I want to offer some thoughts continuing the conversation on Gabriel’s article examining art as a way to evangelize. I happened to read his article right after listening to Bishop Barron’s interview with movie actors Ethan and Maya Hawke on art, grace, and Flannery O’Connor, which made me more open to Gabriel’s points than I think I was originally. As Flannery O’Connor showed in her stories, grace sometimes hits us like a 2×4 over the head and shows us how much we need salvation. Great art can present us with that “moment of grace” where we see the world in a different way than we’re accustomed to, that shakes us out of the everyday, and that challenges us to respond. 

But simply embracing the arts is not a complete response itself, and this is what Bishop Barron’s interview revealed. Ethan Hawke said that when he turned 50 he had an existential crisis because he realized he’d never fully explored the questions of faith and religion that he wrestled with in his early twenties. But then, he says, he assured himself that his career in film is his way of interacting with the divine. Basically, that a life lived in service of artistic craft is the same as a life in service to God. I disagree, and Gabriel’s article helped me understand why. Art is a way of stirring up the questions–it is not the answer itself. To be an artist is to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord. It’s not the same as being the Lord. As Gabriel pointed out, all the grand cathedrals and paintings haven’t saved Europe from secularism. 

I appreciate Gabriel’s point about the role of shock and ugliness in evangelization (a theme also common in Flannery O’Connor). But, I think there’s also a case to be made that our culture is saturated in ugliness or consumerized glamor rather than actual beauty. How do we teach beauty in a consumerized culture without being prudish and/or elitist? 

If the Second Person of the Trinity is associated with beauty, then it’s worth noting that Christ always points to God the Father and submitted to His Will. Similarly, beauty must submit to truth and our evangelization should reflect that. So the question before us is, how do we help the culture move from simply appreciating beauty to understanding truth?