Developing a Christian aesthetic

An Eliot Society Partner Feature

released 4/30/2024

In the inaugural lecture for the Eliot Society, titled “Faithful Imaginations in a Meaningful Creation,” Ken Myers addresses the question of the relationship between the arts and the Church. Drawing on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s thought, he explains that “for some time in the West, a faithless culture and a cultureless faith have grown up together.” Myers argues that the imaginations of many modern Christians have been shaped by secular — even Gnostic — cultural forms that express the idea that since Creation has no inherent meaning, so aesthetic forms are meaningless. Our faith must take cultural form, Myers argues, but we must distinguish between forms appropriate to goodness, truth, and beauty, and forms that deform our imaginations. A faithful Christian culture and imagination require the recovery of the metaphysical, theological, and physical significance of Beauty, as well as a rejection of certain assumed dualities.

This lecture is provided courtesy of the Eliot Society. It was given at Wallace Presbyterian Church in College Park, Maryland.

59 minutes

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Tags: Art Art and theology Art—Meaning Body Church and culture Imagination