Perhaps for many contemporary Christians, Thomas Kinkade represents a high-water mark of Christian culture.

I can only imagine that Christians are primarily responsible for the roaring success of the self-styled (and trademarked) "Painter of Light." His paintings, prints, spin-off gewgaws and knick-knacks, and even a subdivision modeled on homes in his paintings have made Kinkade, according to his own estimate, the most-collected painter in America.

But is Kinkade's work beautiful in a Biblical sense? Jed Perl thinks his work is trash ("crap"), and he makes his point without mincing words in a review of the book, Thomas Kinkade: The Artist in the Mall (The New Republic, July 14, 2011, http://www.tnr.com). Jed Perl is a highly respected art critic whose reviews I have been reading for years. Never have I found him so openly hostile to an artist as he is in this piece.

To sum up: Jed Perl thinks Thomas Kinkade is less than a second-rate artist and a very inconsistent Christian who preys on people's unformed aesthetic sense and emotional attachment to all things Victorian for the sole reason that there's money to be made in such a venture. Lots of money.

I have to admit, that's been my own feeling for some time now, but I lack the qualifications of an art critic and the larger perspective on Kinkade's life and business that Jed Perl brings to this review. I've never found Kinkade's work to be anything more than "story-book" art, so I've always been a little baffled by the evident success of his enterprise. In my view, Kinkade's work rates right up there with the best in leather Bible covers, Jesus tee shirts, and "Testamints."

So I was comfortable agreeing with Jed Perl, but not comfortable thinking that this is the way people outside the pale of faith regard the lives and cultural endeavors of those within it.

When the Mary anointed Jesus' head with an expensive vial of pure nard, He said she had done a beautiful thing (Mk. 14.3-9; cf. Jn. 12.1-8). She filled the room with a sweet and welcoming fragrance. She drew everyone's attention to Jesus. And she did this at great personal sacrifice, with no expectation of return or gain. Jesus said we should remember such beautiful works.

Thomas Kinkade's art does not rise to these benchmarks of beauty. Oh, he has managed to project a good deal of "art" into the room, although, as I consider it, his art has almost nothing in common with great Christian art from the past (Thomas Kinkade did not invent chiaroscuro). He draws attention to Jesus, but only so that drawing attention to Jesus will draw attention - and wealth - to Thomas Kinkade. Where's the sacrifice or beauty in this?

This, coupled with episodes of public behavior and business practice which not only do not beautify the Gospel but absolutely denigrate it, make Thomas Kinkade's witness to Christian life and culture more a scandal than a summit.

My great regret is that this assessment did not come from within the household of faith as a corrective, rather than from the world of unbelief as a denunciation - not only of Kinkade, but, if only by association, of the Christian faith as well.

Additional related texts: Psalm 27.1-4; 1 Corinthians 10.31; Philippians 4.8, 9

A conversation starter: "Are you familiar with the artist, Thomas Kinkade? Would you call his work 'beautiful' art?"

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.