The True, the Good, and the Beautiful. I often tell my religion class that these three transcendentals are a trinity of avenues into the one, true Church. Some converts make their way into the Church having been drawn thither by the resilient truth of her doctrine; others are drawn by the goodness of her saints and the moral law which she alone preserves intact; still others are attracted by Catholic achievements in architecture, stain-glass, music, mosaics, and many other art forms rooted in the sacred liturgy — works of beauty that emanate out as if from the center of the Host in a monstrance.
God’s grace moves people along all of these avenues to bring them into the Church.
Two Catholics worth reading have independently said a thing or two about the arts recently — specifically, on the historical drop-off in the patronage of real arts. The first that I ran across is Joshua Charles, a convert and former White House speech writer turned apologist, who also happens to be a concert pianist. On X, he responded to a philistine comment (probably made in jest) by Kyle Mann, of Babylon Bee fame:
“Why are conservatives so bad at art?”
“Because we have jobs.” @The_Kyle_Mann pic.twitter.com/zADZ59ZRLq
— Fr Calvin Robinson (@calvinrobinson) October 5, 2024
To which Mr. Charles intellegently replied:
I’ll tell you a big part of it (a part Eternal Christendom is trying to remedy): because we lack PATRONS who are willing to fund the creation of beauty, which requires EXCELLENCE, and seeing beyond the limited horizon of the profit motive, which is necessarily short-term and prioritizes “instant gratification.”
Most of the many beautiful and deep things we love to this day (art, literature, architecture, music, scholarship, etc.) were funded by wealthy patrons who wanted work that was not subject to the profit-motive, and thus did not have to appeal to the crass, average mind and tastes of the populace.
That sounds judgmental, but it isn’t: they were able to create something that ELEVATED the mind and tastes of the populace as a result.
If you want beauty that appeals to the crass, average mind and taste, you get Taylor Swift.
If you want beauty that elevates and refines everyone, funded by patrons, you get Mozart, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante, etc.
I’ll tell you a big part of it (a part Eternal Christendom is trying to remedy): because we lack PATRONS who are willing to fund the creation of beauty, which requires EXCELLENCE, and seeing beyond the limited horizon of the profit motive, which is necessarily short-term and…
— Joshua Charles (@JoshuaTCharles) October 7, 2024
I very much appreciate the swipe at Taylor Sift as an example of trash art. Aside from that, there is much in the comments of Joshua Charles to appreciate, not the least of which are the historical point he makes and the pledge that he is attempting to rectify the absence of patrons of the arts with his Eternal Christendom venture. I hope his efforts work.
Another Catholic writing about this is Joseph Pearce, who says this in his piece at the National Catholic Register, We All Need to Support the Catholic Arts:
In the past, great artists enjoyed the patronage of wealthy patrons. Today’s artists enjoy no such patronage. Instead, they rely on ordinary people to support their work, and by extension their families, through the purchasing of the fruits of their creative gifts. Since this is so, we all need to become patrons of the true art that Catholic artists are producing. We need to buy their paintings, or purchase the literary works of Catholic writers, or the works of Catholic composers and musicians. If we wish to support and encourage a new Catholic revival in the arts, a revival which is so sorely needed as an expression of the culture of life in the midst of the culture of death, we need to proactively nurture and nourish the new generation of Catholic artists.
The two men wrote what they did a day apart: October 7 and 8 respectively. There must be something artsy in the Autumn air.
Many traditionalists are, I believe, insufficiently appreciative of the beauty aspect of the Religion. This often makes them philistines who buy into the WASP brand of “conservatism” expressed above by Kyle Mann (again, probably in jest). To try to correct this, I occasionally post something featuring a great work of art on this site (usually music). This is my very small part in trying to address the problem.
When we don’t teach our children what real beauty is, their little souls will seek beauty where it is not to be found. Hence, the popularity of Taylor Swift, the artistic equivalent of McDonald’s, and about as nutritious.
I will never forget the disgust that I felt when, in my young days as a Rush Limbaugh fan, I heard “El Rushbo” favorably quote a horrible utterance of the right-wing-liberal-called-conservative pundit, George Will, who said something like this: “A tree is a beautiful thing, but it’s much more beautiful when you cut in down and make something useful of it.” (I’m going by memory, and was unable to succeed in summoning the vast resources of Google to find the original. I hope I do the man no injustice and will correct the quote if someone can produce it.)
That’s a great expression of crass utilitarianism from someone whose love of industrial capitalism has derogated from his appreciation of beauty. The Catholic poet, Joyce Kilmer, expressed a far superior notion of the place of trees in the universe.
Here are a two related pieces on our site, the first by Gary Potter, the second by yours truly:
