Why Beauty Matters

Questions and Topics Covered:

• 19:55 - In my diocese, I notice the placing of the tabernacle off to the side instead of behind the altar. Should we be doing that? It doesn’t seem right. The beauty of the focus on Jesus is taken away from us. In some churches, you have to really search for the tabernacle.
• 22:29 - What is the correlation between the inner state of a person being reflected in their surroundings?
• 31:04 - I am a painter and I just finished a large painting for a church. What are your thoughts on the simplification of churches since Vatican II? Was Vatican II appeasing the Modernist movement and has it been detrimental to making churches beautiful in terms of art and architecture?
• 38:28 - I would like to refute your assertion that beauty matters. St. Paul said, “For what is seen is transitory, what is unseen is eternal.” I don’t think beauty is something we should strive for in our churches.
• 52:28 - Can you articulate what beauty is in your mind? Is your definition of beauty from St. Thomas Aquinas? How do you see the interconnectedness of goodness and truth with beauty?

Questions Covered:

• Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith by Holly Ordway