There is much to digest here.
Doxology Part 1
In his insightful essay Art and the Bible, the late Francis Schaeffer wrote “an art work can be a doxology in itself."
Christians are commanded by Jesus to love God with their heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:28-32). Schaeffer’s quote forces us to use our minds because he is either completely correct and hits the mark cleanly or else he is woefully in error.
To many contemporary Christians, the notion of art as doxology is close to being lost if it has not been already. Many churches see art as something to be used toward an end with an unabashedly utilitarian mentality that actually strips a work of art of its beauty and meaning. We have lost the ability to allow a work of art to be all that it is in the complexity and multiplicity of its meanings. We rush to explain a sculpture so that the audience understands the exact purpose and thought and meaning of the curves and nuances of the piece. We show in our actions what our true philosophy of art and beauty is: a pragmatic tool used to sell faith as part of a niche marketing strategy. We may say as Christians, and especially Evangelicals, that we agree with Schaeffer’s quote, but our actual conduct and treatment of artistic people in the church reveal that any attestation claiming agreement with the concept of an art work being a doxology in itself is mere talk.
Biblically, we know from reading 2 Chronicles Chapter 3 that God valued art in itself for the sake of beauty. Furthermore, we know that the art of the temple attests to God’s view that art is not for utilitarian purposes. The free-standing columns in the temple had no engineering significance in the structure of the temple since they did not bear any weight. This shows us that God Himself values the creative process and the expression of that creative process. We see also that He is glorified by the process itself as well as the expression in a "work". It reveals that an art work can be a doxology in itself.
Why has the modern church missed this? Is it the result of our detachment from the historical, intellectual and creative tradition of Christianity? Is it the natural consequence of the intrusion of corporate business strategies and pie-charts and the selling of the faith?
Indeed, the answer is “yes” to all. The anti-intellectual tide that started in America in two phases: (1) The 1700s up to the Civil War, and (2) The Civil War to the present, have infected Christians to the point that atheist Bertrand Russell is all too painfully accurate when he says that most Christians would rather die than think — in fact they do. For all the great things that were accomplished in the wake of the two Great Awakenings in America, a by-product of those two events was a rise of anti-intellectualism — Christians, and especially Evangelicals, abandoned the thinking and reasoning that was part of the intellectual tradition of the Puritans in America and Christianity at large in Europe. As my friend, an Anglican Father, is quick to point out, the rational and intellectual heritage of Christianity is rich, especially when one looks at the early years of the Christian church and fathers of the faith such as Augustine of Hippo. Part and parcel of that heritage was an understanding of ourselves as Imago Dei, and the creativity that such a reality necessarily brought to the forefront of humanity. To say we are Imago Dei is to say something quite profound. Not only are we made in God's image, in fact, we simply are His image. Everything that makes us human is derived from God, our creator.
The intellectual tradition of Christianity meant an appreciation for beauty, a supernatural desire for meaning and the comingling of the intellectual with the artistic. Michelangelo’s David is a fine example of this. And at one time, the Christian church understood and valued art, believing that an artwork can be a doxology in itself.
Doxology Part 2
To speak of the Christian church valuing art, and good art at that, would be to garner laughs from many. Artists who also call themselves Christians walk a tightrope of faith. On one hand they struggle to preserve their passion for creativity, which is in constant danger of being extinguished by Evangelicalism. On the other hand is the slippery slope of having freedom to develop that passion, but finding that the only opportunity to do so is in a church that is doctrinely so far from the truth that it is certainly less than Christian.
The Evangelical response to criticism about its “art” is often to excuse the mediocrity rather than to face up to it. The rationale for the cookie-cutter, low-level of craftsmanship in contemporary Christian music is that since it is being performed in the name of Jesus, it is fine if the quality is poor. And so, instead of Christians leading the way in quality of the craftsmanship in music, writing, film and painting, we settle for the mistaken consolation, which is really no consolation at all, that it’s fine to be mediocre or even downright bad because we are Christians and God will approve anyway. Truly artistic people know the fallacy of this attitude.
