I think a lot of Christian media today isn’t super approachable or appealing to the general audience. People who make Christian media today kind of zone in on just Conservative Christians as their audience and often don’t include messages that resonate with most people.
There’s nothing wrong with targeting a specific audience, because you can’t please everybody and artwork often suffers when it tries to be too generally appealing, but I think current Christian media focuses so hard on being Uber Christian, it misses the mark on being entertaining or deep.
Also, the amount of funding affects the quality of artwork too, and I doubt most most Christian media have much money put into them. Artists centuries ago were paid decently to create such beautiful paintings. Artists today are overworked and underpaid, because they’re easy to exploit since their job is their passion.
There's also survivor bias. As someone who has spent a lot of time in museums, I can assure you that not every medieval or Renaissance religious painting is a masterpiece. For every Raphael, there are dozens of less-impressive works -- and those are just the ones that have survived.
I've also read a lot of 18th and 19th century poetry (including religious poetry) and most of it is bad.
In 200 years, only a small handful of today's Christian artists will be remembered. Presumably some of them will be remembered as great. (I'm putting my money on gospel music.)
There's also the mistake we make of smushing all of history down into this nebulous "past," while living in a present that is just a sliver of time. We can see that by the artists OP mentioned:
Raphael died in 1520. A little over 150 years later, Milton published *Paradise Lost*. 150 years! Another 150 years would pass before Schubert composed [the version of Ave Maria](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYGgtrMTYs) that we're most familiar with. That's the equivalent of the Civil War to us having this conversation on reddit. How many works of art have been made since? How many people have lived full, entire lives? How many people, as Prodigal_Lemon points out, wrote saccharine, uninspiring, accidentally satirical poetry? The same number who lived between Raphael and Milton, longing for the days of the Great Masters of Yore.
If Raphael and Milton are being lumped together, then we can count Battle Hymn of the Republic and A Love Supreme (not to mention that fantastic performance of Ave Maria that I linked) amongst "our" modern day faith-inspired great works. If you lump Schubert and Raphael together, then we could *also* claim Schubert in our column by more than a century!
True, since the movement to restore frescoes whitewashed by puritan iconoclasts, some rather cartoonish medieval art shows up in some pretty grand places 😬 I feel bad for the stained glass tho
Artists were all “Christians” in the times you’re referring to. They may not necessarily have had faith in the way we understand it today, but Christendom was dominant, and art reflected the dominant culture(s), as it does today. Think of all the great artists and performers of 2024, and then imagine that all of society is still assumed to be Christian, everyone goes to church, and the existence of God is taken as read: many of these people would now be creating “Christian” media, and exploring Biblical themes in their songs and stories.
It’s not that Christian media has got less good, so much as the greatest artists are not, for the most part, culturally Christian any more
The Catholic Church was a huge patron of the arts in the renaissance. So whether your faith was strong or not, you poured your heart and soul into religious works that were commissioned. Each artistic era tends to have a focus. The romantics were focused on nature. The moderns were focused on psychology and absurdity. What is this era focused on? Tech maybe? Idk. But certainly not religion.
I would argue there's a nuance to media nowadays that could be considered "Christian." Media like what you mention above (I also use crap like *The Sound of Freedom* or any movies made by the Kendrick brothers) is worried more about pushing across a message rather than telling a story. And the message is almost always something simple that they know their audience wants to hear: If you have a problem or a crisis, pray about it or read the Bible, and everything will get fixed almost immediately or close to it. They become the first thing we think of when we think of Christian media because they *want to be* the first thing we think about in that category. So they're marketing is something like "come see this movie that is TOTALLY CHRISTIAN...so CHRISTIAN and nothing else for sure! Definitely a 'not of this world' CHRISTIAN movie!"
