Hans Rookmaaker Quotes & Sayings

How can you say that modern art is ugly,when you worship the Lord in a building painted like this? — Hans Rookmaaker

What is Christian in art does not lie in the theme but in the spirit of it, in its wisdom and the understanding of reality it reflects. — Hans Rookmaaker

By means of the iconic, artists express their view of reality and show their understanding of the structure of reality. They see what they know and bring this into their paintings ... They always give us more than the facts, more than the eye can see. — Hans Rookmaaker

Art tries, literally, to picture the things which philosophy tries to put into carefully thought-out words. — Hans Rookmaaker

Jesus didn't come to make us Christian. Jesus came to make us fully human. — Hans Rookmaaker

We may appreciate the efforts, and even the greatness of the men who have tried to find the universal, the general 'behind' appearances; yet at the same time their quest was doomed to fail, for all universals break down as soon as the Creator, He who made man in His image, is denied or left out of account. — Hans Rookmaaker

Our world has changed for better or for worse. It is for us to find truth and beauty for today, constantly re-applying the truth of God's word to our own time and our contemporary situation. — Hans Rookmaaker

Art is a form of play rejoicing before the face of God. — Hans Rookmaaker

Modern art did not just happen. It came as a result of a deep reversal of spiritual values in the Age of Reason, a movement that in the course of a little more than two centuries changed the world. — Hans Rookmaaker

We do not know what we see, but we see what we know. — Hans Rookmaaker

We are at home here. Alienation is unnecessary. Contact with reality at a deep level is part of the Christian's life. He enters into reality, rather than escaping from it. The flight from reality is a mark of Eastern and classical mysticism, not of Christianity. — Hans Rookmaaker

Art cannot be used to show the validity of Christianity; it should rather be the reverse. — Hans Rookmaaker