of artists in the Body of Christ.

He is a fantastic speaker and I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.










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