Another ramification of the loss of the Christian mind, which results in the inability to understand the Biblical view of art and beauty, is demonstrated in a problem best called Evangelical Correctness, or EC. The failure to keep pace with the intellectual heritage that belongs to Christianity has meant that Christians, especially Evangelicals, resort to formulaic approaches to having a relationship with God. And in turn, slogans, cliches and buzz-words emerge in a lingo that substitutes for real conversation among Evangelicals. This is not something unique to Evangelicals, American society is guilty of the same thing, such that there is no longer any substantive public discourse on issues that really matter, instead there is just ranting and raving in what Os Guinness calls a “Talk Show Nation.”
As it relates to Evangelicals, however, EC is a convenient way to avoid actually thinking.
One danger of Evangelical Correctness is that artistic Christians get victimized. Artists by nature see reality a bit differently and think in typically non-formulaic ways. The modernist construct of the 7 Habits of the Highly Effective Church, and the 5 Steps to a Perfect Marriage, and the 3 Keys to Happy Kids, and such, deny the complexity of reality. Life is much more complicated and mysterious and uncertain than Modernism acknowledges. Furthermore, artists get victimized when Evangelical Correctness punishes them for their art work.
In 1997,Christian bookstores pulled the album “Slow Dark Train” by Vigilantes of Love from its shelves because of the song “Love Cocoon,” which has erotic language. Few people were interested in the reasoning and explanation behind the song, and showed a tremendous short-sightedness considering the erotic language of The Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. In defense of the song, Bill Mallonee noted that “Love Cocoon” mentions the love between a husband and wife and celebrates the beauty of man and woman united sexually as a testimony to God’s relationship with the church as explained in Ephesians Chapter 5. At a Christian music festival during the summer of 1997, organizers told Mallonee not to play the song during its set. The band played the song anyway, and has never been invited back.
“To me its points out the false chasm that exists between sacred and secular music,” Mallonee said about the incident years later. “Here’s “Love Cocoon,” a mildly bawdy ode to monogamous bliss lived out in the light of God’s gift of marriage versus all the other drivel that comes out of [Contemporary Christian Music] (some of it theologically questionable), and we get denied access. No question, LC was racy stuff, but kids are gonna learn it from where? Kid Rock or VOL? You pick.”
Doxology part 3
For the Christian who longs to think biblically and understand all of life in light of the Gospel, something terrible is lost when Evangelically Correct thinking dominates culture. In fact, the Christian subculture is likened by many to the ghetto.
Why do we allow ourselves to wallow in a ghetto?
We wallow because, to borrow from Franky Schaeffer, we are addicted to mediocrity. And we are addicted to mediocrity because we have lost the value that an art work can be a doxology in itself. We have lost our intellectual moorings, preferring instead to let others do our thinking for us. We put our stock in well-known Bible teachers or influential leaders, rather than doing the harder work of cultivating our own minds. Truly, it is a sin we have all committed.
As Franky Schaeffer writes in Addicted to Mediocrity, “Christians must free themselves from the misconception of more than a century that everything must be measured in terms of its usefulness to the cause of Christianity.” When things, or talents must be measured in utilitarian terms, rating the effectiveness of one against the other, then a natural hierarchy develops that falsely places some gifts and talents and the use of one’s time in certain and specific ways on a higher plane than others. Rather than seeing the whole of man and thus the whole of life as equally valuable in spiritual terms because Christ is the leader of the whole person — not just a compartmentalized area here and there — the false dichotomy creates a pecking order. This problem is especially true for the Western church where some spiritual gifts are valued, but not all. The problem also leads to an application of the Gospel that is often less than accurate to the true heart of Jesus. On the one hand, some Christians focus so much on the ministry of the Word that the ministry of deed is left behind. On the other hand, many churches have all together abandoned the ministry of the word and clung to social programs and reform. Both miss the point Jesus was making when he taught that his followers needed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). It is by the truth of the word that a Christian knows what it means to be salt and light; Psalm 119:105 says that God’s word is a lamp by which the path is lit. But Jesus is clear that the salt is to be spread and the light is to be put on a lampstand so that it can be seen; “that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Art is powerful communication. It cuts across barriers, it exposes us to ourselves and each other, and — in the case of the visual arts — it says things that are often too deep for words. Art forms which use words such as music, poetry or others, often allow us to approach deep issues in a safer manner than simply having a direct conversation with someone. The poem or story or song operates at a distance provided by a healthy detachment or construction of a fictional scene that helps us face reality within ourselves.
