This week’s chapter of Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who Is There was particularly interesting to both Miss A and I because of our recent visit to the Columbus Museum of Art to see the Picasso exhibit. She told us that some of the paintings really disturbed her, and reading Schaeffer’s explanation of the philosophy behind modern art vindicated her discomfort – it is one of despair and chaos. But he admonishes us that our response to this ugliness should not be to mock or criticize it, but instead to confront it in love with the light of the Gospel:
These paintings, these poems, and these demonstrations which we have been talking about are the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh at such things? Dare we feel superior when we view their tortured expressions in their art? Christians should stop laughing and take such men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again to our generation. These men are dying while they live; yet where is our compassion for them? There is nothing more ugly than a Christian orthodoxy without understanding or without compassion.
Also read/listened to in the past week:
- Hubby: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift on audiobook
- Me: The Scarlet Letter is sucking me in again 🙂
- Miss A: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley – the latest Flavia de Luce mystery
- Mr. D: It Couldn’t Just Happen by Lawrence O. Richards
- Mr. E: I’ve been pleased with his recent narrations from Robinson Crusoe – it’s not an easy book, but I think the audiobook helps.
- Little L: The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown
- Little R: Curious George Learns the Alphabet – again 😛
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