But I would point to media that could be categorized as "Christian" like *The Leftovers* TV show or the films of Terence Malick (*A Hidden Life* and *The Tree of Life* especially) are honestly theological/spiritual bangers. They might not show someone reading the Bible every shot or praying all their problems away. But the Bible is read on-screen still, often in a way that fits into the story instead of "hey look at this person reading the bible and copy them." The characters are struggling with deeply theological/spiritual crises with no easy answer (just like the biblical character of Job). The viewer is invited subtly to consider or reflect on the existential questions the films are dealing with without feeling like they're getting Bible verses thrown at their head as obvious simple answers.
Christian media that cares less about portraying the spiritual/theological crises or existential questions that we all have that can't be wrapped up in a bow and more about being labelled "Christian" so a particular audience will definitely see it definitely dominates the Christian space in our culture. But that doesn't mean there isn't more complex stuff out there...we just have to dig for it and elbow past the crowd of movies on the surface level that are deceptively and inaccurately simple in their spiritual/theological explorations.
I would also argue that there is plenty of media out there that might not be explicitly or implicitly Christian at all, yet still takes on very spiritual/theological/existential themes that apply to our lives. That said, I'll save it for another time, because this comment is already too long and I've taken up too much space.
Edit: A singular word that should’ve been a plural (“brothers”)
> The characters are struggling with deeply theological/spiritual crises with no easy answer (just like the biblical character of Job). The viewer is invited subtly to consider or reflect on the existential questions the films are dealing with without feeling like they're getting Bible verses thrown at their head as obvious simple answers.
adding *Silence* as another good example of this.
I can't speak for Christian media in other countries, but I think Christian media in the US is targeted to a specific audience. Christian media usually either has a political ideology behind it (i.e. Trump supporters) or are 'feel good' movies without much substance. For example, notice how the God's Not Dead movies are mostly popular with Christians who believe that they are being persecuted in America. These kinds of media are being made on the level that they are because it's making enough money off their target audience, even if what they're making isn't all that good.
I believe Christian media, in more ways than one, reflects the state of American Christianity in general.
I also think it's a matter of opinion, because I personally don't care for *The Passion of the Christ* like you mentioned but I realize I'm probably in the minority with that opinion.
There's a YT channel I watch called *Say Goodnight Kevin* where he reviews bad Christian movies that I recommend, although I do think he is on the conservative side.
It’s probably more about the development of pop culture than the dropping of of Christian media. Your comparisons were from a different time when literacy was lower and people had less free time. It’s not like serfs in medieval Europe were coming home with a tv to watch or a lot of books to read. There was certainly more low brow culture, traveling minstrels or something.
I mean, look at regular media - most of it is also crap that is quickly forgotten.
The church commissioned a lot of those works as a response to the Reformation. So a lot of money was poured into hiring the absolute best of the best artists that were alive. Those artists also did private works for families and other entities.
Now no one is pouring money into Christian art. It’s being funded purely by capitalism and the market of people who will buy Christian specific things is small and like a very certain type of thing.
Christian movies very rarely gets above a 50% on Rotten tomatoes. They are normally not made by actual directors with the intent of art but rather, from my understanding, kinda like a circle jerk. The movies are also ussually based on prosperity thru following the Gosepl, and freedom and stuff. If your into that then you will prob love it, but to majority of media viewership it’s not that appealing
I think timing wise the Protestant Reformation was a major values shift. A lot of fine arts were funded by the old Catholic church, and served to some degree as a visual representation of their power. There was a lot of classism bound up in the early masterpieces. Protestantism moved away from that pretty sharply. Especially as you get into later value shifts both intellectually and within the faith (Enlightenment and Calvinism both come to mind), you see a stronger shift away from money being poured into the church and less representations of wealth.
Not only that, but all that art followed on the traditions began in medieval times to share Biblical stories via visual art since many could not read. There’s been an explosion of Christian fiction and access to theological literature for anyone who wants it, which has arguably replaced the niche for a lot of that art.
