Want Catholic Art? Fundamentalist Bob Jones University Has It

The Washington Post ^ | 11/21/11 | David Gibson

[marshmallow]

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Walking across the tidy campus of Bob Jones University, there’s no obvious sign this bastion of Christian fundamentalism is also home to one of the nation’s largest collections of Renaissance and Baroque religious art from the heart of Catholic Europe.

It’s all the more surprising since the school’s old-time Protestant leaders have for years taught that Catholicism is a “cult” and even the “Mother of Harlots.”

“You go into that gallery and its big, amazing paintings are really staggering, and you know you can’t buy altarpieces like that anymore,” said David Steel, curator of European art at the North Carolina Museum of Art and a longtime fan of the BJU collection. “They’re just not on the market.”

Edgar Peters Bowron, who oversees European art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, agreed.

“It’s one of the best collections in the Southeast generally, and certainly in terms of Italian painting from the Renaissance through the Baroque, it is one of premier collections of Italian paintings in America, without contradiction,” he said.

Just as surprising as the collection itself, however, is that the man who started it 60 years ago was Bob Jones Jr., the school’s second president and the son of the university’s namesake.

The younger Jones was not only a purveyor of fine painting but also of the hoariest anti-Catholic tropes, calling the church of Rome “a satanic counterfeit,” for example, and “drunk with the blood of the saints.”

Yet the younger Jones, who retired in 1971 and died in 1997, so loved the arts that he was able to put these Old Master works in a category that superseded sectarian divisions. Like theologians centuries ago, Jones viewed the artworks as “mute preachers” that could instruct viewers about the Bible, the first and final arbiter of.........

[vladimir998]

You wrote:

“Aw come on. That’s a pretty broad statement. Not every one does.”

Hmmmmm... Let me rephrase. The Protestants of the 16th century - especially those who vandalized churhes, destroyed art, destroyed the liturgy, and helped warp the sensibilities of many generations - they, they hated beauty. Their descendents don’t necessarily hate art or beauty, but they and the cultures they have created, are stunted, deformed, warped, anti-human, and while ever advancing technologically are retreating into a new age of barbarism of tattoos, piercings, and pornography.

That’s about as much of a walk-back I can muster at the moment.

I will never forget the time I was teaching American Protestant college students in Europe. We went to Sancto Spiritu in Florence. An important church, a landmark in art and history, but not anywhere near the artistic gem that so many other churches are and yet those Protestants were all huddled together balling their eyes out. Why? I asked them, “Why are you crying? Are you alright?” And only one of them could pull herself together enough to say that the church was so beautiful that they couldn’t help but cry. They were teary eyed for about 30 minutes. That’s when I knew two things: 1) These poor Protestant kids were going to be forever changed by their trip to Europe, and 2) Protestantism is ugly in its historical embrace of utility and opposition to beauty.

[netmilsmom]

>>That’s about as much of a walk-back I can muster at the moment.<<

And that is more than enough, my FRiend. Otherwise, one of our “Usual Suspect” pals will archive and quote you from here to kingdom come!

And that is a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing. One of the things that started my husband on his journey home was the beauty of our classic parishes here in Detroit.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Don’t forget, Protestants hate beauty.***

Savanarola and his followers also had quite a problem with some church art.

[RobbyS]

Puritanism was very iconoclastic. Even poetry and music were frowned upon. Southerners often remarked on the “cant” of the New Englander, which meant the way they sang psalms (no hymns). Everyone sang the words as he pleased, so the sound coming from the church was cacophony.

[RobbyS]

Well, to be fair to both sides, much of its was “lusty,” so to speak. It did not help that painters would used their mistresses as models for the saints.

[johngrace]

Thanks that is interesting.

[johngrace]

Some people do not see the whole picture. No pun intended. LOL!!

[Cronos]

the beauty of our God-given faith is that, thanks to God's grace and His care for it, it satisfies us on multiple levels -- intellectual as well as emotional, spiritual as well as physical, in mind, body and spirit.

the Apostolic faith does not scorn the unlearned as do those who say only those who have gnosis are good, neither does it scorn the learned as do those who say that one should only sing and dance.

there is room for and there is a time for singing, dancing, reading,praying in silence, mourning, etc.

and this is perfectly encapsulated in the Divine Liturgy, the mass where we read and ponder on the Word of the Lord, we sing with joy, we pray in silence, we pray as individuals, we pray as a group, we experience, we actually see Our Lord and God in His suffering and His sacrifice and experience with joy His resurrection. We experience this both spiritually and physically, fully mind, body and soul.

[Cronos]

to be frank, one should ignore sad folks like that who just use FR to give meaning to their meaningless lives where they have rejected grace and the love and peace of Christ. I, personally find it hard to ignore them, even though I know the aim is to bait with no aim at dialogue or discussion

I can only feel sorry for people who's sole religious thought is that they reject what we believe.

[Cronos]

among the most beautiful works of art in Rome is the Bernini chapel above which St. Stanislaus Kostka died

pictures do not do justice to it. I've been to Rome a few times and each time I am amazed anew

[Cronos]

My favorite artist is Carvaggio -- his works MOVE you

or this, the crucifixion of St. Peter

Or this, St. Thomas and Christ

[Cronos]

And something that perfectly shows the heavenly vision of the Eucharist, combining the vision of St. John of Patmos in Apocalypse with the Crucifixion, with Christ's message in John 6, with the visions of the OT prophets etc

[Cronos]

instead of balancing that with the good it had done.

We still have many of those who call the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages, asking what was done -- and when you point out that during this age in which there were invasions by Vandals, Goths, Lombards, Burgundians, Huns, Franks, Saxons, Angles, Slavs, Magyars, Bulgars, Turks, Arabs, Moors, etc. etc. and yet at the same time despite all of these odds, Christ's faith is spread through the Germanics, Vikings, Slavs, Angles, Goths, Bulgars, Magyars etc.

They forget the marvellous ways in which man used art to glorify God.

Even today they forget the work done by say Mother Teresa's Roses in their continuous diatribes against the Christian faith.

[Cronos]

some pictures of Vlad's point the Sancto Spirito basilica in Firenze

and in its baptistery

[Cronos]

not all art was so lusty.

the icons destroyed by the iconoclasts were images of beauty -- you can see this in the ruins of the Cathedrals in England and elsewhere

[miss marmelstein]

I, too, have been to Mass here. I've been to St. Peter's about 3 times. Wow.

My husband recently produced a wonderful play about the attribution of a painting called “The Adoration of the Shepards” which may or may not have been done by Georgione or Titian. (It's really a play about art fraud.) That magnificent work is at the National Gallery in DC.

Thanks for all the photos. Some are amazing!!

[Cronos]

In England the saddest is the grave of the man who converted the English -- St. Augustine of Canterbury

The Abbey was sacked and destroyed

[miss marmelstein]

Did Old Sav destroy religious art? I know he destroyed artwork (Leonardo’s sensuous Leda and the Swan may have been burned) and just about everything else, lol!

[miss marmelstein]

Just reviewed this little trip down memory lane. What a horror!

Poor St. Christopher and his medal can’t catch a break. I STILL carry one in my car.

[GOP Poet]

yes. I agree. People who are attacking and incapable of true dialogue and personal exploration of their own reactions as well the capacity for personal responsibility of their beliefs are useless to talk with. They have a cement wall of pride they hide behind. So there is no dialogue or discussion. We all know what God says about pride.

I was referring to a person just the opposite of this cement wall of pride and hate. I was referring to a person capable of describing honestly their experience. The others throw in attacks to obscure the lens on their own spiritual lives.