21 Things .07

Reconciling My Faith with  Art

In my last post I shared briefly about an artist who has inspired me (it was the weekend and I didn't have time to expound), but now I'd like to dig a little deeper into my thoughts on the arts, and its relationship with my faith in particular.

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For a few months last year I connected weekly with two dear friends of mine to talk about art, choosing a separate era or style each time. It was spontaneous, we were unashamedly nerdy, and it was wonderful! Our conversations would lead us in countless directions and I'm amazed how much I learned from the pieces we admired, laughed over, and questioned.

The arts - not simply paintings but poetry, literature, theatre, dance, and music - have been integral delights in my life and are the things through which God often chooses to speak to me! Yet I'm often frustrated with the lack of artistry and cultural awareness in the Christian community. A confusingly antagonistic yet passive attitude towards the world of arts reigns, which has resulted in the creation of separate "Christian art", a genre of its own that is often naive, cliche, and cringe-worthy.  

This is not to say that I've lost hope. There are Christians who are gifted artists and work right in the thick of things, and as I wrote in a recent essay... "I am incredibly passionate about...the potential for art to express Christ gently yet piercingly." 

The arts offer an opportunity to wrestle with the raw questions of existence and contribute richly to the world discussion, "not using it primarily as a tool to tell the Gospel (sermonize) but to show it (Turner, 21)." 

What if we expressed "God’s rich perspective, which views people with dignity, value, and as creative beings, and explores truth and beauty, without ignoring the realities of life?" What meaningful and hopeful art we'd create!

I've come to the conclusion that being both a Christian and a lover of the arts doesn't entail isolation and neither does it mean embracing or conforming to worldly ideas. Instead it means: "testing and wrestling with worldly ideas and in the process renewing (my) mind (Rom. 12:2). Using Shakespeare's Macbeth as an example, Turner (the author of Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts - A book I'd highly recommend) states how by watching the main character succumb to his lust for power does not mean we condone such actions, instead we are 'measuring' him against a standard of 'nobility and purity' (41). This is why it is a tragedy."

In other words, discernment and reflection are key.

Psalms 137:4 asks: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" 
Its a question that continues to convict me.

References: 

Turner, Steve. Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts. Illinois: InterVarsity Press. 2001. Print.