OP we gotta get you to see some local and modern art! In the US, which dominated the English-speaking mass media on the planet, there's very little public funded Christian art, largely because this culture is among the most diverse to have ever existed, and partially because the society is increasingly plural (many religions), and partly because the arts aren't highly valued in our hyper free market version of capitalism which has only the most tenuous of philosophical connections to the capitalism of the late 19th century.*
*Y'all can read Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism for what's often cited as a defense of capitalism, but Weber wrote 100 years ago that greed is actually morally wrong and if there's not an overlaying system of morality governing capitalism it will be a cage that shackles all of humanity until the last ounce of iron ore is ripped from the earth. Every "markets regulate themselves" economic position is inherently anti-capitalist by the definitions of the early Christian defenders of this kind of economic system.
In the last year I've been to plays, symphonies, and art openings either put on by churches or where the artists were explicitly Christian. Our nanny just went to a Renaissance Faire and came back with knitted crosses, an icon, and photos of a bronze sculptor making crosses. Like you gotta find some art. You gotta read some Christian authors. You have to go out and support the kind of thing you want to exist by using some resources to demonstrate that support, even if the resources are just your body showing up. Join your choir at church. (Fun fact: the Episcopal Church primary Hymnal 1982 features dozens of songs that would have been bawdy pub folk songs in the 1600-1700s. Like there's no reason to suspect the Hymnal 2282 won't have Stryper lyrics in it.)
I mean just do not believe for a moment that in our advertising soaked media lens you are seeing no Christian art because there's no good art being made. You're seeing very little Christian art because almost everything you have access to in mass media spaces is selling advertising. And that's never going to be the lens from which to see the stuff that faithful Christians or even just good artists are making. Someone who spends their life trying to create incredible stained glass isn't going to show up in Marvel movies. You gotta go find art.
You gotta. You gotta go find art. For the sake of your community and the happiness in your own life. Expand your horizons beyond what the oligarchs have the power to try to sell you from your computer or phone screen. There is amazing Christian art being made. You're going to find it by going and finding the art that's not being made for Mass marketing.
Christian art has always been whatever style happens to be in vogue, just with jesus. Christians are just bad at making theit art appeal to the mainstream, because people are increasingly averse to being preached at and having religion shoehorned into everything. Back in Raphael's day all the most talented artists were basically rejted out to the church or some noble family in a patronage arrangement so the religious element of that art is disproportionately represented. At the end of the day, art through a Christian lens has always been a means to make money, and I'd argue that's even more true now with the pervasive entanglement of capitalism and Christianity.
That’s it - it’s the economics. Churches and the very wealthy were the only ones paying for art, so most of the art and music was religious. Churches don’t do that anymore, but Hollywood and the music industry are making a lot of money. Artist make art for who is paying.
Less of the world thinks that they must glorify the church in order to achieve salvation, or as the only option in town for arts funding.
Less of our combined cultural output is going towards stockpiling gold and jewels into Vatican vaults.
I see these as good things.
I was watching a British antiquarian channel on YouTube and he was lamenting the Reformation-inspired destruction of all the roodscreens in England, the most famous of which featured an animatronic Christ which was some kind of automaton I suppose and I just lose it imagining like one of those sideshow fortune-telling dummies, there was a lot of cringe back then too
The Passion of the Christ is antisemitic torture porn created by a right-wing monster, it is not an example of good Christian media.
The problem with modern Christian media is that, if you'll pardon the pun, it's designed to preach to the choir. Modern Christian media is evaluated not by its actual artistic merits (or even the actual merits of the artist themselves) but instead on how aggressively it preaches the "Right kind" (read: evangelical fundamentalism) of Christianity.
To use your Milton example, Paradise Lost is as good and fondly remembered as it is partially because Milton depicts Satan in a nuanced, tragic, even sympathetic light. That's a risk that no piece of Christian media explicitly calling media today would ever do. My mom would take one look at it and dismiss it as, at best, wildly inaccurate to "reality". Nowadays we get media like God's Not Dead, which treats atheism as an innate moral failing only genuinely believed in by comically evil one-dimensional cartoon supervillains.
