Reflections on Art
A good friend of mine recently wrote to me concerning some of her thoughts on the relevance of art to life. Below are some of my reflections:
-----------------------
A fundamental starting point in our faith is the acknowledgment that we are created in God's image and likeness and that this imprint of the imago dei within human beings gives us the potential to realize the possibilities God has for us, and to bear his image in the cultivation of God's creation. Furthermore, if God is indeed Lord of our lives, then He must be the Lord in all of life, and not purely restricted to a particular platonic, upper story domain - a problem that much of evangelical Christianity faces these days.
To quote the 17th century scientist Francis Bacon, "Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however can even in this life be in some part repaired: the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences". Francis Schaeffer adds that "for a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts...[using] these arts to the glory of God - not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God". As such, the knowledge of art history is certainly a matter of no small significance!
In his book "Art and the Bible", Schaeffer has listed some key perspectives that we could use in understanding our endeavour within the field of art. He makes two key points:
1. A work of art has a value in itself. In other words, art - as with music - is not something we merely analyse or value for its intellectual content. It is something that we can and should enjoy. This is because a work of art is a work of creativity, and creativity has value because God is the Creator. Creativity is intrinsic to our "mannishness" and that art works - rightly appropriated - are expressions of the mannishness of man himself.
2. Art forms add strength to the world-view which shows through, no matter what the world-view is or whether the worldview is true or false. Similar with literature, the effect of any proposition, whether true or false, can be heightened if it is expressed in poetry or in artistic prose rather than in bald, formulaic statement. For instance, saying "its raining cats and dogs" is different from saying "its raining" - even though in reality, both statements could be use to describe the weather.
Furthermore, art has also been instrumental in shaping the face of society. While art may or may not stimulate action, it can be prophetic in reflecting reactions to social and political events, which in their turn provoke action (think of the fury exhibited by the Muslims over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad). If as Christians, we are careless and haphazard with our understanding and expression of art, then we are certainly not being the salt and light of the earth.
Art also express and reflect the insights and beliefs of the culture in which they play their part. Art make explicit and visible the manner in which people look at things, what and how they see; art reveals both directly and indirectly what is considered to be relevant and important as well as what is not worthy of being expressed or depicted.
Art also creates the symbols of and for a society; for instance, during the time of the French revolution, the tricolore represented the ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality while Jacques-Lois David's Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Marat were also representative of the ideas of their times.
Some books that I have found extremely helpful in shaping my thinking about art within a Reformed Christian position. They are:
- Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible
- Hans Rookmaaker (Complete Works, 6 volumes). He's a close friend of Schaeffer and a art historian. This entire series can be found in the reference section of the Hong Kong Central Library. I know it because I found it there the other time (two years ago though:)
- Jeremy Begbie, Voicing Creation's Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts.
- Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action (this book is considerably denser than Schaeffer's work, but its brilliant, especially in its arguments for art as having a legitimate, even necessary place in everyday life).
- Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (first-rate work examining the nature of art, particularly within literature, and its relevance to human existence, the image of God, the Trinity, free will and evil!)
- Gene Edward Veith, State of the Arts (a good primer for starters, simple yet thought-provoking)
-----------------------
A fundamental starting point in our faith is the acknowledgment that we are created in God's image and likeness and that this imprint of the imago dei within human beings gives us the potential to realize the possibilities God has for us, and to bear his image in the cultivation of God's creation. Furthermore, if God is indeed Lord of our lives, then He must be the Lord in all of life, and not purely restricted to a particular platonic, upper story domain - a problem that much of evangelical Christianity faces these days.
To quote the 17th century scientist Francis Bacon, "Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however can even in this life be in some part repaired: the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences". Francis Schaeffer adds that "for a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts...[using] these arts to the glory of God - not just as tracts, but as things of beauty to the praise of God". As such, the knowledge of art history is certainly a matter of no small significance!
In his book "Art and the Bible", Schaeffer has listed some key perspectives that we could use in understanding our endeavour within the field of art. He makes two key points:
1. A work of art has a value in itself. In other words, art - as with music - is not something we merely analyse or value for its intellectual content. It is something that we can and should enjoy. This is because a work of art is a work of creativity, and creativity has value because God is the Creator. Creativity is intrinsic to our "mannishness" and that art works - rightly appropriated - are expressions of the mannishness of man himself.
2. Art forms add strength to the world-view which shows through, no matter what the world-view is or whether the worldview is true or false. Similar with literature, the effect of any proposition, whether true or false, can be heightened if it is expressed in poetry or in artistic prose rather than in bald, formulaic statement. For instance, saying "its raining cats and dogs" is different from saying "its raining" - even though in reality, both statements could be use to describe the weather.
Furthermore, art has also been instrumental in shaping the face of society. While art may or may not stimulate action, it can be prophetic in reflecting reactions to social and political events, which in their turn provoke action (think of the fury exhibited by the Muslims over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad). If as Christians, we are careless and haphazard with our understanding and expression of art, then we are certainly not being the salt and light of the earth.
Art also express and reflect the insights and beliefs of the culture in which they play their part. Art make explicit and visible the manner in which people look at things, what and how they see; art reveals both directly and indirectly what is considered to be relevant and important as well as what is not worthy of being expressed or depicted.
Art also creates the symbols of and for a society; for instance, during the time of the French revolution, the tricolore represented the ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality while Jacques-Lois David's Oath of the Horatii and The Death of Marat were also representative of the ideas of their times.
Some books that I have found extremely helpful in shaping my thinking about art within a Reformed Christian position. They are:
- Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible
- Hans Rookmaaker (Complete Works, 6 volumes). He's a close friend of Schaeffer and a art historian. This entire series can be found in the reference section of the Hong Kong Central Library. I know it because I found it there the other time (two years ago though:)
- Jeremy Begbie, Voicing Creation's Praise: Towards a Theology of the Arts.
- Nicholas Wolterstorff, Art in Action (this book is considerably denser than Schaeffer's work, but its brilliant, especially in its arguments for art as having a legitimate, even necessary place in everyday life).
- Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker (first-rate work examining the nature of art, particularly within literature, and its relevance to human existence, the image of God, the Trinity, free will and evil!)
- Gene Edward Veith, State of the Arts (a good primer for starters, simple yet thought-provoking)
posted by Benjamin Ho at
8:44 AM
1 Comments
