May I suggest that readers interested in the theme of "Art and Religion" have a look at some of the earlier issues of the Australian Ejournal of Theology:

http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/research/theology/ejournal/

Many of the earlier issues have a section devoted to the theological and aesthetic exploration of Christian Art (including poetry and literature) particularly from an Australian perspective.

Sells continues to view the world, through his narrow
perspective.

Last time that I checked, less then 1 out of 10 Australians
bothered to go to church on Sundays, so religion is
a bit like golf, its a lifestyle choice for a small
minority, the rest simply arn't interested and otherwise
occupied.

Given that the fact that maybe half of those who take
religion seriously, are actually interested in art, its
just another small, niche market, clamouring for attention.

The reality is that its an insigificant part of our
lives, as is religion. Sells is in the minority, for
95% clearly simply don't care. His perspective might matter
to him, but not to society in general. Just like golf.

My Protestant church lacks grand inspirational art and I agree with Sells that that's a pity. Visual art, like music, can be very moving, working on the receiver's sense of mythos. In this way it can help lead the person who sees or hears it into reverent contemplation.

Sells probably knows how Dostoyevsky was mightily moved by Holbein's painting of the dead Christ. To be so moved, one has to know the story, and be prepared to look at the painting in a non-desensitized way. Crucifixion was a gruesome, agonizing and protracted death; Christian theology is about the supreme sacrifice of Christ for all who believe in him and accept his gift of "life to the full".

But to use a metaphor, the Christian message is about the baby, not the bathwater. There are elements of the church which are heavily into "Churchianity" - besottedness with the aesthetic cultural attributes of the church, to the extent that bells and smells, liturgy in a foreign language, statues, beautiful paintings and wonderful liturgical music become the main course rather than the plate on which it is served. Jesus said "the Kingdom of God is within you" - meaning about personal transformation. He also promised to be there when only two or three are gathered - minus a cathedral.

In mediaeval Orthodoxy, icon painting (or icon 'writing' as the Russians call it) was a spiritual feat in complete effacement of the iconographer himself: a reverent essay in the use of colours each one of which had a symbolic meaning.

When visiting the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul I was moved by an exquisite (restored) fresco of Christ the Pantocrator, painted nearly a thousand years ago. Churches at Sergiev Posad (Russia) have beautiful scenes from the Old Testament. The New Testament provides rich subject material for art as an aid to our reverent contemplation of the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Christ.

Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ oversteps the bounds; it is gratuitously, obscenely awful. Christian art (including films) shouldn't wallow in evil.