Good Art
I read a fascinating article by Mike Parker titled "Warning: Contains Explicit Lyrics." He laments the lack of "good art" in the Church. The church used to set the standard. The Sistine Chapel, the Last Supper, and Handel's Messiah were the epitome of art. Derek Webb says, "During the Renaissance, Christian artists were on the cutting edge. The rest of culture looked to the church to see what was good art."
Webb says we've "lost the skill to determine what is beautiful." I think most Christians don't even have a category for beauty. It's too subjective. It's too right-brain. Our left-brain approach to God limits our appreciation of God and makes us into half-brained disciples. Webb says, "If a believer is making art that is not explicit, that is really hard to categorize, he gets criticized for it." I think he's got a point.
Here's what really gets my goat. I think God is the creator of beauty. He is the Great Impressionist. He is The Artist. And the world is beating us at our own game! Webb says, "It is not because we are Christians that the world won't listen to us. It is because we make bad art." I don't fully agree with that statement. I think some people are opposed to good art produced by Christians because of the message. But I do think we need to compete in the marketplace of art just like we need to compete in the marketplace of ideas.
As children of the Creator, no one should have a greater appreciation for beauty than us.
Webb says we've "lost the skill to determine what is beautiful." I think most Christians don't even have a category for beauty. It's too subjective. It's too right-brain. Our left-brain approach to God limits our appreciation of God and makes us into half-brained disciples. Webb says, "If a believer is making art that is not explicit, that is really hard to categorize, he gets criticized for it." I think he's got a point.
Here's what really gets my goat. I think God is the creator of beauty. He is the Great Impressionist. He is The Artist. And the world is beating us at our own game! Webb says, "It is not because we are Christians that the world won't listen to us. It is because we make bad art." I don't fully agree with that statement. I think some people are opposed to good art produced by Christians because of the message. But I do think we need to compete in the marketplace of art just like we need to compete in the marketplace of ideas.
As children of the Creator, no one should have a greater appreciation for beauty than us.
1 Comments:
I appreciate your comment that God is "the Great Impressionist". Currently I am a pastor, but I have a degree in music. One of the liabilities of so much contemporary Christian art - in music, film, graphic arts, etc. - is that it imposes rather than suggests. Paul speaks of God's invisible qualities made plain in creation. Perhaps Paul overstates the case just a bit - the natural world does "scream" the power of God in one sense. But it also "whispers" the power and grace of God. One of the things that makes art such a powerful medium is that it creates multiple possibilities for interpretation. Who is to say what Beethoven's Fifth Symphony "means". Once, a friend of mine was overcome with emotion after hearing Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. "I hear war and peace, love and hate, hope and despair, all in this one piece," he said, with tears in his eyes.
The Great Impressionist seems to paint the pictures and compose the music that shouts its truth in such a way as to invite rather than impose.
Anyway, thanks for your comment and the thinking it has spurred in me. Blessings . . .
Post a Comment
<< Home