MSNBC article on art and Evangelical Christianity

I started copy pasting into a document interesting snippets from an article on MSNBC titled “Evangelicals seek role as ‘creators of culture,’” but realized my snippets nearly comprised the whole article. Thus I decided instead to encourage readers to follow the above link to the story and read it its entirety.

The article won’t say too much new to long-time readers of this blog, however it’s nice to see an article like this in the mainstream media. The story starts out with bits of an interview with Makoto Fujimura. It then talks about the Brehm Center and quotes Andy Crouch, director of the Christian Vision Project. Crouch suggested that younger generations of believers live in an image-saturated culture. We will all agree. He then postulates that “they sense a disconnect worshipping in churches bare of anything that’s visually arresting. The very parched nature of evangelical visual culture is making people who have grown up in this culture thirsty for beauty.” This is a bit of a new thought to me. I think I like it, but to be sure check back with me in a few months.

The other interesting news of note from the article was that the Southern Baptist — yes, Southern Baptist — Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky installed the humble beginnings of an art-related program.

Makoto Fujimura as photographed for the MSNBC article.

UPDATE: Think Christian found this same article on 17 August reposted on Forbes’ website. Commentary on the article also at Get Religion.