RC2 curtsies to the friend who recommended this Gregory Wolfe reflection on the purpose of "art." One key line is this: "But in making — or Art, if you will — the end is not the good of the artist as a person but the good of the made thing. The moment that art is made subservient to some ethical or political purpose, it ceases to be art and becomes propaganda."
This is a point said friend has done a fair amount of reflection on, and RC2 eagerly awaits the magnum opus he's writing on the topic. Friend bemoans the fact that while "the Right" often complains about the bilge produced by "the art community," it fails to recognize the same rule applies to itself. Namely, just because the art you produce is about God (or, in the case of family movies, lacks nudity and profanity), it ain't necessarily any good. In fact, it probably isn't any good --unless the religious element serves the story rather than being the story.
Read the whole thing. Then ponder the question my friend says he's asking himself: is it a coincidence that the same era obsessed with making up its own morality/amorality (the Left) is also the same era that can't seem to make up new worthwhile artistic expressions (the Right)?
Hmmm.