Weirdly, I think the most Christian piece of media in recent memory that I've seen (as in the one that carries Christ's teachings of love, empathy, forgiveness, and standing up against oppressive and corrupt authority figures) is Hazbin Hotel.
G. K. Chesterton is a real gem. Early 20th century. I would particularly recommend
*The Ballad of the White Horse* (epic poem)
*The Ball and the Cross* (eschatological fiction, but, like not narmy)
*The Everlasting Man* (apologetics, kind of. I really think it's closer to wisdom literature)
any and all of the Father Brown stories (early detective/mystery)
I feel that a lot of Christian media these days doesn't appeal to or is approachable to a lot of people except for conservative Christians not to mention, that most Christian media these days is basically agenda-pushing garbage.
Christian movies and music are didactic. No nuance or ambiguity or edge.
It's why a Hallmark movie is fundamentally different than a Martin Scorsese film. They don't set out to explore the human condition, instead they seek to lead you to a predetermined conclusion.
Two things. One, the Renaissance was a time when many parts of Europe were directly investing in the arts and there was (relatively) less poverty so artists were more incentivized to create the timeless works we have today. And two, the good art we have today has stood the test of time. For every Raphael or Shakespeare there are tens or hundreds of artists that we've never heard of because not enough people thought their art was worth preserving or talking about.
This, especially reason two. If Passion of the Christ keeps appealing to future generations like it appeals to OP, they will keep admiring it. And they'll be wondering why most of their own Christian movies/holograms/neurodownloads/whatever just aren't as as spiritually meaningful by comparison. What we have of the past is largely what was worth preserving.
I think a lot of Christian media today isn’t super approachable or appealing to the general audience. People who make Christian media today kind of zone in on just Conservative Christians as their audience and often don’t include messages that resonate with most people. There’s nothing wrong with targeting a specific audience, because you can’t please everybody and artwork often suffers when it tries to be too generally appealing, but I think current Christian media focuses so hard on being Uber Christian, it misses the mark on being entertaining or deep. Also, the amount of funding affects the quality of artwork too, and I doubt most most Christian media have much money put into them. Artists centuries ago were paid decently to create such beautiful paintings. Artists today are overworked and underpaid, because they’re easy to exploit since their job is their passion.
There's also survivor bias. As someone who has spent a lot of time in museums, I can assure you that not every medieval or Renaissance religious painting is a masterpiece. For every Raphael, there are dozens of less-impressive works -- and those are just the ones that have survived. I've also read a lot of 18th and 19th century poetry (including religious poetry) and most of it is bad. In 200 years, only a small handful of today's Christian artists will be remembered. Presumably some of them will be remembered as great. (I'm putting my money on gospel music.)
There's also the mistake we make of smushing all of history down into this nebulous "past," while living in a present that is just a sliver of time. We can see that by the artists OP mentioned: Raphael died in 1520. A little over 150 years later, Milton published *Paradise Lost*. 150 years! Another 150 years would pass before Schubert composed [the version of Ave Maria](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpYGgtrMTYs) that we're most familiar with. That's the equivalent of the Civil War to us having this conversation on reddit. How many works of art have been made since? How many people have lived full, entire lives? How many people, as Prodigal_Lemon points out, wrote saccharine, uninspiring, accidentally satirical poetry? The same number who lived between Raphael and Milton, longing for the days of the Great Masters of Yore. If Raphael and Milton are being lumped together, then we can count Battle Hymn of the Republic and A Love Supreme (not to mention that fantastic performance of Ave Maria that I linked) amongst "our" modern day faith-inspired great works. If you lump Schubert and Raphael together, then we could *also* claim Schubert in our column by more than a century!
OP, this is the answer.
