Summary5 min read

Breakpoint – “Anglican Graffiti and the Power of Beauty”

Host: John Stonestreet (Colson Center)
Date: October 28, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Breakpoint explores the collision between acts of graffiti at sacred sites—both criminal and officially sanctioned—and what they reveal about contemporary culture’s relationship to the sacred, beauty, and desecration. Host John Stonestreet critically examines a recent “graffiti installation” inside Canterbury Cathedral and, using historical, philosophical, and theological lenses, considers what these acts signal about the broader Western rejection of transcendence and beauty.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Contrasting Graffiti: Crime vs. Official “Art”

Incident in Australia:
- Earlier in the year, police arrested two men for vandalizing a sacred indigenous site with graffiti (00:09).
- Public reaction stressed spiritual consequences: “They've got some nasty, nasty juju coming their way for this disrespectful vandalism. Ancestors know who they are.” (00:14)
Canterbury Cathedral Graffiti:
- In contrast, similar graffiti appeared inside Canterbury Cathedral—with permission from church officials (00:26).
- Visual Arts Advisor Jacqueline Cresswell defended it: “[This graffiti] is giving the marginalized community of Canterbury a voice within the cathedral, putting profound questions to God.” (00:38)
- Stonestreet’s response: “And here I thought that's what the Psalms were all about.” (00:44)

2. The Sacredness and History of Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury isn’t just another church; it’s the birthplace of English Christianity (00:47).
Stonestreet recounts the mission of Augustine of Canterbury and the subsequent spread of Christianity throughout England (00:56).
The cathedral contains medieval graffiti that points to Christ and martyrdom—contrasted with the contemporary spray paint which, according to a visitor, “makes the beautiful cathedral resemble an underground car park.” (01:25)

3. Cultural Theories: Disenchantment vs. Desecration

Carl Trueman’s Insight:
- Trueman distinguishes between “disenchantment” (a passive loss of the sacred) and “desecration” (an active destruction of the holy) (01:31).
- Quote:
  “Our age is not marked so much by disenchantment as it is by desecration. The culture's officer class is committed not merely to marginalizing that which previous generations considered sacred. It is committed to its destruction.” (01:38)
C.S. Lewis Allusion:
- Stonestreet connects this to a scene in Lewis’ That Hideous Strength: desecration is required to join an evil conspiracy, even for non-believers (01:54).
Charles Taylor’s Modernism & Disenchantment:
- Taylor saw disenchantment as the Western world’s loss of faith in both God and transcendence (02:03).
- Stonestreet argues that modern actions go beyond mere disenchantment: they involve intentional violation of beauty and transgression (02:14).

4. The Loss of Beauty as a Loss of the Sacred

Francis Schaeffer’s Predictions:
- Schaeffer anticipated that losing Christian consensus would render both lives and the world “uglier” (02:20).
- Anecdote: Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, while depicting meaninglessness, was unsettled by Bach’s music—its beauty undermined his message of chaos (02:26).
Modern Manifestations:
- Desecration of beauty is not limited to art or buildings; it’s seen when people harm or alter their own bodies.
  “When young people harm or subvert or even mutilate their own bodies, they're not merely adopting a new style, they're desecrating what's sacred.” (02:47)
- Ironically, such acts acknowledge there’s something sacred to profane:
  “To desecrate beauty is to presume that there's beauty to be desecrated.” (03:01)
The shock of the graffiti at Canterbury comes precisely because that building is so beautiful—an implicit affirmation of its sanctity (03:06).

5. The Role of Beauty in Pointing to the Sacred

Goethe’s Standard for Art (1798):
- “The highest demand made on an artist is this, that he may be true to nature, study her, imitate her, and produce something that resembles her phenomena well.” (03:20)
Christian Understanding:
- Beauty transcends even nature; it points to the Creator (03:32).
- “Beauty is a way to acknowledge and protect and celebrate what is in fact, sacred. It's a way to point the world to the one who spoke all of nature into existence.” (03:38)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On sanctioned cathedral graffiti vs. Psalms' role:
“And here I thought that's what the Psalms were all about.”
(John Stonestreet, 00:44)
Carl Trueman’s distinction:
“Our age is not marked so much by disenchantment as it is by desecration. The culture's officer class is committed not merely to marginalizing that which previous generations considered sacred. It is committed to its destruction.”
(John Stonestreet quoting Carl Trueman, 01:38)
On bodily autonomy and desecration:
“When young people harm or subvert or even mutilate their own bodies, they're not merely adopting a new style, they're desecrating what's sacred.”
(John Stonestreet, 02:47)
On the shock value of desecration within beauty:
“To desecrate beauty is to presume that there's beauty to be desecrated.”
(John Stonestreet, 03:01)
On the ultimate purpose of beauty:
“Beauty is a way to acknowledge and protect and celebrate what is in fact, sacred. It's a way to point the world to the one who spoke all of nature into existence.”
(John Stonestreet, 03:38)

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:09: Australian sacred site graffiti — public and spiritual reactions
00:26: Graffiti at Canterbury Cathedral officially permitted
01:25: Visitor critique: cathedral now “resembles an underground car park”
01:31: Introduction of Carl Trueman’s concepts of desecration
01:54: Lewis’ “That Hideous Strength” and acts of desecration
02:03: Charles Taylor and disenchantment
02:14: Distinction between disenchantment and deliberate desecration
02:20: Francis Schaeffer on ugliness following loss of Christian consensus
02:26: Ingmar Bergman’s film, Bach’s music, and the power of beauty
02:47: Modern examples of bodily desecration
03:01: The paradox of desecrating what one implicitly values
03:20: Goethe’s principle for artists
03:32: The transcendent aim of beauty in Christian thought

Overall Tone and Language

Stonestreet’s language is incisive, critical, and urgent, weaving historical anecdotes, philosophical analysis, and doctrinal reflections together in a thoughtful but assertive style. He urges Christian listeners to recognize and defend the sacred nature of beauty, especially in a culture increasingly committed to its destruction.

