What makes one poem better than another? Do Christians have an obligation to strive for excellence in the arts? While orthodox Christians are generally quick to affirm the existence of absolute truth and absolute goodness, even many within the church fall prey to the postmodern delusion that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This book argues that Christian doctrine in fact gives us a solid basis on which to make aesthetic judgments about poetry in particular and about the arts more generally. The faith once and for all delivered unto the saints is remarkable in its combined emphasis on embodied particularity and meaningful transcendence. This unique combination makes it the perfect starting place for art that speaks to who we are as creatures made for eternity.

Benjamin Myers is a former poet laureate of Oklahoma and is the author of three books of poetry. His poems and essays have appeared inImage, The Yale Review, First Things, and many other journals. He teaches at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he is the Crouch-Mathis Professor of Literature.