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Christianity and the Arts

by Brian Thomas
Originally published at theooze.com

What role should the arts play in the Christian life? By “arts” I mean all vehicles of creative expression, including but not limited to: painting, sculpture, music, architecture, fashion, photography, dance, television and film. Can art be used to the glory of God or is it just another way of sneaking sin in through the back door?

There has been a sharp decline in the importance and cultivation of the arts in the evangelical community over the past century, and it has been to our detriment. The enjoyment of God's creation and man's creativity as God's image-bearers have been relegated to the basement of Christian consciousness, often looked upon as a worldly pursuit. I believe this has been one of the major contributing factors leading to Christianity's ineffectiveness upon our culture. As British satirist, P.G. Wodehouse said, “Whenever Christians, and evangelicals in particular, have attempted to ‘reach the world' through the media – TV, film, publishing and so on – the thinking public gets the firm idea that, like soup in a bad restaurant, Christians' brains are better left unstirred.”

If we wish to regain even a small foothold of influence in today's world, we must begin with a fresh study of the subject from God's perspective. Some of the world's greatest paintings, sculptures, architecture, and music have been inspired by the Christian faith. The Bible has much to say about beauty, art, and mankind's enjoyment of creativity as a good gift of the Creator.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Ultimate Beholder

Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that is concerned with beauty. Throughout history philosophers and artists have sought to answer the question, “What is beautiful?” The tired cliché, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” is taken as gospel truth without a second thought today. But this is actually an attempt of marrying the philosophy of relativism and aesthetics. What is beautiful? The relativist answers: Whatever I think is beautiful, because I am the measure of all things.

This philosophical mindset has taken over the established art world today and has led to an uncritical acceptance of art that is debase, technically poor, and created with the purpose of shocking. In short, art that is ugly. Defenders of such art often express a personal distaste for it, but then they raise questions that reveal their own aesthetic uncertainties: “Who is to say what art is? Who are we to question the creative expressions of an artist? Who is to say what is beautiful and good?” The Christian must not shy away from such questions, because we are the only community that has a viable answer.

Beauty is only possible if we assume God's existence as the Great Artist who made color, shape, and texture. True beauty is in the eye of the Ultimate Beholder of all things because God is the measure of all things, including beauty. Is a flower in the desert beautiful even though no man ever sees it? Yes. Since the God who created it sees it, it is beautiful regardless of whether man ever sees it.

Gene Veith aptly points out, “Just as the current intellectual establishment has lost its conceptual basis for truth, the artistic establishment has lost its conceptual basis for beauty. A Christian view of the arts can supply both.”

Imago Dei

The support for the arts and man's creativity comes very early in Scripture. In the book of Genesis you see the Master Artist creating ex nihilo (out of nothing). At the very onset of creation the prerequisites for art are established – light, space, and unity. God then created the details, calling forth earth, vegetation, water, and finally human beings:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

Humans were created in the image and likeness of God, who were themselves empowered to create. This is central in understanding our humanity. It means, among other things, that since God is personal, human beings are personal. As Veith points out, “Those qualities that go into being a person – consciousness, the capacity to think and to feel, to will, act, respond, communicate, and enter into relationships – are inherent in human beings as in no other part of creation.”

Part of God's personality is his ability to create, a capacity inherent in those who are his image-bearers. In the Genesis account above, you see that man was given dominion over the world. This dominion has implications for and includes, the arts, since an artist does nothing more than fashion his art out of the materials of the earth in one way or another.

Although the beauty of the garden was vandalized through man's fall into sin, and nature itself was cursed, it was not completely effaced. Sin shattered the divine image in man, but did not erase it altogether. Man's ability to create after the fall remains as a signpost pointing to God's original artistry in creation. The universe God created is not only functional; it is also beautiful. Being made in the image of God means that the purpose of life is greater than just surviving, as if life were nothing more than a bigger version of the Survivor reality show. We have the ability not only to perceive beauty, but also to create and enjoy God through our creations. The impulse within us to create and enjoy is an inescapable mark of the divine image.

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