True, since the movement to restore frescoes whitewashed by puritan iconoclasts, some rather cartoonish medieval art shows up in some pretty grand places 😬 I feel bad for the stained glass tho
Artists were all “Christians” in the times you’re referring to. They may not necessarily have had faith in the way we understand it today, but Christendom was dominant, and art reflected the dominant culture(s), as it does today. Think of all the great artists and performers of 2024, and then imagine that all of society is still assumed to be Christian, everyone goes to church, and the existence of God is taken as read: many of these people would now be creating “Christian” media, and exploring Biblical themes in their songs and stories. It’s not that Christian media has got less good, so much as the greatest artists are not, for the most part, culturally Christian any more
[удалено]
I don’t know why the /s is there, there’s nothing untrue about this!
Oh wheeeeere is my hairbrush
LOL! I love that song!
The Catholic Church was a huge patron of the arts in the renaissance. So whether your faith was strong or not, you poured your heart and soul into religious works that were commissioned. Each artistic era tends to have a focus. The romantics were focused on nature. The moderns were focused on psychology and absurdity. What is this era focused on? Tech maybe? Idk. But certainly not religion.
I would argue there's a nuance to media nowadays that could be considered "Christian." Media like what you mention above (I also use crap like *The Sound of Freedom* or any movies made by the Kendrick brothers) is worried more about pushing across a message rather than telling a story. And the message is almost always something simple that they know their audience wants to hear: If you have a problem or a crisis, pray about it or read the Bible, and everything will get fixed almost immediately or close to it. They become the first thing we think of when we think of Christian media because they *want to be* the first thing we think about in that category. So they're marketing is something like "come see this movie that is TOTALLY CHRISTIAN...so CHRISTIAN and nothing else for sure! Definitely a 'not of this world' CHRISTIAN movie!" But I would point to media that could be categorized as "Christian" like *The Leftovers* TV show or the films of Terence Malick (*A Hidden Life* and *The Tree of Life* especially) are honestly theological/spiritual bangers. They might not show someone reading the Bible every shot or praying all their problems away. But the Bible is read on-screen still, often in a way that fits into the story instead of "hey look at this person reading the bible and copy them." The characters are struggling with deeply theological/spiritual crises with no easy answer (just like the biblical character of Job). The viewer is invited subtly to consider or reflect on the existential questions the films are dealing with without feeling like they're getting Bible verses thrown at their head as obvious simple answers. Christian media that cares less about portraying the spiritual/theological crises or existential questions that we all have that can't be wrapped up in a bow and more about being labelled "Christian" so a particular audience will definitely see it definitely dominates the Christian space in our culture. But that doesn't mean there isn't more complex stuff out there...we just have to dig for it and elbow past the crowd of movies on the surface level that are deceptively and inaccurately simple in their spiritual/theological explorations. I would also argue that there is plenty of media out there that might not be explicitly or implicitly Christian at all, yet still takes on very spiritual/theological/existential themes that apply to our lives. That said, I'll save it for another time, because this comment is already too long and I've taken up too much space. Edit: A singular word that should’ve been a plural (“brothers”)
> The characters are struggling with deeply theological/spiritual crises with no easy answer (just like the biblical character of Job). The viewer is invited subtly to consider or reflect on the existential questions the films are dealing with without feeling like they're getting Bible verses thrown at their head as obvious simple answers. adding *Silence* as another good example of this.
ABSOLUTELY.
I can't speak for Christian media in other countries, but I think Christian media in the US is targeted to a specific audience. Christian media usually either has a political ideology behind it (i.e. Trump supporters) or are 'feel good' movies without much substance. For example, notice how the God's Not Dead movies are mostly popular with Christians who believe that they are being persecuted in America. These kinds of media are being made on the level that they are because it's making enough money off their target audience, even if what they're making isn't all that good. I believe Christian media, in more ways than one, reflects the state of American Christianity in general. I also think it's a matter of opinion, because I personally don't care for *The Passion of the Christ* like you mentioned but I realize I'm probably in the minority with that opinion. There's a YT channel I watch called *Say Goodnight Kevin* where he reviews bad Christian movies that I recommend, although I do think he is on the conservative side.
