The Split between Christianity and the arts

After church this morning, we had our friends Charles, Hugo, and Jennifer over for lunch. We discovered that Hugo is a cartoonist in the making. He showed me how to use the Paint program in our computer.

Charles and I had a discussion over a wonderful book that I'm reading titled Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts by Steve Turner (Inter-Varsity Press, 2001). Turner is a Christian and a writer. He has interviewed and written about many of the biggies in rock music over his career.

So far, chapter 4 of his book has been the most stimulating for me. It deals with the strained relationship between Christianity and the arts. For many Christians, it is hard to appreciate art that deals with daily living. They have a narrow and utilitarian view of art that only sees art as a tool for evangelism and/or discipleship. I must confess that this hits close to home, as I had been like this for most of my life.

My last month with the Fonderie has shown me the importance of artists who are Christian being true to the call that God has given them. For some of them, this involves ministry within a church. But for the vast majority, this entails producing art in a non-church setting. They need to be encouraged and freed to produce their art.

C.S. Lewis once said that he believed in God like he believed in the sun: "Not because I can see him, but because by him I can see everything else." It is possible to create work saturated with gospel insights without spelling out the plan of salvation, just as it is possible to demonstrate the joys of marriage without showing off your wedding photographs. Songwriter T. Bone Burnett, speaking to the L.A. Weekly, said, "If Jesus is the Light of the World, there are two kinds of songs you can write. You can write songs about the light, or you can write songs about what you can see from the light. That's what I try to do. (p. 51).

The need to witness in art is nothing more than an application in one particular area of what we are told to do in general. All Christians should believe in making disciples, but just as a doctor would not be expected to preach to patients or a plumber to wrap texts around new pipe work so artists shouldn't be required to turn their occupation into full-time evangelism unless specifically called to do so. (pp. 51-52).