Not long ago, a person linked to that unique experience of relationships between faith and the arts that is the ‘Observatory of the Invisible’, an initiative of the sculptor Javier Viver, told me that, after months of work, of meetings with personalities of the Church, from various relationships in that area, had drawn the conclusion that it seemed that the Church is not interested in the world of arts and culture. If what John Paul II said is true that “a faith that does not become culture is a faith that is not fully accepted, not entirely thought out, not faithfully lived”, after having read Sergio Vila-Sanjuán’s book “Spanish Culture in Democracy . A brief chronicle of 50 years”, the conclusion is that the lack of presence of Christianity in the world of culture, literature, and the arts in Spain is worrying, also as a sign of the vitality of the same faith and ability to generate new areas of meaning. The inability of the Catholic proposal to create culture is alarming when it comes to new currents, styles, trends and expressive forms. At most, the energies and efforts are destined for largely heritage conservation and to a large extent subsidized, which may be nothing more than managing decay. A process that is now becoming more acute with the undisguised commitment to social issues. When we talk about culture we are referring to the understanding and understanding of what is human from the material that is spiritual. I do not deny that there are institutions and people who are working on the relationships between faith and culture, thinkers, writers, universities, artists, musicians, painters, sculptors, publishers. The exceptions, such as the O-Lumen space or the exhibition currently in the Cathedral of Valladolid, tend to confirm the rule. But what is evident is, as reflected in Vida San-Juan’s book, that the impact on the formation of trends has been and is minimal. And not only because of the fact that “the left takes care of the culture, and the culture takes care of the left.”
#José #Francisco #Serrano #Oceja #cultural #abandonment #Church