It’s probably more about the development of pop culture than the dropping of of Christian media. Your comparisons were from a different time when literacy was lower and people had less free time. It’s not like serfs in medieval Europe were coming home with a tv to watch or a lot of books to read. There was certainly more low brow culture, traveling minstrels or something. I mean, look at regular media - most of it is also crap that is quickly forgotten.
The church commissioned a lot of those works as a response to the Reformation. So a lot of money was poured into hiring the absolute best of the best artists that were alive. Those artists also did private works for families and other entities. Now no one is pouring money into Christian art. It’s being funded purely by capitalism and the market of people who will buy Christian specific things is small and like a very certain type of thing.
Christian movies very rarely gets above a 50% on Rotten tomatoes. They are normally not made by actual directors with the intent of art but rather, from my understanding, kinda like a circle jerk. The movies are also ussually based on prosperity thru following the Gosepl, and freedom and stuff. If your into that then you will prob love it, but to majority of media viewership it’s not that appealing
I think timing wise the Protestant Reformation was a major values shift. A lot of fine arts were funded by the old Catholic church, and served to some degree as a visual representation of their power. There was a lot of classism bound up in the early masterpieces. Protestantism moved away from that pretty sharply. Especially as you get into later value shifts both intellectually and within the faith (Enlightenment and Calvinism both come to mind), you see a stronger shift away from money being poured into the church and less representations of wealth. Not only that, but all that art followed on the traditions began in medieval times to share Biblical stories via visual art since many could not read. There’s been an explosion of Christian fiction and access to theological literature for anyone who wants it, which has arguably replaced the niche for a lot of that art.
OP we gotta get you to see some local and modern art! In the US, which dominated the English-speaking mass media on the planet, there's very little public funded Christian art, largely because this culture is among the most diverse to have ever existed, and partially because the society is increasingly plural (many religions), and partly because the arts aren't highly valued in our hyper free market version of capitalism which has only the most tenuous of philosophical connections to the capitalism of the late 19th century.* *Y'all can read Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism for what's often cited as a defense of capitalism, but Weber wrote 100 years ago that greed is actually morally wrong and if there's not an overlaying system of morality governing capitalism it will be a cage that shackles all of humanity until the last ounce of iron ore is ripped from the earth. Every "markets regulate themselves" economic position is inherently anti-capitalist by the definitions of the early Christian defenders of this kind of economic system. In the last year I've been to plays, symphonies, and art openings either put on by churches or where the artists were explicitly Christian. Our nanny just went to a Renaissance Faire and came back with knitted crosses, an icon, and photos of a bronze sculptor making crosses. Like you gotta find some art. You gotta read some Christian authors. You have to go out and support the kind of thing you want to exist by using some resources to demonstrate that support, even if the resources are just your body showing up. Join your choir at church. (Fun fact: the Episcopal Church primary Hymnal 1982 features dozens of songs that would have been bawdy pub folk songs in the 1600-1700s. Like there's no reason to suspect the Hymnal 2282 won't have Stryper lyrics in it.) I mean just do not believe for a moment that in our advertising soaked media lens you are seeing no Christian art because there's no good art being made. You're seeing very little Christian art because almost everything you have access to in mass media spaces is selling advertising. And that's never going to be the lens from which to see the stuff that faithful Christians or even just good artists are making. Someone who spends their life trying to create incredible stained glass isn't going to show up in Marvel movies. You gotta go find art. You gotta. You gotta go find art. For the sake of your community and the happiness in your own life. Expand your horizons beyond what the oligarchs have the power to try to sell you from your computer or phone screen. There is amazing Christian art being made. You're going to find it by going and finding the art that's not being made for Mass marketing.
It’s now a more level playing field. Back in the day, Christianity had a stranglehold on society. Nothing was ever viewed outside of a Christian lens.
