Bad, Bad Christian Art

 

Some of the greatest artwork in human history has been created for Christian churches and other places of faith. Often the artists didn't share the religious sensibilities of that faith (then again, it could be argued that certain popes didn't either) but they followed the money to create sublime images that have stood the test of time. There are plenty of contemporary artists who explore spiritual themes in evocative and provocative ways as well. 

During the second half of my ministry I was able to use art images within worship as congregations adopted projection for the service as a whole. In my final congregation there was a lovely elderly woman who was initially resistant to the notion of including art images during the sermon. She had been an art procurer for various institutions in Toronto as a profession and was dubious about what might be shown. Happily, my art history background won her over and we had some excellent conversations about the importance of art in her gorgeously adorned condo. 

Then there is the propaganda art that is the blight of religion, an unrivalled level of cheesiness that should be considered blasphemy. Since a fair amount of it has been produced for Sunday School use it could also be labelled as child abuse.Some of the stuff from my childhood was cheerfully racist. 

Relevant has come up with what they've called The Definitive Ranking of Bad Christian Art, and I've included a couple of the images above. It is really impressive, in a hideous way. They did choose not to include the many gag-worthy depictions of a certain convicted felon, no doubt because of the possible backlash against the publication.It is heart-warming to realize that Jesus was with him in the courtroom through the trial.