The role of the imagination in worship and prayer cannot be overstated. Imagination helps us to see. Art makes the fruit of the imagination present. The challenge to learn and grow, as discussed in the sixth chapter, has a direct relationship to the artistic world. The authors remind us that our educational system must not embrace the useful to the exclusion of the beautiful.
Aesthetic considerations reflect directly on our understanding and use of liturgy.
The authors warn not to ask too much of art but not to ask too little either. Without sensing beauty, religion could well become a wasteland. The authors are John Dykstra Eusden, a professor of environmental studies and a minister of First Congregational Church in Bennington, Vermont, and John H. Westerhoff III, professor of theology and director of the Institute for Pastoral Studies at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Their work is challenging and demands to be reread and discussed. Professional church people, as well as individuals with a philosophic and artistic bent, will benefit greatly from the insights in this text.