Look Up

I have a habit of reading widely but selectively. My reading list includes Rod Drehrer’s Substack posts and The Free Press, not because I agree with much of what they say but because they often bring to our attention important news that’s underreported by mainstream media.

Give you two examples, both of which involve reconnecting with the sacred. The first comes from Drehrer. He recently reported on an address given by Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) and Evan Sharp (co-founder of Pinterest) at the University of Oxford titled: “Reconnecting With the Sacred in a Technology-Driven World.”

Note that Stone and Sharp do not appear to be Christian. They do however believe “the Sacred” exists and that in the past, people felt connected to it. Hence, Stone and Sharp’s address was about reconnecting with the sacred. Good for them.

And I think their approach to the sacred is intuitively correct. Watch this 7-minute clip from their address. Evan Sharp opens with this: “If we have one bit of advice about technology, and even your life – to be a little grandiose – I think it’s just to look up, to look up from your screen…”

“... actually, in this place,” Biz Stone interjects, “if you actually look up…” The audience looks up to the overarching ceiling. They see a wondrously beautiful painting.

Check to see if you have a pulse if you don’t feel moved by this masterpiece. It’s titled “Truth Descending on the Arts and Sciences to Expel Ignorance from the University. Robert Streater painted it between 1668 and 1669. The painting depicts the idea that all truth is God’s truth, descending upon us from the Lord God on High.

“Truth Descending” depicts what was once the “the common background” for Western civilization. I don’t know if Stone or Sharp recognize this, but they do sense that reconnecting with the sacred involves looking up at wondrously beautiful sacred art.

Which reminds me of something. Jesus looked up when he prayed (John 17:1, John 11:41, Luke 9:16). He saw the heavens, the wondrously beautiful abode of God on High. Perhaps if we looked up in prayer, we’d more naturally connect with the sacred, turning away from the various mobile devices that often have a lock on our attention.

Which leads to a second underreported story about reconnecting with the sacred. The Free Press recently featured an article on the large number of young Americans who are flocking to the Catholic Church. They’re entering the Church for many reasons, including feeling drawn to the beauty in the liturgy and, when looking up, the artwork on the ceiling and apse in older (and recently remodeled) Catholic churches. The same thing is happening in the American Orthodox Church, just on a smaller scale.

Which is why I urge us to look up! I say this not to convert anyone. I’m instead reminded of what Dostoevsky said: Beauty will save the world. Beauty can certainly be found in the world, but the greatest beauty is above and beyond the world – God Himself who is True Beauty. Sacred art, stretched across the canvas of ceilings and apses, depicts this beauty. It’s essential for reconnecting with the sacred, something Biz Stone and Evan Sharp intuitively sense and young people are being drawn to.