Books, Movies, Icons -- Art As Means Of Religious Conversion

THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE 
By Rod Dreher

Inferno Canto I, by William Blake, 1826-27

This summer, I was browsing the shelves at a Barnes & Noble, when I picked up Dante’s Inferno. Along the way, I’ve learned things about life, and about myself, that I did not know. I’ve also been writing in this space lately about how the Terrence Malick film To The Wonder has become such a powerful force in my spiritual life since I first watched it a couple of weeks ago. To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. Just as the I need less thinking and more silent prayer, the world needs less Christian argument, and more Christian art. [link]