Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning by Nancy R. PearceyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve long had a soft spot in my heart for the arts. My wife is a painter and art historian. I love literature and novels. So any book merging Christian worldview with the arts, in the way Francis Schaeffer did in “How Now Shall We Live?” gets high marks in my book.
Pearcey walks us through the philosophical history that led to the art and literature movements of the past 2000 years. The secular/sacred dichotomy, fact/value divide is insidious and deeply unbiblical. Her take on the last 150 years of modern art history is particularly insightful, and not always negative.
Her conclusion is excellent. The church needs to support Christian artists, not only denounce the ungodly secular ones, and certainly not support the pop Christian kitsch. If the church is to incarnate the Gospel, it needs to do so in its communal life together, but also in story and picture.
This is more a college textbook than a popular read, but I commend it to every thinking Christian. 4 stars.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment