Thinking Class
#035 - Hilary White - The Philosophical Revolution Behind The West's Decline (And It Began Much Earlier Than You Think)
Hilary White is the creator of the Sacred Images Project, which you can find on Substack, and which explores the Christian life, thought, history, and culture through the lens of the first 1, 200 years of sacred art.
In this episode, Hilary and I talk about what classifies as sacred art and why it is so important, how the Renaissance led to sacred art's (and the West's) decline when man became the measure of all things (and lots of Florentine bankers money was thrown around in the 15th century onwards to support it), how Cosmo de Medici would have embarrassed the pharaoh and Elon Musk with the size of his wealth, the long term impact of the renaissance values to the current day, what Christians are supposed to do with sacred art and its links to theology, how Catholics and Anglicans lost their own sacred art over the centuries and are now inviting orthodox art into their churches, Hilary's loss of faith in the institution of the Catholic Church and public institutions more broadly, and the ideological reasons behind our shift from 1900 years of crucifixes and biblical scenes, to to, well, modern art like unmade beds, toilets, and buckets of sand, and much, much more.
Hilary has spent her adult life immersed in art history and sacred art, and she has honed the ability to tell stories about the waxing and waning of popular ideas, values, and ideologies, and the loss of faith on people and societies through the ages, and how they contribute to examples of social and moral decay we see today.
This was a really enjoyable conversation and Hillary is inspiring and being driven by a sense of loss in the hope that we might regain something that benefits future generations.
Enjoy the show Classmates. And don't forget to subscribe.
You can find Hilary's work at her online shop: https://ko-fi.com/hilarysacredart
You can find also check out what Hilary's up to at:
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