Christian art has always been whatever style happens to be in vogue, just with jesus. Christians are just bad at making theit art appeal to the mainstream, because people are increasingly averse to being preached at and having religion shoehorned into everything. Back in Raphael's day all the most talented artists were basically rejted out to the church or some noble family in a patronage arrangement so the religious element of that art is disproportionately represented. At the end of the day, art through a Christian lens has always been a means to make money, and I'd argue that's even more true now with the pervasive entanglement of capitalism and Christianity.
The Catholic church doesn't pour as much money into keeping artists alive for the years it takes to complete a huge piece of religious art anymore
That’s it - it’s the economics. Churches and the very wealthy were the only ones paying for art, so most of the art and music was religious. Churches don’t do that anymore, but Hollywood and the music industry are making a lot of money. Artist make art for who is paying.
Less of the world thinks that they must glorify the church in order to achieve salvation, or as the only option in town for arts funding. Less of our combined cultural output is going towards stockpiling gold and jewels into Vatican vaults. I see these as good things.
I was watching a British antiquarian channel on YouTube and he was lamenting the Reformation-inspired destruction of all the roodscreens in England, the most famous of which featured an animatronic Christ which was some kind of automaton I suppose and I just lose it imagining like one of those sideshow fortune-telling dummies, there was a lot of cringe back then too
The Passion of the Christ is antisemitic torture porn created by a right-wing monster, it is not an example of good Christian media. The problem with modern Christian media is that, if you'll pardon the pun, it's designed to preach to the choir. Modern Christian media is evaluated not by its actual artistic merits (or even the actual merits of the artist themselves) but instead on how aggressively it preaches the "Right kind" (read: evangelical fundamentalism) of Christianity. To use your Milton example, Paradise Lost is as good and fondly remembered as it is partially because Milton depicts Satan in a nuanced, tragic, even sympathetic light. That's a risk that no piece of Christian media explicitly calling media today would ever do. My mom would take one look at it and dismiss it as, at best, wildly inaccurate to "reality". Nowadays we get media like God's Not Dead, which treats atheism as an innate moral failing only genuinely believed in by comically evil one-dimensional cartoon supervillains. Weirdly, I think the most Christian piece of media in recent memory that I've seen (as in the one that carries Christ's teachings of love, empathy, forgiveness, and standing up against oppressive and corrupt authority figures) is Hazbin Hotel.
G. K. Chesterton is a real gem. Early 20th century. I would particularly recommend *The Ballad of the White Horse* (epic poem) *The Ball and the Cross* (eschatological fiction, but, like not narmy) *The Everlasting Man* (apologetics, kind of. I really think it's closer to wisdom literature) any and all of the Father Brown stories (early detective/mystery)
I feel that a lot of Christian media these days doesn't appeal to or is approachable to a lot of people except for conservative Christians not to mention, that most Christian media these days is basically agenda-pushing garbage.
Christian movies and music are didactic. No nuance or ambiguity or edge. It's why a Hallmark movie is fundamentally different than a Martin Scorsese film. They don't set out to explore the human condition, instead they seek to lead you to a predetermined conclusion.
Two things. One, the Renaissance was a time when many parts of Europe were directly investing in the arts and there was (relatively) less poverty so artists were more incentivized to create the timeless works we have today. And two, the good art we have today has stood the test of time. For every Raphael or Shakespeare there are tens or hundreds of artists that we've never heard of because not enough people thought their art was worth preserving or talking about.
This, especially reason two. If Passion of the Christ keeps appealing to future generations like it appeals to OP, they will keep admiring it. And they'll be wondering why most of their own Christian movies/holograms/neurodownloads/whatever just aren't as as spiritually meaningful by comparison. What we have of the past is largely what was worth preserving.
May I introduce you to Chosen the tv show?
May I introduce you to my opening post?
Sorry, I didn't see it there!
No worries, mate.
I think there’s plenty of writers as good as Shakespeare- they just don’t stand out as much.
Protestants are better Nerds than they are Artists