Christian Art, or Catholic Art?

PUBLISHED ON

June 21, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about the literature list and the categories I’d proposed, and I’ve come to a possible problem.

See, in addition to what we’ve considered, there’s the whole problem of whether a work is:

  • Christian in general (the Narnia series, Hind’s Feet on High Places),
  • Catholic in particular (Lord of the Rings; The Power and the Glory), or
  • Protestant to the degree that it excludes Catholicism (Left Behind).

In developing a list of fiction, how interested are we in whether a work is Catholic, “just” Christian, or Christian but anti-Catholic?  How do we manage those distinctions and preferences within our framework?  Do we include the huge catalogs of contemporary Christian fiction being rigorously pumped out by Protestant publishers, such as Ted Dekker‘s circle series, or are we only interested in works that are more than, say 25 years old and have kind of “proven themselves” by now?

In short, are we looking for a list of Catholic art, or Christian art?

Author

  • Eric Pavlat is a convert from Unitarian Universalism who entered the Church in 1996. He lives in Maryland with his wife and six children. He is also a perpetually professed Lay Dominican in St. Pius V Pro-Chapter, located in Catonsville, MD.

    He founded Democrats for Life of Maryland, Inc., in 2004, served one term as president, and stayed on the board of directors until 2010. He now considers himself more a Distributist than anything else. Eric teaches 10th grade honors and special education students in English literature, composition, and grammar at his alma mater, Parkdale High School.

Orthodox. Faithful. Free.

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