JVD - Along with the interview, I really enjoyed your thoughts on truth and beauty over at Off the Wire.

What the larger culture has long recognized, and the church has sometimes forgotten, is the great influential power of art and beauty. Advertisers know it. Hollywood knows it. The devil certainly knows it. And, as you point out, the church has traditionally known it, too — but perhaps abandoned that knowledge when art became too tarnished by the world.

The problem is that beauty, like truth, is an eternal concept, ingrained deeply on the heart of man. If the distortion of truth has led to societal confusion, then the distortion of beauty will lead to cultural despair.

These are dangerous traps, for sure, so I tend not to be too hard on the church for overreacting to these dangers. After all, if art can be such a significant influence (for good or evil), then it makes some sense to take the better-safe-than-sorry approach. But ultimately, I think it would requiresus to ignore the yearning in our own hearts. If God has set eternity in the heart of man, then surely He has set joy and love and truth and beauty there, too.