Warner Sallman, Picasso, and the Protestant Taste Crisis: The Christian Century and Christianity Today on Visual Art, 1960-1985

In the second half of the twentieth century, Protestant art critics writing for Christianity Today and The Christian Century called for their church communities to reform their aesthetic tastes. This mutual attempt by evangelical and ecumenical authors to reform Protestant visual taste points to the periodicals’ shared identity as Protestants in a purportedly secularizing United States. As religious belief was challenged in the American public sphere, these authors endeavored to elevate the tastes of their Christian communities in order to legitimize their religious traditions. However, they diverged in their attempts to define good art, reflecting their distinct theological orientations. Liberalism’s openness to secular alliances allowed writers for The Century to embrace modern and contemporary institutional art as tasteful spiritual conduits. Alternatively, according to evangelicalism’s separatist tendencies, Christianity Today’s authors rejected the “secular” avant garde and instead encouraged readers to flood the art market with God-glorifying, skillful artworks.