Christian Art Quotes

“What makes art Christian art? Is it simply Christian artists painting biblical subjects like Jeremiah? Or, by attaching a halo, does that suddenly make something Christian art? Must the artist’s subject be religious to be Christian? I don’t think so. There is a certain sense in which art is its own justification. If art is good art, if it is true art, if it is beautiful art, then it is bearing witness to the Author of the good, the true, and the beautiful”
― R.C. Sproul, Lifeviews: Make a Christian Impact on Culture and Society

“If it's bad art, it's bad religion, no matter how pious the subject.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

“It seems that the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked. For many centuries, in Christian art, depictions of hell offered both of these elemental satisfactions.”
― Sontag, Susan

“St. Hierotheos, the great teacher quoted by Dionysius in his book on Divine Names: “As form giving form to all that is formless, in so far as It is the principle of form, the Divine Nature of the Christ is none the less formless in all that has form, since It transcends all form....”
― Titus Burckhardt

“The consensus seems to be this: we should be deeply Christian artists. But that doesn't mean we should be something called Christian artists or that whatever we produce should be called Christian art. We should simply focus on our craft, on making the best art we can. We should understand that people will and should resonate with our work not because it is Christian but because it is good. Above all, Christians should make good art, true art; art unafraid of exploring mystery, portraying evil, and looking for truth wherever it appears.”
― Brett McCracken, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide

“I remember that one Holy Week, the magazine I got every Thursday, Anteojito, came with a free poster depicting the Stations of the Cross. I burned the poster and flushed the ashes down the toilet to dispose of the evidence. The idea that I was supposed to pin this graphic depiction of torture and death on my wall seemed to me as obscene as if someone had suggested decorating my room with pictures of the inner workings of Auschwitz.”
― Marcelo Figueras, Kamchatka

“It is necessarily so, since every traditional art obeys a particular spiritual economy that limits its themes and means of expression, so that an abandonment of that economy almost immediately releases new and apparently unlimited artistic possibilities.”
― Titus Burckhardt, The Foundations of Christian Art

“Christian art, then, might be defined as a work that is, like Christ himself, full of grace and truth. Where we go wrong is when we tilt the scales away from grace, or beauty, or excellence, as if truth were all that mattered.”
― Andrew Peterson, Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making

“Chad Walsh, a contemporary Christian poet, writes that the creative artist 'can honestly see himself as a kind of earthly assistant to God (so can the carpenter), carrying on the delegated work of creation, making the fullness of creation fuller.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“The first thing the Bible does is introduce us to the God of the universe. He is introduced as a creative artist.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“When we first read about the image of God in people in Genesis 1, we have as yet heard nothing about God as redeemer or the God of providence or the covenant God or the God of moral truth. The one thing that we know about God is that he created the world. In its immediate narrative context, then, the doctrine of the image of God in people emphasizes that people, are, like God, creators.”
― Leland Ryken, The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts

“Truth be told, there really isn’t any such thing as “Christian Art.” Just like “Beauty” and “Justice,” “Art” belongs fully to the Lord. It’s all his , meaning that, in the end, we can only speak of good art or bad art; art that is a worthy representation of God’s heart or some severely diluted or distorted misrepresentation of the Master Artist.”
― Chuck Ammons