Frivolous aesthetics in worship (James Gibson)

[Reformed Covenanter]

That God should be supposed to be pleased with the frivolous aesthetics of frivolous men, (and the more gravely put forth and pompously practised, the more frivolous and puerile they are,) seems to us one of the strangest vagaries into which men of piety and intelligence have ever fallen.

James Gibson, The Public Worship of God: Its Authority and Modes, Hymns and Hymn Books (London: James Nisbet and Son, 1869), p. 109.

 

[RamistThomist]

I think many people who initially gravitate towards "smells and bells" might actually not go that route. I think for some it is an overreaction to white walls and florescent lights. That kind of lighting is such an eye-searing horror.