Co-Author: Dr. Timothy Padgett
Host: John Stonestreet
For more resources, visit breakpoint.org

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Transcript7 lines

[00:01]
A
Welcome to breakpoint, a daily look at an ever changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet. Earlier this year, police in Australia arrested two men for vandalizing a sacred indigenous site with graffiti. Spray painted. Damage was over 30ft wide and 6ft high. Facebook user reacted this way. Quote, they've got some nasty, nasty juju coming their way for this disrespectful vandalism. Ancestors know who they are, end quote. Well, last month, Canterbury Cathedral received a similar graffiti treatment. This time, however, no one was arrested since it was done by the permission of cathedral officials. According to the visual arts advisor and curator Jacqueline Cresswell, this graffiti, and I quote, is giving the marginalized community of Canterbury a voice within the cathedral putting profound questions to God. And here I thought that's what the Psalms were all about. Canterbury is, of course, not just any other church building, even in Europe. It's the church from which Christianity spread throughout England. In the 500s, after the pagan Anglo Saxon tribes had overrun the older Celtic Christian regions, missionaries came to the barbarian kingdom of Kent in the southeast of England to share the gospel. Their leader is known to history as Augustine of Canterbury. He converted King Ethelbert and built Canterbury Cathedral as the first church for the English. The millions of Christians came to faith through the missionary efforts that were first sparked at Canterbury. It remains the mother church of a now very fractured worldwide Anglican communion and the Church of England. The new spray paint installation stands in stark contrast to the ancient medieval graffiti that can still be seen barely on the walls of the crypt. The barely readable ancient sketchings point to Christ, his crucifixion, to the martyrs. According to one visitor, the new installation makes the beautiful cathedral resemble an underground car park. Last year, reacting to the funeral of a transgender prostitute activist at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, Carl Truman introduced an essential thought category that is helpful for understanding this cultural moment, including this new graffiti project. Here's what he wrote. Our age is not marked so much by disenchantment as it is by desecration. The culture's officer class is committed not merely to marginalizing that which previous generations considered sacred. It is committed to its destruction. Disenchantment has passive connotations, a dull, impersonal, somewhat tedious, but inevitable process. But desecration speaks to the exaltation that active destruction of the holy involves. End quote. Truman is echoing here a scene from the C.S. lewis novel, that hideous strength to be initiated into an evil conspiracy. The protagonist in that story is is told to desecrate a crucifix. Though he's not a Christian, he still hesitates. However, the conspirators insist that going against what's thought to be holy is the only way forward. It was the sociologist Charles Taylor who described a trait of modernism as disenchantment. In other words, as the Western world lost its faith in God, it also necessarily had to reject the transcendent. However, disenchantment cannot adequately describe the rejection of beauty and the commitment to transgression that has characterized so much of our modern culture. In his books the God who Is There and How Should We Then Live? Francis Schaeffer predicted that the loss of Christian consensus would also make our lives and our worlds uglier. To illustrate this, Shaffer told how Igmar Bergman, when writing a film to portray the meaningless of life, was so troubled by a piece from Bach that was playing in the background. The order, beauty and transcendence of this work by this Christian composer undermined the vision of chaos that he was trying to prove. In the same way, in a desecrated age like ours, beauty will be denied. It will be mocked, it will be caricatured. For example, when young people harm or subvert or even mutilate their own bodies, they're not merely adopting a new style, they're desecrating what's sacred. Ironically and unwittingly, of course. To desecrate beauty is to presume that there's beauty to be desecrated. The graffiti on the walls of Canterbury only shock because it's on those majestic walls in that majestic cathedral. In a 1798 essay, Johann Wolfgang von Gutta claimed this quote, the highest demand made on an artist is this, that he may be true to nature, study her, imitate her, and produce something that resembles her phenomena well. In fact, Christians know that beauty has the potential to point to something even beyond nature. Beauty is a way to acknowledge and protect and celebrate what is in fact, sacred. It's a way to point the world to the one who spoke all of nature into existence. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stonestreet with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. For a version of this commentary that you can download and share with others, go to breakpoint.org.
[05:10]
B
Hey, John Stonestreet here. This is your official invite to join us at the 2026 Colson Center National Conference. It'll be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, May 29th to the 31st. Again, Knoxville, Tennessee, May 29 through the 31st. The theme this year is you are here. You might remember those large, now largely empty buildings called shopping malls where you.
[05:32]
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Had all kinds of stores and you.
[05:33]
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Were trying to find the one you were looking for and you had to go to the map. And not only did you need to find this door, you needed to find that yellow arrow or the star that said, you are here. Our culture today changes so fast and at such a profound civilizational level. And that, of course, is because we've abandoned the truth and we're reaping the consequences. So a conference like this is absolutely necessary to get the lay of the land, to kind of figure out what's happening in culture and at what moment we're really in. If you've ever wondered if your faithfulness and obedience and can make a difference in this civilizational moment that we're in, this is the conference for you. So join us at the Colson Center National Conference. You'll be hearing from fantastic speakers like the one and only Os Guinness, the remarkable story of Chloe Cole, Abdu Murray.
[06:22]
A
And many more that will be announced soon.
[06:24]
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If you register before November 29th, you can receive up to 50% off tickets. For more details and secure your spot for the Colson Center National Conference, May 29th through the 31st, go to colsonconference.org that's Colson Conference Conference.
[06:38]
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Org.