Last week I posted on Menachem Wecker’s essay in which he explores how art can be a media for reconsidering faith in a creative, and consumerist society. This week, Mark Lawson writing for the Guardian’s CIF Belief section delves into the interplay of art and faith.

There have been a number of instances in the recent past when art depicting Christian themes has been deemed offensive by some believers, but their attempts to have it censured have been brushed aside. In contrast, similar artistic productions centering on Islam have been removed, or shut down. Lawson explores this dichotomy.

I’ve been mulling over Wecker’s proposition that art can be a means of communicating ideas about faith if employed effectively – and Lawson’s essay is a timely new tack on the idea. Even in Britain, where churches are emptying as fast as Northern Rock, christian imagery remains a powerful medium around which atheists, agnostics, and lapsed Catholics build stories, and express important, moving ideas.