The painter, Francis Bacon, declared that "man now realizes that he is an accident, that he is a completely futile being, that he has to play out the game without reason." That is the key to understanding what is going on in our society today, including the arts. Modern art, whether in painting, music or literature, is saying something to us. Unwittingly, it is the message of Ecclesiastes, that without God there is nothing but ultimate futility and meaninglessness. That can be expressed in drugs, alcohol, dropping out, promiscuous sex, modern art, or modern theology. But it is all saying much the same thing.

But the art of the Christian, whether the poetry of Milton, the paintings of Rembrandt or the music of Bach, has beauty, form, and order because it reflects the truth that life has meaning because there is a God who gives it meaning.