Wow. Great comments on that last post. I was glad that you caught the problems with the Francis Bacon quote (and Bacon himself). If you haven't read the comments, check them out and get going with your artistic, argumentative-self.
Here's another question/thought - do artists have more of a responsibility than others to make their work "Christian"? This leads to the question, What exactly is Christian art? Do we ever talk about Christian plumbing? Or Christian carpentry? Maybe we should...but what makes something "Christian" as opposed to...well, as opposed to what? I don't buy into the secular/sacred distinction because nothing lawful is beyond Christ's reign or beyond the possibility of glorifying God. This is partly why I like Steve Turner's idea so much: let's be Christians, men and women who love Christ, are passionate about righteousness and holiness and Bible reading and worship and all that good stuff. Then, let's be artists, or doctors, or mothers, or whatever is lawful and good. Tacking on a Christian veneer to art - say, putting Bible verses on all our pictures - makes art as much "Christian" as putting a fish emblem on your car makes your driving Christian.
On the other hand, it still seems that artists (and pastors, I think) have much more opportunity to lead people into sin than, say, plumbers do. A plumber may do some plumbing with a bad attitude, or without believing in the Kingship of Christ, but that doesn't make me stumble in sin. But if an artist uses all the tools at his/her disposal to either convince me of something that isn't true or lead me into sin, does that artist share some culpability for that? So, while the possibility of glorifying Christ exists in all professions, I believe we ought to be honest and tell the artists among us that they bear a special responsibility in Christ's Kingdom.
Always more questions, but these things are so important for us to talk about and wrestle with.
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Last year our youth came back pretty from the high school winter conference pretty jazzed about Pastor York's lectures, which were themed on the life of Athanasius. Several reported on this "list" of how to decide what to do and what not to do. Please read it and think about it. It bears greatly on this topic of our involvement with the arts.
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3 comments:
I really love the list that Pastor York gave us last year. Thanks for posting the link.
It's true that everything we do needs to represent the God we serve. Art just has that much more of an impact on the soul. For whatever reason something made for the purpose of communicating something to another person has that much more of an impression on that person. Our work reflects we are as people. The quality of our labor says "I have something to say, this is who I am, this is how I live. This is what I believe."
An artist's whole job is to "tell the world" what they think about life. That's why they create. Unlike the plumber who is "telling the world" but at the same time fixing something.
Ok, so I guess I am saying that the reason art has that much more of an impact on the world (and therefore artist need to be that much more careful) is because the quality and the way in which they do their work is the only reason they have work at all. They have something to tell us, and they must be very careful in what they say.
Though, I agree, we all must be careful.
Hi Jared.
*Smile*
"It still seems that artists (and pastors, I think) have much more opportunity to lead people into sin"
You are definitely right, I think it has to do with a vocation being centered around communication. Pastor, with the grace of God, communicate the Words of God. Artists communicate, but those who have not let Christ take the reigns of Life often communicate sinful thoughts or emotions. That seems to be where the challenge lays.
That being said -- It seems that Christians should encourage their artistic brothers and sisters to do as much as they can in the world of the arts, to make Christ known to this specific art culture.
Jonathan - right on. I wholeheartedly agree with your comments and they provide the perfect counterbalance to my mine (I think). By no means should artists avoid the hard (as well as the joyful) parts of life. And we shouldn't expect them to. Life isn't a Disney movie.
As I continue to ponder this, it really seems that artists are given a razor's edge to navigate between truth-telling and not causing others to stumble. Certainly we can't hold artists accountable for leading the most sensitive consciences into lust (say, by producing a non-licentious picture of a pretty woman). But there's something there, too - I keep thinking about the verse in Ephesians about there being some things that are shameful to talk about. Instead, we are to expose them and dismiss them. I think art can help do this.
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