The Work of Visual Art in Liturgy

Abstract

Liturgy and the arts make similar claims about inviting people to take a journey beyond price; to bear witness to the world as it is and as it should be; to experience truth and beauty even in tragedy; and to remind them of their intrinsic right to exist. This similarity leads many people to believe that the arts are essential to good liturgy. It also is the source of the suspicion that visual art, in particular, is a worldly distraction from the serious work of the people. The work of visual art in liturgy is not to decorate, not to give a platform to individual artists for their personal expression, not to serve as empty representations or diagrams of intellectual ideas. Rather, it is to bring all our senses into worship as the living Body of Christ, broken and poured out for the need of the world.