A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words
Christian art appreciation

by Michael Wagner

First published in Reformed Perspective in September 2005. Used with permission.

In the busy day-to-day lives of many people the arts may seem like an afterthought. The arts appear to be trivial compared to the need to support and care for one’s family. Besides, things like sculpture and painting are not particularly interesting to some folk. The arts are for others, perhaps “high society” people.

Music, movies, painting and more

However, when considered broadly, it turns out that everybody appreciates at least some of the arts. Wheaton College professor Leland Ryken mentions this in his book The Liberated Imagination: Thinking Christianly About the Arts (WaterBrook Press, 1989): “Everyone in our culture indulges his or her artistic sense, even if it consists simply of painting the walls of a room or listening to popular music or singing hymns. The question is not whether we need the arts but rather what the quality of our artistic experiences will be” (p. 60).

Generally speaking, people enjoy the arts because the arts add pleasure to life. Like listening to music, for example. Many people will have background music playing while trying to accomplish some task or other. But the arts, including music, can do more for people than simply providing pleasure. “The overwhelming majority of people hang paintings or go to a concert or attend a play because they wish to be refreshed and to receive some type of enjoyment. In the process, they are usually edified or intellectually enriched as well. The entertaining and edifying functions of art are complementary, not incompatible” (p. 89).

Sometimes clichés are true

If the arts were only for entertainment and pleasure they could still be justified on that basis, although only to a limited degree. But the fact that the arts can be intellectually enriching provides a much more significant justification than pleasure and entertainment.

Art attempts to communicate a view about human life or some aspect of human life. Meaningful art can effectively convey a message, even a powerful message, about its subject. For example, there are paintings of First World War battle scenes which clearly demonstrate the horrendous conditions under which soldiers had to survive. One could also read written descriptions of these muddy battlefields, but the paintings can communicate the same information more profoundly. It’s kind of like the cliché, “a picture’s worth a thousand words.”

Viewing one such painting is a “visual experience” and that experience can instruct the viewer. Similarly, one can have a visual experience by watching a realistic war movie. The characters in the movie don’t have to tell the audience “war is a horrible thing” because the audience absorbs that message simply by viewing the events of the movie, death, destruction, etc. The same kind of phenomenon occurs in theatre.

The important point here is that the arts can communicate important ideas in their own way. “The truth that the arts give us is different from that of the scientific and intellectual disciplines. The artist aims to present human experience, not simply to theorize abstractly about it. The truth that the arts give us is a ‘living through’ of an imaginative experience. It is an experiential knowledge or truth” (p. 135).

An artist tries to get people to focus on something he or she thinks is important. The artist tries to provide a lens through which his audience will view his subject. His painting, play, sculpture, film or song, will present his view on an issue he values. Taken together, the arts collectively express the mindset of a culture at a particular time, at least in some sense. Ryken notes that “The arts are the most accurate index to human preoccupations, values, fears, and longings that we possess. If we wish to know what it means to be a human in this world, we can go to the stories, poems, songs, and paintings of the human race” (p. 132).

Every artist has a worldview, and to varying degrees, then, all art conveys a worldview. A Christian artist would, of course, want to convey the Christian worldview. But it is important to note that for art to be Christian it does not have to focus on a blatantly “religious” subject, such as angels or church buildings. “The Christian faith has something to say about all of life, and Christian artists must subject all of life to the light of their faith. A Christian artist is Christian, not by virtue of his or her subject matter, but by virtue of the perspective that is brought to bear on the subject” (p. 210).

Moral vs. immoral art

A lot of art, especially modern art, does not convey a Christian worldview. However, some of it can still convey generally positive messages. Ryken points to the important distinction between moral and immoral art. “Moral art is art that recommends moral behavior for approval and that stimulates an audience to behave morally. Immoral art offers immoral behavior for approval and influences an audience to behave immorally” (p. 239). For example, there is some music (not necessarily Christian) that conveys positive messages about right living. But there is also music, such as much rock music, that exalts various aspects of wrong living.

Evil isn't an "off-limits" subject

It’s not the subject matter that distinguishes moral from immoral art, but the way that the subject is presented. “Moral art is not art that avoids evil as a subject but that finds ways to discredit evil and encourage good” (p. 248). Presenting unpleasant human experiences as they really are is called “realism” in art. This usually involves the ugly side of life. The Bible includes realism, such as incidents of violence and adultery, so realism is not illegitimate as such. However, realism can be used as an excuse to present depraved material. So realism is only legitimate when something evil is being presented as evil, and as something to be disapproved and avoided. This is how the Bible uses realism.

In a sense, the arts are an inescapable aspect of life. Everybody enjoys the arts, or at least some forms of the arts. Today, more than ever, the arts are all around us due to modern technology, CDs, DVDs, digital photography, etc. The arts can be effective means to communicate ideas, and thus good Christian art could be a meaningful tool for communicating a Biblical worldview. Christian artists are needed for this task. And other Christians who are aware of the power of the arts can support them in the task.