Evaluating Visual Art For Worship

Visual art is made for communication and expression, and thus must be evaluated for how it accomplishes these tasks in a liturgical context. The evaluation process must be sensitive to be theological and aesthetic considerations. In particular, arts for liturgical use are best presented and evaluated in the context of the Christian year or the particular Sunday for which it is created. The visual arts present opportunities to look at long-standing prejudices and ideas about art in worship and to search for fresh ideas in a field shunned by many faiths for a long time. It is presumed, in this article, that what we are evaluating is temporary art, rather than architecture or more permanent additions, such as sculpture, stained glass, or furnishings. The Broader Questions Many of us are untrained in the visual arts. We are vaguely aware that art can decorate our walls, and that some people collect art, and that some institutions enshrine it for the rest of us to venerate. We can appr…