For example, in Hamlet, we are able to struggle with the issues of our existence, madness, the sovereignty of God, jealousy and plenty of other matters of the soul because it isn’t happening to us at that precise moment. And in the unfolding of the story we are able to grapple with things that would overwhelm us otherwise.
Art forms touch us all at profoundly deep levels. We all know that the best films, the best books, the best songs, the best paintings are those works which we gravitate to over and over again. We know the story and the outcome and still we absorb the art because it speaks to us — often with a growing richness as, over time, we become aware of messages and meanings that we had previously missed. Furthermore, the great works of art are those works which examine us. A great book is not so much the one that the individual reads, it is the one which reads the individual. Our lives are stories, each one. Consequently, art, no matter what form, has a kinship with our souls because it is in one way or another telling a story. Again, Biblically, this rings true. The creation of the universe, the fall of man, the process of redemption and the eternal spiritual conflict that wages until the conclusion of all time is the greatest story. This in no way is the use of the term "story" to mean that which is not true. The point is simply this: Biblical Christians need to recapture their minds and their ability to cherish art because of the story in which we live. The modern church, in many ways, has forgotten this.
And so the call to artful living is, for the Christian, a high calling which is vanishing. We must live artfully, expressing the Imago Dei with joy because we see the beauty of God as revealed in art, and not choose the path that leads to mediocrity.
Doxology Part 1
In his insightful essay Art and the Bible, the late Francis Schaeffer wrote “an art work can be a doxology in itself."
Christians are commanded by Jesus to love God with their heart, soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:28-32). Schaeffer’s quote forces us to use our minds because he is either completely correct and hits the mark cleanly or else he is woefully in error.
To many contemporary Christians, the notion of art as doxology is close to being lost if it has not been already. Many churches see art as something to be used toward an end with an unabashedly utilitarian mentality that actually strips a work of art of its beauty and meaning. We have lost the ability to allow a work of art to be all that it is in the complexity and multiplicity of its meanings. We rush to explain a sculpture so that the audience understands the exact purpose and thought and meaning of the curves and nuances of the piece. We show in our actions what our true philosophy of art and beauty is: a pragmatic tool used to sell faith as part of a niche marketing strategy. We may say as Christians, and especially Evangelicals, that we agree with Schaeffer’s quote, but our actual conduct and treatment of artistic people in the church reveal that any attestation claiming agreement with the concept of an art work being a doxology in itself is mere talk.
Biblically, we know from reading 2 Chronicles Chapter 3 that God valued art in itself for the sake of beauty. Furthermore, we know that the art of the temple attests to God’s view that art is not for utilitarian purposes. The free-standing columns in the temple had no engineering significance in the structure of the temple since they did not bear any weight. This shows us that God Himself values the creative process and the expression of that creative process. We see also that He is glorified by the process itself as well as the expression in a "work". It reveals that an art work can be a doxology in itself.
Why has the modern church missed this? Is it the result of our detachment from the historical, intellectual and creative tradition of Christianity? Is it the natural consequence of the intrusion of corporate business strategies and pie-charts and the selling of the faith?
