Renewing Christian Engagement with the Arts (1)

Artists in our society are in a very peculiar position.  On the one hand they are regarded very highly, almost like priests of a culture who know the inner secrets of reality.  On the other hand they are completely superfluous people.[1]
-- H. R. Rookmaaker

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
--1 John 4:1

The Arts: Status Check

The situation in the arts today reminds me of nothing so much as that great, anticlimactic scene in the film, Spartacus, after the defeat of the slave army.

Spartacus and the remnants of his army have been rounded up as the Romans arrive to mete out punishment to the leaders of the revolt. A particularly arrogant general asks scornfully, “Who is Spartacus?” and before Kirk Douglas can ‘fess up, Tony Curtis stands to his feet and declares, “I’m Spartacus!” Then another slave beside Douglas does the same, then another, and another, until, by the hundreds, all the defeated slaves are standing and shouting, “I’m Spartacus!  I’m Spartacus!” The response of the Roman general is quintessentially pragmatic: “Very well, crucify them all.”

Contemporary artists—nonChristian and Christian—are that rag-tag army, each one claiming to be the representative of true art, while the majority of us in the Christian community are the Roman general. We could hardly care less about any of them.

For most Americans—certainly most American Christians—the arts today pose a formidable challenge. To the extent that we’re familiar with contemporary art, we’re not quite sure what to make of  it : all those strange forms, images, and sounds – collages, color swipes, weird shapes and weird combinations of shapes, drippings and smatterings of paint, everyday objects posing as portraits or sculpture, strange juxtapositions of who-knows-what, installations of all kinds; music that sounds to us cacophonous and spontaneous, lacking anything like a clear motif or discernible shape or pattern; poems without rhyme, reason, or recognizable form; and not-so-subtle undertones of violence, rebellion, decadence, sexual licentiousness, and more.

We don’t understand these productions, and we don’t much like them, either.  For those who follow the arts at all, the late Andy Wyeth (“America’s Painter”) comes closer to our view of what art should be than Andy Warhol; Stravinksy stymies us; and we would choose Frost over free verse just about any day.

Contemporary art seems strange to us, and maybe a little troubling or frightening. So most of us choose to ignore or avoid it altogether. The very real danger in this is that we throw out the baby of the arts with the bath water of modernism and postmodernism. Finding ourselves unable to understand or enjoy contemporary art, and discerning within it precious little of what we expect art to be, we simply give up on the arts, leaving them in the hands of those who have little sympathy with our worldview.

At the same time, we abandon those from our own camp whose calling from God has taken them into the arts. With but a few exceptions, we are content to let them twist in the winds of modern and postmodern thought, and to founder in a marketplace with little taste for their productions, with little in the way of encouragement or support from their own native community.

Neither wise nor healthy

To the extent that this actually describes the practice of Christians vis à vis the arts today, it is neither wise nor healthy. “Ignorance is bliss” does not apply when it becomes an excuse for ignoring the intellectual currents that are determining the shape of contemporary culture and society, or for neglecting that which God has given for improving the state of His image in us.

We decry the sad state into which our culture has descended and blame our social disarray on the very lights we refuse to engage and understand, preferring instead to hold ourselves aloof from that which requires us to go beyond our intellectual comfort zone. “Crucify them all,” we cry, as we turn aside to what we regard as other, more pressing matters.

Granted, getting a handle on contemporary thought, and in particular, contemporary art, can be a daunting, if not disagreeable, task. The term, “Modernism,” has long been an epithet of denunciation for most evangelicals. Postmodernism by itself, as a “system” of thought, is confusing enough. But deciphering the messages of modern or postmodern art, much less learning anything from it, or even enjoying it, is just more than most Christians are willing to take on.

Unaware that modern and postmodern are not all there is to contemporary art, and unconcerned for those of our brethren in Christ who have taken up a calling in the arts, we simply shrug our shoulders and look for less taxing sources of aesthetic enjoyment.

Gird up your minds!

Yet we ignore the arts at our own peril, for the voices of many spirits are calling to us from the arts, and they are powerful, persuasive, and, in some cases, potentially very useful for our growth as Christians and our work in the Kingdom of God. Rather than turn a cold shoulder to the arts, now would seem to be a good time to “gird up our minds for action”[2] so that we might gain some better understanding of the state of the arts and the implications of art for the life of faith.

Yes, we’ll have to plan for the long haul and take up some new study habits. And yes, we’ll have to sacrifice some of the things which now occupy our time in order to make time for reading, viewing, and listening to the spirits and voices which are speaking to us in the arts.

But we are called to “try the spirits” of the age, and we cannot try that which we choose simply to ignore. And given the role of the arts in society, and their power to disseminate ideas and change people’s perspectives, we who hold the truth of God in the earthen vessels of flesh[3] do not act responsibly when we turn away from these disciplines for less demanding occupations.

It’s time more Christians began a serious re-engagement with the arts. In this series I hope to provide some perspective and encouragement in this daunting challenge. Art is a gift from God, which He intends to use for our benefit and His glory. But we will only realize the promise of the arts as more of us commit to the hard – but immensely satisfying – work of understanding the state of the arts and becoming more responsible consumers of God’s gifts to our contemporaries.

For reflection or discussion

1. How much do you know about contemporary art – painting, poetry, or music? Do you have any exposure to the arts on a regular basis?

2.  What are some ways that the arts influence the rest of culture? For example, how do the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture affect such “everyday arts” as advertizing and film?

3.  What do you suppose the role of the arts might be in setting forth the worldview of any generation? Can you think of some ways the arts have done this in the past?

4.  About which of the arts would you like to know more? Why?

5.  How do you think you might benefit personally from being better informed and more engaged with contemporary art?


For additional insight to this topic, get the book, For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts, by W. David O. Taylor. Or read the article, “‘Criticize by Creating’: Art Within,” by Charles Colson.

[1] H. R. Rookmaaker, Art Needs No Justification (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, ), p. 5.

[2] 1 Peter 1:13.

[3] 2 Corinthians 4:7.