Since the ACE conference, I've been reading Graham Howes' excellent book on the art of the sacred (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2007). I was particularly taken with some comments from the final chapter on the interplay between 'theology' and 'the arts':
"'Theology' - and especially Christian theology - and 'the arts' - and especially the visual arts - are not two discrete entities. They can rather be seen as twin media by which the world is interpreted and represented. Both are ways of perceiving and articulating memory, aspiration, community, celebration, loss, and a heightened sense of the natural order. Both can enhance our existing perceptions, and generate fresh experiences for us ...
... theology finds in art a complement and not a rival in its task of understanding and giving expression to all created forms ... In this sense, therefore, good art and good theology can be powerful agents in the rebirth of an expressive celebration that is not bound by, and to, mere utility.
At the same time, good theology and good art can override the false dichotomies that so often stand in the way of such fullness of expression - dichotomies between, for example, sacred and secular 'realms', spiritual and material 'values', and the intellectual and the emotional. In doing so, they may again both find that they have a common vocation: to make inroads on the weakened and impoverished modern imagination, to break open its hidden resources and equip it for adaptation to change, for celebration, and for the envisioning of alternative futures. When they are properly engaged in this vocation, theology and art may not in fact be two separate, if related, entities, but essentially part of the same cultural enterprise after all."
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