Indeed, the answer is “yes” to all. The anti-intellectual tide that started in America in two phases: (1) The 1700s up to the Civil War, and (2) The Civil War to the present, have infected Christians to the point that atheist Bertrand Russell is all too painfully accurate when he says that most Christians would rather die than think — in fact they do. For all the great things that were accomplished in the wake of the two Great Awakenings in America, a by-product of those two events was a rise of anti-intellectualism — Christians, and especially Evangelicals, abandoned the thinking and reasoning that was part of the intellectual tradition of the Puritans in America and Christianity at large in Europe. As my friend, an Anglican Father, is quick to point out, the rational and intellectual heritage of Christianity is rich, especially when one looks at the early years of the Christian church and fathers of the faith such as Augustine of Hippo. Part and parcel of that heritage was an understanding of ourselves as Imago Dei, and the creativity that such a reality necessarily brought to the forefront of humanity. To say we are Imago Dei is to say something quite profound. Not only are we made in God's image, in fact, we simply are His image. Everything that makes us human is derived from God, our creator.
The intellectual tradition of Christianity meant an appreciation for beauty, a supernatural desire for meaning and the comingling of the intellectual with the artistic. Michelangelo’s David is a fine example of this. And at one time, the Christian church understood and valued art, believing that an artwork can be a doxology in itself.
Doxology Part 2
To speak of the Christian church valuing art, and good art at that, would be to garner laughs from many. Artists who also call themselves Christians walk a tightrope of faith. On one hand they struggle to preserve their passion for creativity, which is in constant danger of being extinguished by Evangelicalism. On the other hand is the slippery slope of having freedom to develop that passion, but finding that the only opportunity to do so is in a church that is doctrinely so far from the truth that it is certainly less than Christian.
The Evangelical response to criticism about its “art” is often to excuse the mediocrity rather than to face up to it. The rationale for the cookie-cutter, low-level of craftsmanship in contemporary Christian music is that since it is being performed in the name of Jesus, it is fine if the quality is poor. And so, instead of Christians leading the way in quality of the craftsmanship in music, writing, film and painting, we settle for the mistaken consolation, which is really no consolation at all, that it’s fine to be mediocre or even downright bad because we are Christians and God will approve anyway. Truly artistic people know the fallacy of this attitude.
Another ramification of the loss of the Christian mind, which results in the inability to understand the Biblical view of art and beauty, is demonstrated in a problem best called Evangelical Correctness, or EC. The failure to keep pace with the intellectual heritage that belongs to Christianity has meant that Christians, especially Evangelicals, resort to formulaic approaches to having a relationship with God. And in turn, slogans, cliches and buzz-words emerge in a lingo that substitutes for real conversation among Evangelicals. This is not something unique to Evangelicals, American society is guilty of the same thing, such that there is no longer any substantive public discourse on issues that really matter, instead there is just ranting and raving in what Os Guinness calls a “Talk Show Nation.”
As it relates to Evangelicals, however, EC is a convenient way to avoid actually thinking.
One danger of Evangelical Correctness is that artistic Christians get victimized. Artists by nature see reality a bit differently and think in typically non-formulaic ways. The modernist construct of the 7 Habits of the Highly Effective Church, and the 5 Steps to a Perfect Marriage, and the 3 Keys to Happy Kids, and such, deny the complexity of reality. Life is much more complicated and mysterious and uncertain than Modernism acknowledges. Furthermore, artists get victimized when Evangelical Correctness punishes them for their art work.
In 1997,Christian bookstores pulled the album “Slow Dark Train” by Vigilantes of Love from its shelves because of the song “Love Cocoon,” which has erotic language. Few people were interested in the reasoning and explanation behind the song, and showed a tremendous short-sightedness considering the erotic language of The Song of Solomon in the Old Testament. In defense of the song, Bill Mallonee noted that “Love Cocoon” mentions the love between a husband and wife and celebrates the beauty of man and woman united sexually as a testimony to God’s relationship with the church as explained in Ephesians Chapter 5. At a Christian music festival during the summer of 1997, organizers told Mallonee not to play the song during its set. The band played the song anyway, and has never been invited back.
