Category Archives: Arts and Culture
Arts and Culture
The term “art” covers a broad spectrum of creativity. In the absolute sense only God can “create,” because creation implies making something out of nothing. Man can imitate his Creator by being creative, however it is more accurate to say that man “produces” or “makes.” In “making” (faciendo) man must work with matter that already exists.
What does the word itself mean? The schoolmen define art as “the right method of producing,” (recta ratio factibilium) in contrast to ethics or morals, which is “the right way of acting, or doing.”
The arts can be visual, as in painting and sculpture; performing, as in music and dance; or literary, as in poetry. Nowadays the term is used in a much wider sense than in past centuries. The crafts, writing, film making, photography, and other media which exhibit what is beautiful, are all styled “art” today.
Culture, on the other hand, is specific and, usually, but not always, ethnic. Father Hardon’s Catholic Dictionary defines culture as “the personality of a society.” Notice he uses the broader term “society” rather than “race” or “people.” One cannot, therefore, speak of a “nation” as having a culture, because a nation is abstract; it is the people of a nation that produce a culture. Italy does not have a culture, but Italians do. And Italians certainly have subcultures within their generic culture, as Sicilians have personal characteristics far different than Florentines.
Cultures are not created, they are “cultivated.” And that maturation often takes centuries. Is there a “Catholic” culture? Most definitely, but it is not that of a people, but of a religion. The Incarnation of the Son of God, who was born into the Jewish culture, elevated all cultures. He who was not image able, became image able. Culture and art could now express that image ability in a thousand different ways. The best expressions make the matter that we all know, intuitively, as Catholic culture.
More About the Cristeros Movie Opening June 1 in the US
CatholicOnline: “This is an international story for the world,” said Academy Award® nominee Andy Garcia, who headlines an international cast in FOR GREATER GLORY. “It’s a story that needs to be told.” Garcia plays General Gorostieta, the retired military man who transformed a roughshod group of Mexican Catholics into a formidable adversary in their fight against the Mexican government’s attempts to eliminate the Catholic Church. … More →
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Amid Barbarism’s Din: Less Music
The subject of the lines that follow is one about which I’ve written on this website before: the unmistakable and awful signs of a new barbarism rising from the ruins of what used to be Christian civilization. It is not entirely peripheral to our consideration of the subject to observe that one of the signs is that most Catholics today, including many traditional ones, seem … More →
Cristero Movie with Star Cast Debuts in Mexico
CNA: The much anticipated movie “Cristiada,” which recounts the story of the Cristero war in Mexico during the religious persecution of the 1920s, was released in Mexico on April 20. “This movie is not only going to be entertaining, it also has great potential,” said actor Eduardo Verastegui said. “It is a film that is very balanced, commercial and moving.” Read more here.
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Nyuck, Nyuck, and a Whiff of Brimstone
In the vast wasteland known as American popular culture, every once in a while — actually, quite frequently — something truly infernal comes to the screen (or the tube, or the airwaves), and makes particularly hellish mockery of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Thus it is that we are not surprised that a sentimental (or at least avaricious) film revival of The Three … More →
Recommended Film: Katyń
As a treat for Easter, the brothers watched the film Katyń, which recounts the horrible massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia in the forest of Katyn, not far from the western Russian city of Smolensk. The film, directed by Andrzej Wajda, is based on the novel, Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn by Andrzej Mularczyk. Mularczyk’s work is a fictionalized account that views … More →
Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton’s Review of ‘The Leonard Feeney Omnibus’
THE AMERICAN ECCLESIASTICAL REVIEW, Feb, 1944. THE LEONARD FEENEY OMNIBUS. A Collection of Prose and Verse Old and New. New York, Sheed and Ward, 1943. Pp. xiv + 399. $3.00.
Mirabile Mysterium, by Jacobus Gallus
The text comes from the Church’s sacred liturgy: it is the Benedictus antiphon at the office of Lauds for the Feast of the Circumcision. Learn about the composer here.
Bob Jones, Jr. Loved Collecting Catholic Art But Hated the One True Church
Catholic Culture: Religion News Service has drawn attention to the major sacred art collection at Bob Jones University, the fundamentalist college in South Carolina that lifted its ban on interracial dating only in 2000. Read more here.
A Hymn to Our Lady by Edgar Allen Poe
I’d like to thank Dan Guenzel, a long-time friend of Saint Benedict Center, for sending this poem for us today.
A Kinder, Gentler Maccabee
Far be it from me to question Abraham Foxman’s right to complain about Mel Gibson’s latest film venture. This is something he has every right to do. In fact, it’s how he makes his living. But he might like to have a logician check out his press releases first: [W]e do not argue with Mel Gibson’s right to make this film.
Anti-Mexican Race Pride: An Insult to Our Lady
On the web site Taki’s Magazine, Charles Coulombe has a brief, thoughtful essay on the immigration question. In it, he summarizes the thinking of Archbishop José Gomez — his own Ordinary, since Coulombe resides in the L.A. Archdiocese. After touching on various points of view in the immigration debate, Charles favorably cites the Archbishop’s, then goes on to consider certain demographic facts that have been … More →
Hollywood Catholic Actor Wants Movie on Siege of Malta and the Knights of St. John
CNA reports: Hollywood actor Matt Marsden said that young Catholics need to get involved in movie-making and other artistic ventures if they want to change the culture. Full report is here.
The Advent of a New Dark Age?
Many years ago, when the Catholic magazine Triumph existed and I was one of its editors, Malcolm Muggeridge stopped by our Washington offices one day. Several of us joined him for drinks on the rooftop terrace of the nearby Washington Hotel.
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Catholic Saxophonist for Band Chicago Bringing Music of Saint Alphonsus to Life
Here is a clip from Zenit’s interview with Ray Herrmann: Meeting Ray Herrmann, a humble man of deep faith, elicits an obvious question: how does he live out his faith in what is notoriously a hedonistic and irreligious environment? “Some days are more difficult than others, I must be honest,” he replies. “But I think that through the Church and the sacraments, it’s easy really … More →
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Cristiada: An Upcoming Film on the Cristeros
If this trailer is any indication, Cristiada is at least an attempt to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys. The URL for the film’s web site is http://www.cristiadafilm.com/. This is a teachable moment, folks. Tell all your friends about Gary Potter’s article: Valor and Betrayal – The Historical Background and Story of the Cristeros. View the trailer:
