The Role of the Fine Arts in the Spiritual Life

Cardinal Ratzinger has written about the role of the arts and the theologian in the following manner:

The only really effective apologia for Christianity comes down to two arguments, namely, the saints the church has produced and the art which has grown in her womb. Better witness is borne to the Lord by the splendor of holiness and art which have arisen in the community of believers. . . . A theologian who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental: they necessarily are reflected in his theology.¹

Taking many hints from St. Thomas Aquinas, we hope to show that engaging oneself in the fine arts is more than simply pleasure for the senses and that the arts need to be integrated as part of life. The appreciation of the fine arts is a kind of moral virtue, and it is not adequate to approach art as a consumer of culture or as a listener seeking emotional release or entertainment or as a passive receiver.² The problem with the contemporary culture may be characterized by bad taste and by too many consumers enjoying lovely melodies and rhythms, poems, literature, movies, and the dance while accepting an antigospel way of life concomitantly promoted attractively by the sounds of beauty flowing from the now wealthy high priests of the contemporary culture—the rock and movie stars. The beauty of the fine arts cannot be fixed in a mold for it is not static but changing. That is their nature.³ Because all of the fine arts have a recognized ability to get down into the depths of one's consciousness very easily and quickly, it is necessary that theologians take them more seriously, instead of viewing them simply as a means of entertainment.

An author of the late 1920s, Leonard Callahan, called to mind the significance of beauty, which of course is involved in all the arts:

It is in the resemblances which exist between the mind and beauty that we find the true cause of feeling of beauty; the apprehension of the beauties of nature and of artistic works brings with it a keen delight, because in their perfections the mind discovers an image of its own perfection, and the complement of its aspirations. There is in the human mind an innate and unquenchable desire for knowledge, of effecting through an ideal assimilation the union of other beings with ourselves.⁴

The life and growth of virtue according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a road that requires personal effort in cooperation with family, culture, and above all grace (Catechism,177). The journey begins, normally, in the home where the offspring learn to live the four cardinal virtues for the natural and supernatural person, together with the three infused virtues (faith, hope, and charity). In addition, it is necessary that they cultivate, where possible, according to their talents and vocation, the intellectual virtues: philosophy in its fullest sense, science, speculative and practical wisdom, and ars (art or skill), which is the virtue that makes things and also creates beautiful objects. These values are necessary so that children or young teenagers can develop a sense of personal honor and a love for the common good of their many surroundings: family, school, church, and society, along with the various other associations they will eventually belong to. They must eventually learn to surrender a sense of isolated autonomy to a more collaborative lifestyle with one's fellows, or put theologically, young people must learn to live in communio with fellow Christians and solidarity with all others. At the same time from the beginning, the Christian must also develop a personal relationship with the triune God through Jesus Christ, the angels, and saints, especially the Virgin Mary. The parallel between the lifelong spiritual journey and the work of an artist-craftsman is described by John Paul II when he notes that "all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life; in a certain...