Monday, February 15, 2010

Modern Mediocrity in Christian Art



The arts (music, literature, and visual) are all amazing gifts from God.
We are made in His image.
We are made to create.


In history art has been largely dominated by believers. And that is certainly the way it should be.
Who are the Christian giants today?

I don't want to bash anyone, but it certainly seems like Christians have settled for mediocrity.

Christians should be setting the pace in art - plowing a head - showing an example to the world. Today we seem to either be following the non-Christians and becoming utterly indistinguishable or separating ourselves into whole different genres of rather mediocre fuzzy-feeling comfort art.

We, as Christians, can show truth through art.


Another attitude that I do not believe honors God (and I am sure it turns unbelievers off) is our refusal to recognize talent and hard work by non-Christians.
An unbeliever can be an amazing violinist or an outstanding painter, and we can enjoy his work. Yes, we need to be careful because a lot of non-Christian art has very non-Christian themes. That does not mean music, art, or writing is evil because it was created by a unsaved person. The truth will be known in everything. Often a non-Christian can not help showing the story no matter how hard they try to stay away from it.

We can not say..."such and such a persons creations are evil because he is a non-Christian". If they are evil, there should be a much better basis for arguing that point and you should use it. God uses sinners to create beauty. Every man on earth has his purpose. No matter how they may try to run from the Truth and from their Maker, they will be used to glorify Him.


We should recognize talent, non-Christian or Christian.
And
Christianity should be producing the most and the best musicians, artists, and writers.


I feel like these thoughts are incomplete, but I really wanted to write something on the subject. It is time for Christianity to reconquer the arts!

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian


The Return of the Prodigal Son
Rembrandt

6 comments:

B said...

I appreciate this post so much. There is such an appalling amount of mediocrity in Christian arts today, and it should be the exact opposite. I don't yet know where Christians should begin, but it definitely needs to happen.

And I second the need to stop fearing art because it comes from a non-Christian. Why on earth can't it still be enjoyable/beautiful/worthwhile?

Farmgirl said...

I love your perspective on this! Especially when you look at all the classical composers, a good portion of whom were horrible people, but wrote some of the most beautiful music in creation!

dura mater said...

Amen to all you said! it's time for Christians to reclaim the arts for His glory. We start by seeking to glorify Him in all that we do, and by learning the disciplines that will help us do art and music and literature in a skilled and excellent way.

Jubilant Wife said...

I agree. One art form that needs to be retaken is movies. I admire Sherwood Pictures for daring to take on Hollywood by making good quality, clean, G-d honoring movies. Unfortunately Christian movies have a reputation for being poor quality.

Susannah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Susannah said...

I agree with everything you said. I wrote an essay about this, and I would put it on my blog, but it is... LONG.