A Call to Arts: How Artistic Living Can Redeem Us

---

Others show how the Catholic worldview illuminates even ordinary events. For instance, Carol Castor's "Green Jesus" conveys Christ's identification with the poor, the sick and the suffering.

Melissa Dayton's "Escort to God" deals with the dignity and vulnerability of the unborn, and Sr. The jurors who selected the show chose the strongest artwork from those that were submitted to the foundation, and they wanted to capture the variety of types and styles possible for authentic Christian art. The result is a rich display of the vibrancy of the Christian imagination and some of the numerous possibilities for religious art today.

Incidentally, most of the artworks in "Redeeming Beauty" are available for sale. Faith is joy, and so it creates beauty. What does that mean for the foundation? One thing it means is that we're on the right track! Our Holy Father has a clear understanding of how beauty and the arts nourish the Christian faith, and he is candid about the dangers that emerge if we forsake beauty and settle for a mere "utilitarian" approach to worship and Christian life.

Navigation menu

I believe that Pope Benedict's appreciation of beauty, art and music will bring people to recognize the need for artistic renewal in the Church and will lead them to join us in our work. His attention to the arts shows that the work of the foundation and similar organizations is an important part of the Church's mission to spread the Gospel.

This artistic renewal will be one of the distinguishing marks of the New Evangelization. Centuries ago, the best fine arts creations often had Christian inspiration -- the works of Michelangelo, Raphael and so many others. But today, some say art with a Christian inspiration often does not compete with secular works in terms of quality.

I'm thinking not only of fine arts, but also music and literature. Do you sense that there is a lower standard for Christian works today? Much contemporary art with a Christian message does seem to pale in comparison with the great Christian artworks of the past.

In those periods, the arts were supported by a richly Catholic culture, and so works with Christian content flourished. This is no longer the case. Today, the secular culture suppresses authentic religious expression in favor of the ideologies of the contemporary art world: Because of this, many artists who would wish to pursue religious themes in their work distance themselves from the established art world and from the institutes of training.

As a result, the quality of their work has often suffered. Rather than being satisfied with a lower standard, Christian art must embrace an even higher standard. In fact, the artist who commits himself to working in Christian subject matter has the greatest obligation to perfect his skill and to refine his artistic vision. He serves God with his art, and the quality of his work will affect the way the viewer experiences God.

The Christian artist must always seek to give God the best of himself as an artist. This implies a constant effort on the artist's part to improve his skill and to develop his insight.

FRESH IDEAS IN YOUR INBOX

Is there hope that Christian art can flourish even if the culture is ever more secular? Is there a way to bring back a Christian culture? Even though the prospects for the Christian arts have looked dim for the past several decades, there are significant signs of hope. The secular culture certainly makes it difficult for a Christian art to re-emerge; but it does not make it impossible, or even improbable. In fact, I believe there is hope for the future of art in the Church precisely because things in the secular art world have gone so far astray.

Artists have a singular opportunity right now to discover their mission and vocation as artists, and to help to redirect our culture, guiding it back to beauty, and thus to God. Art is an expression of culture, but art can also shape and guide culture. A strong and vibrant art movement developing from within the Church will help strengthen the Christian values and ideals of our society. Steps in this direction have been made already. On a fundamental level, we are seeing more and more art academies dedicated to beauty and representation, as opposed to abstraction and themes of meaninglessness.

The public is also showing a growing receptivity to spiritual themes in art and music. We have seen this receptivity in the very enthusiastic response to our exhibit, and not exclusively from a Catholic audience. Additionally, inspired by the same issues as the foundation, several groups are emerging that focus on providing artists of all fields -- art and music, but also the dramatic and literary arts -- with support, inspiration, and the means to play their part to revive the arts.

So there is much hope in Christian art today. But in order for an artistic renewal to occur in the Church, we need two things: We are still at the beginning stages, and the fruits may take some time to mature. But with prayer and dedication, I am certain that we will once again see a vibrant Christian artistic presence that will revitalize and renew our culture.

At 23, I quit my job and founded a start-up that quickly earned a multi-million-dollar valuation. Business Week named me a "Top The GIVEN Institute hopes to shape a new generation of Catholic leaders through a program of faith formation, mentoring, and leadership for In the wake of recent sex abuse scandals, Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh has announced a Year of Repentance in the diocese. With nearly five million Catholics, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is not only the largest diocese in the United States, it is also one of Reading 1, First Corinthians Robert Bellarmine September Born at Montepulciano, Italy, October 4, , In his interviews, he asks research subjects to divide their lives into chapters and to recount key scenes, such as a high point, a low point, a turning point or an early memory.

He encourages participants to think about their personal beliefs and values. People who are driven to contribute to society and to future generations, he found, are more likely to tell redemptive stories about their lives, or stories that transition from bad to good. There was the man who grew up in dire poverty but told McAdams that his hard circumstances brought him and his family closer together.

The two kinds of stories we tell about ourselves

These people rate their lives as more meaningful than those who tell stories that have either no or fewer redemptive sequences. The joy over the birth of her child was tainted by that tragedy. They also tend to be more anxious and depressed, and to feel that their lives are less coherent compared to those who tell redemptive stories. Redemption and contamination stories are just two kinds of tales we spin.

McAdams has found that beyond stories of redemption, people who believe their lives are meaningful tend to tell stories defined by growth, communion and agency. These stories allow individuals to craft a positive identity: One of the great contributions of psychology and psychotherapy research is the idea that we can edit, revise and interpret the stories we tell about our lives even as we are constrained by the facts.

Through editing and reinterpreting his story with his therapist, the patient may come to realize that he is in control of his life and that some meaning can be gleaned from his hardships. A review of the scientific literature finds that this form of therapy is as effective as antidepressants or cognitive behavioral therapy. Even making smaller story edits can have a big impact on our lives. So found Adam Grant and Jane Dutton in a study published in The researchers asked university call-center fundraisers to keep a journal for four consecutive days.

In one condition, the beneficiary condition, the researchers asked the fundraisers to write about the last time a colleague did something for them that inspired gratitude. In the second condition, the benefactor condition, the participants wrote about a time they contributed to others at work.

The researchers wanted to know which type of story would lead the research subjects to be more generous. Since the fundraisers were paid a fixed hourly rate to call alumni and solicit donations, the researchers reasoned, then the number of calls they made during their shift was a good indicator of prosocial, helping behavior.

José Ortega y Gasset

After Grant and Dutton analyzed the stories, they found that fundraisers who told a story of themselves as benefactors ultimately made 30 percent more calls to alumni after the experiment than they had before. The stories the benefactors told about themselves ultimately led to meaningful behaviors — giving their time in the service of a larger cause. By subtly reframing their narrative, they adopted a positive identity that led them to live more purposefully.

• Knights Of Darkness: Secrets Of The Worlds Deadliest Night Fighters
• Advances in Immunology: 55
• Bone Dead, and Rising: Vincent Van Gogh and the Self before God
• Poems of Childhood
• Ego Land
• La Finta Giardiniera, Act 1, No. 5 Der Hammer zwingt das Eisen (Aria) - Full Score