Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Edmund Burke

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Church and art - Pope John Paul II


(Giotto di Bondone - Last Supper - Cappella Scrovegni padua 1304-06)

Art too in all its manifestations - and to these must be added the potential offered by the cinema and television - has humanity as its fundamental theme: the human image, human truth. Though appearance may often be to the contrary, even contemporary art is cognizant of these deep-down assertions and demands. The religious and Christian origin of art is by no means exhausted. Themes such as guilt and grace, deceit and liberation, injustice and justice, compassion and freedom, solidarity with and love for one's neighbor, hope and consolation, all have their place in today's literature, in text-books and film scripts, and get ample feed-back.


Collaboration between the Church and art regarding humanity is based on the fact that both seek to set humanity free from slavery and want it to become self-aware. They open the way to freedom for humanity: freedom from the pressures of needs, of productivity at any cost, of efficiency, of programming and functionalism.

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