Apologetics to the Glory of God

Abraham Kuyper on the Absurdity of Secular Art

There is no unity in your thinking save by a well-ordered philosophical system, and there is no system of philosophy which does not ascend to the issues of the Infinite. In the same way there is no unity in your moral existence save by the union of your inner existence with the moral world-order, and there is no moral world-order conceivable but for the impression of an infinite Power that has ordained order in this moral world. Thus also no unity in the revelation of art is conceivable, except by the art inspiration of an eternal Beautiful, which flows from the fountain of the Infinite. Hence no characteristic all-embracing art style can arise except as a consequence of the peculiar impulse from the Infinite that operates in our inmost being. And since this is the very privilege of religion, over intellect, morality, and art, that she alone effects the communion with the Infinite, in our self-consciousness, the call for a secular, all-embracing art style, independent of any religious principle, is simply absurd.

From Abraham Kuyper, Lectures On Calvinism, 1st Hendrickson ed. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2008), 135-136.

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