Art in the Church

So all this talk about art and the Church has got me to thinking a lot lately. Well, actually not too much. Really all that I was reminded of was a class I took my senior year of High School in my second semester. It was the perfect class because I had a terrible case of senioritis and all we had to do was read the night before class and discuss the reading the next day! I digress. The point of telling you all this is that the class was titled Great Catholic Thinkers. Towards the end of the semester we read a document by Pope John Paul II and I had the chance to lead the class the discussion. The writing was called "Letter to Artists". In the piece written by JPII he discussed the need for artists in the Church and how our history is full of art. He believed that the Church was turning artists away left and right, so he set out to make clear that artists embrace God's creation. He states the Church needs artists!

Thought that was interesting enough to share with you all. If you would like to read the letter I'll leave a link to it here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_23041999_artists_en.html

"None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation looked upon the work of his hands." - JPII

Thought this image was appropriate because I love this movie and it seems underrated.

Oh and here is James Dean being James Dean.

Speaking of James Dean, here is Nicholas Ray. Quite and unknown filmmaker to most and a big

influence to the king of French New Wave, Jean-Luc Goddard, as well as Scorsese among many others.

Okay that's it.