“To me its points out the false chasm that exists between sacred and secular music,” Mallonee said about the incident years later. “Here’s “Love Cocoon,” a mildly bawdy ode to monogamous bliss lived out in the light of God’s gift of marriage versus all the other drivel that comes out of [Contemporary Christian Music] (some of it theologically questionable), and we get denied access. No question, LC was racy stuff, but kids are gonna learn it from where? Kid Rock or VOL? You pick.”
Doxology part 3
For the Christian who longs to think biblically and understand all of life in light of the Gospel, something terrible is lost when Evangelically Correct thinking dominates culture. In fact, the Christian subculture is likened by many to the ghetto.
Why do we allow ourselves to wallow in a ghetto?
We wallow because, to borrow from Franky Schaeffer, we are addicted to mediocrity. And we are addicted to mediocrity because we have lost the value that an art work can be a doxology in itself. We have lost our intellectual moorings, preferring instead to let others do our thinking for us. We put our stock in well-known Bible teachers or influential leaders, rather than doing the harder work of cultivating our own minds. Truly, it is a sin we have all committed.
As Franky Schaeffer writes in Addicted to Mediocrity, “Christians must free themselves from the misconception of more than a century that everything must be measured in terms of its usefulness to the cause of Christianity.” When things, or talents must be measured in utilitarian terms, rating the effectiveness of one against the other, then a natural hierarchy develops that falsely places some gifts and talents and the use of one’s time in certain and specific ways on a higher plane than others. Rather than seeing the whole of man and thus the whole of life as equally valuable in spiritual terms because Christ is the leader of the whole person — not just a compartmentalized area here and there — the false dichotomy creates a pecking order. This problem is especially true for the Western church where some spiritual gifts are valued, but not all. The problem also leads to an application of the Gospel that is often less than accurate to the true heart of Jesus. On the one hand, some Christians focus so much on the ministry of the Word that the ministry of deed is left behind. On the other hand, many churches have all together abandoned the ministry of the word and clung to social programs and reform. Both miss the point Jesus was making when he taught that his followers needed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). It is by the truth of the word that a Christian knows what it means to be salt and light; Psalm 119:105 says that God’s word is a lamp by which the path is lit. But Jesus is clear that the salt is to be spread and the light is to be put on a lampstand so that it can be seen; “that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Art is powerful communication. It cuts across barriers, it exposes us to ourselves and each other, and — in the case of the visual arts — it says things that are often too deep for words. Art forms which use words such as music, poetry or others, often allow us to approach deep issues in a safer manner than simply having a direct conversation with someone. The poem or story or song operates at a distance provided by a healthy detachment or construction of a fictional scene that helps us face reality within ourselves.
For example, in Hamlet, we are able to struggle with the issues of our existence, madness, the sovereignty of God, jealousy and plenty of other matters of the soul because it isn’t happening to us at that precise moment. And in the unfolding of the story we are able to grapple with things that would overwhelm us otherwise.
Art forms touch us all at profoundly deep levels. We all know that the best films, the best books, the best songs, the best paintings are those works which we gravitate to over and over again. We know the story and the outcome and still we absorb the art because it speaks to us — often with a growing richness as, over time, we become aware of messages and meanings that we had previously missed. Furthermore, the great works of art are those works which examine us. A great book is not so much the one that the individual reads, it is the one which reads the individual. Our lives are stories, each one. Consequently, art, no matter what form, has a kinship with our souls because it is in one way or another telling a story. Again, Biblically, this rings true. The creation of the universe, the fall of man, the process of redemption and the eternal spiritual conflict that wages until the conclusion of all time is the greatest story. This in no way is the use of the term "story" to mean that which is not true. The point is simply this: Biblical Christians need to recapture their minds and their ability to cherish art because of the story in which we live. The modern church, in many ways, has forgotten this.
And so the call to artful living is, for the Christian, a high calling which is vanishing. We must live artfully, expressing the Imago Dei with joy because we see the beauty of God as revealed in art, and not choose the path that leads to mediocrity.
