An Apology for the Arts
If you’ve been following the Helwys Society Forum for any amount of time, you’ve likely seen that we like to write about the arts. We’ve written about music, film, painting, literature, dance, and more. You may have wondered why we include such articles on a forum that so frequently deals with important theological issues and ministry matters.
This puzzlement may be the result of your thinking that art is all well and good but not all that important in the grand scheme of life. You may think, “I don’t frequent art museums, and I have no burning desire to do so. Art is for other people. It has little to do with my everyday life. It has little to do with my faith.”
If you find this is an accurate description of your feelings, I ask that you consider this proposition: You are surrounded by art each day. Think of your house. Are the walls bare? Do you have furniture? Each piece of home décor is a creative expression that required some sort of artistic skill for its production. Do you watch television, listen to the radio, or use electronic media? Then you are surrounded by both visual and aural creative artistic expressions. Do you read? The books on your shelf and in your hand required a measure of artistic skill to produce; even non-fiction authors strive for beauty and clarity in their use of language.
Think of the world in which you live. When you go to run errands, do you see advertisements that were created by graphic designers? Do you see buildings that were designed by architects and built by skilled laborers? Perhaps you’ve traveled to places with historic significance; did they feature buildings constructed hundreds of years ago? These things, too, are artistic expressions.
If you answered, “Yes,” to those questions, perhaps you’re beginning to see my point: Art is all around us. It is a part of our daily lives. Furthermore, our Christian worldview is not silent on the subject of art. For centuries, Christians have understood the importance of art and have learned to think Christianly about it (though, broadly speaking, we seem to have forgotten this in our current Evangelical moment). They recognized that we have to understand art to engage culture well, and few things reveal the thought of a culture better than its art.
Why the Arts Matter
As mentioned above, art involves so much more than paintings that hang in museums. It includes the visual arts (paintings, sculptures, photographs), the performing arts (drama, music, film), the literary arts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry), the practical arts (architecture, furniture), and the culinary arts. Certainly, then, we can see that we are indeed interacting with the arts each day, and such constant exposure warrants our attention and care.
Recently my husband and I conducted some sessions on art with a group of bright high school students at Welch College’s summer camp. In our discussions, Frank reminded them that art, essentially, is an expression of thought, allowing the viewer to glimpse the way in which the artist views the world around him. It also reveals how the artist answers the “inescapable questions of life” that F. Leroy Forlines identifies in The Quest for Truth (Who am I? Why am I here? Is there a God? and others).[1]
Because it answers these questions, therefore, art can be a vehicle for truth. It can make us reflect on important questions and provide some measure of answers in a beautiful way. When an artist, Christian or not, rightly answers these questions, his productions will cause the viewer or hearer to contemplate the truth. Certainly, if the artist is a Christian, his art will reflect the Christian answers to the inescapable questions.
Truth can also sometimes be found in the works of people who are not themselves Christian. St. Augustine pointed out that all truth is God’s truth. Because Satan is the father of lies, he cannot tell the truth. Therefore, truth, wherever is found, belongs to God. When we find truth in works of non-believers, we are witnessing the common grace of God that comes from God’s common revelation. This is the grace and revelation that all people everywhere can see and understand and therefore benefit from. They see it through creation and understand it by the law that God has written on our hearts.
Furthermore, art does not exist in a vacuum. The art produced by people living in a particular culture, both in time and in place, reflects that culture’s values and understanding about the meaning of life. When we’re looking at a painting, for example, we can tell what the artist (and a good portion of the culture) thinks about the value and worth and role of mankind in the way he or she portrays human subjects. Does the work present humans in a harmonious way that is easily understood by the viewer, or is the human form distorted or disjointed or ugly? Put another way, is the human subject presented as a flawless, perfect figure; as a person with normal faults; or as entirely faulty?
Because of art’s unique ability to provide such insight, being familiar with art can help us understand two important things. First, we can study art to trace the history of thought throughout the centuries. For example, the art produced near and just after the time of the Reformation is some of the most beautiful work, from paintings to music, ever produced by humanity. This is the case because the artists of the time lived in a culture that recognized eternal truths about the character of God, the role of man, the beauty of the created order, and the need to reflect that understanding in all of their creative endeavors.
Second, understanding the art produced in our own society helps us to better understand the cultural zeitgeist and, therefore, to more competently engage it. When we are able to recognize presuppositions of artists, we can confront those presuppositions. Remember, the artists are likely not the only ones who espouse the worldview on display in contemporary art; our lost neighbors, friends, and family likely share the view.
Christian Discernment
Of course, undertaking this task requires a great deal of discernment. We should not, as Matthew Bracey pointed out in his excellent article about film, indiscriminately view cultural products in the name of “engaging the culture.” Some things are blatantly immoral, and sanctified common sense is required in interacting with cultural products.
We must also avoid a common misconception about the nature of art. Most people have bought into the popular idea that all culture is good, that art is art, and that they don’t have any real ways to determine if something is good or bad. Certainly this reflects the postmodern mindset that holds that absolute truth does not exist and that what is true for one person might not be true for someone else.
As Christians, of course, we disagree. We know that absolute truth exists, that God has given us standards by which we live. We know that we must judge thought and worldviews by the standards we find in God’s Word. And because art expresses thought, whether or not the artist explicitly intends to do so, we can evaluate it according to those standards.
Over the centuries, Christians have understood this, though we don’t so much anymore. We have tended to take that mistaken second approach to culture that we discussed earlier: Christians have ignored culture, believing it to be bad or irrelevant and not taking time to think about the Christian vision for the arts. However, this was not always the case. In his excellent article “The Six Principles of the Christian Critical Tradition,” Darrell Holley points outs that Christians created and evaluated art based on the principles the apostle Paul outlines in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things (ESV).”[2]
Suggestions
How, then, can we undertake the task of valuing and evaluating the arts? If you’re like me, you’re not trained in art criticism and may feel a bit intimidated by the thought of diving into the art world. I have found that reading what Christian scholars who have devoted their lives to the understanding of our God-given creative abilities to be quite helpful. Authors such as Francis Schaeffer, H. R. Rookmaaker, and Abraham Kuyper are well worth your time for their clear explanations of art history and the Christian approach to the arts and culture.
Visit a museum every now and again and really think about what the artist has communicated through the work you see. Think about how he or she answers the inescapable questions. Do those answers agree with what God has revealed through His Son and in His Word? Go with a friend or family member and talk about these things.
As with everything we do, let us engage the arts to the glory of God.[3]
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[1]F. Leroy Forlines, The Quest for Truth (Nashville, TN: Randall House, 2001), xiv.
[2]Darrell Holley, “The Six Principles of the Christian Critical Tradition,” Integrity, no. 1 (Summer 2000), 156. This article can be found in this edition of Integrity linked here.
[3]If you are interested in this discussion, we invite you attend several of the Welch College seminars at the NAFWB that concern these topics.
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