It has been pointed out to me that the lack of Art in the Modern Church is due to the lack of artists and the funds to pay them. I agree that the Church should be spending it's money outside of itself in mission, local outreach, and other worthy endeavors.  There is need everywhere we look and it's the Church's job, and ours as Christians, to help alieviate that need. The Church as a whole is using it's money elsewhere and there isn't a plethora of Renissance artists running around. Or is there?

The need for Art in our spritual life is the job of the people, what in the older traditions, is called the laity.  Your pew neighbor might not be the next Bottichelli or Dante, but they do have artistic gifts that are being wasted. Imagine what it would be like if we celebrated those gifts, used them to enhance our worship, and saw the people's passion for the Creator each Sunday in song, and prose, and paint. Granted we may not get a work of art that could go to a Christy's auction house but we would get something priceless.

Xanga

When the world went Modern, the Church went with it.  As we as people drew nearer to explaining all the details of creation, we lost the mystery and the beauty of the Sacred.  In our headlong rush into tomorrow and the future we lost something priceless.  We lost the sense that we were made by a Creator, who takes joy in his creation and who freely shared that joy of creation with us.

As our definition of the world got bigger, more detailed, and more technological, we began to limit God.  Rather than the mysterious, deep, colorful God of creation, we limited Him to our knowledge, our definitions, and our boxes.  I want a God bigger than our boxes! I want the God who mastermined the stars.  I want the God who forged the fire of volcanoes. I want the God who perfumed the forests. I want the God who designed sinew and limb with such grace.  I want the Creator.

If you look around the Church, you'll find very little that is sensually inspired.  By sensual, I mean dervived from and for the senses.  You may find pockets of Handel and Bach on a Sunday morning, or perhaps a well rendered stained glass apostle, but you'll find very little Art. 

The Church used to be engaged in Art. Used to be a driving force in the creation of beauty.  Granted, the Church has also had a hand in censorship, and other unsavory practices, but as a whole it was historically engaged in showing off the Creator's work,  his passion, and his joy.  In older churches, especially in Europe, you'll find remanents of sound, and smell, and sight that helped us connect with the Divine. 

How do we get it back? Do we as a society want Art back in our places of worship? Does it even matter?