In most of my posts so far, I have given some sort of an opinion on whatever topic I had chosen. This post will be a rare exception. I am going to pose a question, and perhaps a few things to think about, but I will do my best not to give much more.
Three summers ago, I had the opportuntiy to go to England with my high school soccer team, along with the dads of some of the kids. We were at Westminster Abbey, which is not only a cemetery for the England's great sons and daughters, but is also a quite large cathedral/church. It was quite impressive, and while I was standing their admiring the building, one of the dads came over and said that he wondered whether or not spending so much money on making the intricate building, it wouldn't have been better to spend the money helping the poor. This was a thought that had never occurred to me. Now, before I go on, let me address the people who think that the dad was some non-artistic bigot. He is one of the most friendly, godly, smart, and wise people I have had the pleasure of meeting. If he were a fool, this would not have affected me the way it did. After we got back from the trip, I was reminded of a story in Tolkien's The Silmarillion. In it, we discover that the fall of the Numenoreans (the great men who would later rule Gondor) came about because the kings of the people, rather than concerning themselves with the needs of the people, spent their time in solitude studying the past and building ever grander tombs. This seems in many ways to parallel the rise of the great cathedrals, at least in my mind.
I will end with this thought. While I do not disregard art, and those who think that the church should have room for it, I also completely understand those who would say that such efforts could be spent elsewhere. After all, while I think few people would argue that Notre Dame (the picture at the top) is not a work of art, yet when I read my Bible, it does not command me to build monuments to my faith, but to live it out.
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