{"id":9133,"date":"2014-12-12T12:55:11","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T16:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=9133"},"modified":"2014-12-12T12:55:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T16:55:11","slug":"how-should-secular-people-approach-sacred-art-the-best-essay-of-its-kind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2014\/12\/how-should-secular-people-approach-sacred-art-the-best-essay-of-its-kind.html","title":{"rendered":"“How Should Secular People Approach Sacred Art?”: The Best Essay of Its Kind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve read a ton of these and Pelagia Horgan\u2019s appreciation of Fra Angelico is the best by far. Give it time to build:<\/p>\n

The loveliest image I know is Fra Angelico\u2019s \u2018Entry of the Blessed into Paradise\u2019, a scene from his painting The Last Judgment<\/i> of 1431. In it, the blessed, just risen from their graves, gather together in a flowering garden to join hands with angels and dance into the light of heaven. There\u2019s a scene in D\u00a0H\u00a0Lawrence\u2019s novel The Rainbow <\/i>(1915) when Anna Brangwen sees a copy of the image, and finds it almost too beautiful to look at. \u2018The floweriness, the beams of light, the linking of hands, was almost too much for her, too innocent,\u2019 writes Lawrence. Overwhelmed, she weeps \u2018with happiness\u2019.<\/p>\n

I understand Anna\u2019s feeling; I\u2019d never been moved to tears by a painting before, but I was when I saw this one a few months ago in Florence. Yet if I step back and take in The Last Judgment<\/i> as a whole \u2013 the saved on one side, welcomed by angels; the damned on the other, herded by devils; the celestial host above them, directing it all \u2013 it strikes me as an odd painting for a secular person to love. The Last Judgment <\/i>is more than a work of art. It\u2019s a profession of faith \u2013 in divine justice, the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body, life everlasting. What does it mean for a person like me to love a painting like this? What does it mean to be moved by the beauty of a vision you can\u2019t believe to be true?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I\u2019ve read a ton of these and Pelagia Horgan\u2019s appreciation of Fra Angelico is the best by far. Give it time to build: The loveliest image I know is Fra Angelico\u2019s \u2018Entry of the Blessed into Paradise\u2019, a scene from his painting The Last Judgment of 1431. In it, the blessed, just risen from their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[263,464,11,131,233,16,191],"class_list":["post-9133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-mackerel-snapping","tag-brass-monkery-that-funky-monkery","tag-fra-angelico","tag-his-banner-over-me-was-love","tag-it-is-very-dark-you-are-likely-to-be-wrestled-by-an-angel","tag-objects-in-the-world-are-words-spoken-by-god","tag-on-beauty-and-being-dust","tag-righteousness-and-peace-shall-kiss-each-other"],"yoast_head":"\n"How Should Secular People Approach Sacred Art?": The Best Essay of Its Kind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've read a ton of these and Pelagia Horgan's appreciation of Fra Angelico is the best by far. 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