Does Religious Art Have a Future?

Why We Should Be Passionately Ambivalent About Aesthetics

The relationship between art and religion, or aesthetics and faith, is complex.

On the one hand, the golden calf is a work of art, showing that a focus on aesthetics alone can lead to sacrilege. On the other hand, the Temple and Tabernacles were also works of art. Both were made of gold, perhaps even the same gold, repurposed.

Bach wrote music for the Chu…