The Apologetic of Art

In Arts and Apologetics, human creativity takes center stage in the defense of the Christian faith. Through a collection of arguments from the arts and aesthetic experience, the wonders of the eternal God come into vibrant focus.

From the contemplation of the old masters to the immateriality of music theory, Scarlett Clay offers a wide array of arguments for why art and creativity point to a Creator.

Clay’s essay is unique in that it puts into a logical form (arguments), a deeply embedded human intuition that beauty transcends the material world.

When I began delving into the world of Christian apologetics, my one desire was to find ways of forging connections between Caravaggio and Creation, Titian and Truth, Gauguin and God. As an artist, I earnestly sought ways to use the arts in apologetics, but found little in my initial searches. When I began to get interested in apologetics, I began to collect all the popular apologetics books, the first of which was When Skeptics Ask: A Handbook on Christian Evidence.

In eager anticipation, I flipped to the subject index and scoured the listings…Aquinas, Aries, Aristotle, Athanasius, Augustine…Nothing on the arts. Next, I purchased A Ready Defense: Over 60 Vital Lines of Defense for Christianity. Surely among “60 lines of defense” I would find something. I flipped to the back and scanned…Aristotle, Arius, Armenian, Arriyuk, Artaxerxes…Rats!