En hyllning till kitsch

En hyllning till kitsch

I förra numret av DIVINITY Magazine finns en fantastiskt liten artikel av Paul Griffiths om kitsch. Han skriver:

Christians ought to pause before accepting this view of kitsch. Christianity—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—has been and remains among the great generators of kitsch, and that’s because Christianity is and always has been a religion of peasants and proles. Most Christian art is and always has been kitsch: that’s what most Christians like. They—we—like it exactly because it’s nuance-free. The Stations of the Cross, present on the walls of every Catholic church, aren’t subtle and aren’t supposed to be. They’re there to conform you to the bloody sufferings of Christ. The American Protestant praise song (“Jesus is your boyfriend,” it seems usually to be saying, over and over again) is likewise unsubtle, and supposed to be. It’s there to conform you to the love of Christ. [...] But hasn’t Christianity also been the home of and stimulus for great, non-kitschy art? Haven’t Christians made beautiful as well as kitschy things? Aren’t there connoisseurs among Christians? Yes. And that can be celebrated, too, if you’re among the tiny minority of Christians to have a care for it. But let’s be clear that it’s not the main event. The main event in Christian art is kitsch, which is exactly as it should be. Among Christians, connoisseurs have much more to learn from kitsch-lovers than the other way around.

Läs mer: A Defense of Christian Kitsch

Bild för Kalle Carlstein

Av Kalle Carlstein

Kalle Carlstein är doktorand i Nya testamentet vid Uppsala universitet.

Kalle Carlstein is a Ph.D. student in New Testament exegesis at Uppsala University.

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