Are There Rules for "Christian Art?"

NATIONAL CATHOLIC TELEGRAPH
By Simcha Fisher

"The Adoration of the Magi"

At this time of year, everybody is passing around what appears to them to be fine works of art depicting the events in the Bible. One of the pieces I saw passed around is "The Adoration of the Magi" by portrait artist Tai-Shan Shierenberg. Some people will argue that it's all right to update some aspects of the scene, to "bring it home;" but that, in order to qualify as religious art, it must -- absolutely must -- retain some traditional religious symbolism. But what happens when we not only update clothes and hair and remove the easily-recocognizable symbols, but go a little further? I might call it "art about a religious subject" -- but that's not the same thing. I just wish that today's religious art had more art in it, and today's secular art had more God in it. I wish religious people loved beauty more, and good artists loved truth more. What do you think? [link]