A Touchstone Partner Feature

released 9/10/2024

At the 2023 Touchstone conference in Illinois, Dr. R. V. Young gave a lecture titled “The Rout of the Muses: The Crisis of Authority in the Fine Arts.” The crisis is evidenced, Young argues, by a decreasing capacity in the last one hundred years to discriminate between good and bad art. He explains how this happened, how it is socially and spiritually destructive, and why it is of particular concern to Christians. If the fine arts illuminate elements of the inner reality of human nature, then the postmodern denial of the existence of a permanent human nature is at the core of the current problem. In this light, art can only be an ideological product of its time. Young says we must immerse ourselves in art that reveals meaning and significance and that assumes a common human heritage relevant to men of every age. This crisis must be taken seriously because “the abolition of the arts is a tactic in the abolition of man.”

This lecture is provided courtesy of Touchstone.

41 minutes

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