State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe (Volume 13)

We cannot escape the arts. They permeate our lives and our culture--the décor, architecture, music, entertainment, everyday utensils. The imagination of this age, its ideas and concerns, percolate throughout the culture via the arts. These ideas affect us for good or for evil. The choice is not whether to live with art; we must choose whether to live with good art or bad art. Art--like all things human--needs to be redeemed. Christians cannot abandon the arts to the secular world, but can use them to display God's glory. This book will help us develop an informed artistic taste, open yet critical, discerning yet appreciative of what is truly excellent. "State of the Arts wisely steers Christians between the two extremes of accepting inane cultural trends or dismissing all cultural pursuits as worldly. The book establishes a strong Biblical context for understanding expressions of human creativity and powerfully defends art as a gift from God. Here is a much-needed counterattack on the aesthetic terrorism by entrenched enemies on the true, the good, and the beautiful." --Ken Myers, author of All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes "Dr. Veith's book stresses an important and often overlooked truth: that no one, professing Christians included, can afford to ignore the arts. They have profound effects on us, our children, and our society. This book is both highly entertaining and intellectually and aesthetically rewarding. It suggests ways to counter the decadence and corruption that plagues the contemporary art world." --Joseph Baldacchino, President, National Humanities Institute