Religion: Art Needs the Church

Church and art today are scarcely on speaking terms. Yet Christianity was once a great patron of all the arts, and artists in turn enriched the faith. To help end the separation, the National Council of Churches set up a Department of Worship and the Arts,* and last week the council sent all its member churches a statement described as "a study document." Main point: "The church should have a vanguard of men and women qualified to interpret the significance of contemporary art for the believer ... in terms of Christian criteria."

The church must also "challenge and expose the unexamined errors...