Outlook
Toward a Christian perspective on the arts

by Tim Gallant

Through the years, many Christians have disparaged the arts, thinking of them as "unspiritual" pursuits. It is "worldly" to concern oneself with matters of aesthetic beauty such as music, architecture, painting, and so on.

This, however, has not been the norm for the Church, and for good reason. The holy Scriptures give us good reason to celebrate the arts, to engage them passionately for the glory of God.

Scripture teaches us that God has created human beings as bodily creatures, and this embodied-ness (not to be confused with "fleshliness") is not treated as a misfortune. Indeed, the Bible teaches us to confess the resurrection of the body. Even death itself is therefore not a means of escape from the body, but a doorway toward its renewal and glorification.

Because we are embodied as the gift of God Himself, we are told to glorify God, not only in some invisible "spiritual" realm, but in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6.20).

Art at every step of the way

Although the first mention of music in the Bible is in connection with the wicked line of Cain (Genesis 4.21), the Scriptures nonetheless resonate with the God-given and God-mandated character of the arts. Indeed, the Holy Spirit was imparted to particular men for the specific purpose of granting them ability in the arts to prepare the tabernacle (Exodus 31.1-11). And the Davidic addition of music to the tabernacle's worship was a glorification (in this regard, see especially Peter Leithart's From Silence to Song).

The positive place of the arts is consistent at every salvation-historical stage of Scripture. This consistency must be factored in when constructing a Christian approach to the arts. In brief:

1. The initial creation involved a movement from disorder to order - a movement that entailed clearly aesthetic elements. It is God who created beauty, and as those explicitly fashioned after His own likeness, He surely intends for us to create beauty. And God Himself carries forward that example in His own literature, which includes a great deal of poetry and strikingly artistic prose.
2. Nor is the aesthetic concern a strictly Old Testament phenomenon, giving way to a "pure spirituality" in the New Testament. The early Church included music in its worship (e.g. 1 Corinthians 14.15b). Just as in the Old Testament, all that we do in word and deed is to be done for the glory of God (Colossians 3.17 - interestingly, this follows immediately on the heels of an injunction to sing).
3. The concern for beauty and glory is carried forward - indeed, brought to its climax - in the anticipated re-creation of all things. This is indicated by the glorious terms used to describe the New Jerusalem in Revelation 22. It is fundamentally taught in the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, which entails, not the removal of beauty, but the removal of everything that mars it. It is implied in the clear fact that the final state is spoken of as resonating with the sound of music.

Much more could be said along these lines, but this should suffice to show that the arts are a legitimate and desirable pursuit for the Christian.

But... what is "good art"?

It is one thing to recognize the desirability of such a pursuit; it is quite another to understand how we ought to go about that pursuit, or even to recognize its success or failure.

I am not an expert in the arts, and there are others who have given more sustained reflection to biblical principles relating to them, but to get us off on the right foot, here are a few things that seem to me to be clearly true, and offer us a general reference point:

1. Good art displays something of God.

   God is the original Creator; the very fact that human beings can create (albeit, not ex nihilo, from nothing) is itself a reflection back upon the one who made us. Therefore, good art is not merely self-referential; it is intended to point back to its original source.

   This, of course, is not to say that art must preach in the same way a sermon does. The so-called natural order is God's own artwork, and its revelation of Himself is not direct in the same way as are the Scriptures. It is therefore wrong to imagine that the only legitimate music is that which has lyrical content which speaks directly about God, or that the visual arts are justified only by portraying scenes from the Bible, or some such thing.

   What it does mean, however, is that consideration of God's own character ought to play a foundational role in our art-making. That character is revealed in a good many ways, and we can take many cues here from the creation itself, which tells the glory of God and declares His handiwork (Psalm 19.1). It is revealed in Scripture, and not only in the "cognitive truth" which we deduce from its words, but also in its shape and presentation. On a literary level, Scripture is what it is, as a collection of narratives, poetry, metaphors, and so on, because God is who He is. Thus, when we seek for our art to display something of God, we are not at all being restrictive or confining; we are opening up grand vistas for creativity.

2. Good art tells the truth.

   This, of course, is a corollary of (1): God is true; He is the ultimate reality; and that which displays Him therefore is a communication of the truth.

   Truth-telling in art is not quite the same thing as the notion that every artistic endeavour be a verbal communication of "facts". I recall that growing up, my father didn't like me to read novels, because they weren't "true". But this is a misunderstanding of what truth-telling involves; Jesus Himself told parables. And anyway, by that standard no non-verbal art could be legitimate, which is absurd.

   Nonetheless, good art tells the truth. A good novel takes account of mankind's fallen condition. A good piece of music tells the truth about aesthetics by echoing, in some way, the way God has fashioned beauty in the created order (see the next point for an example of this). Even "fantasy" literature can tell the truth effectively (think of C. S. Lewis's classic Chronicles of Narnia for a notable case in point).

3. Good art sustains a fine balance between surprise and order.

   We have noted already that the creation week was a process of bringing initial disorder to a state of order. Whenever something was brought to orderliness, it was then that God pronounced it good. This goes against the grain of a frequent contemporary attitude which assumes that creativity and order are natural enemies. Creativity involves the ability to develop order.

   Nonetheless, this order is not static and boring. Although I suppose that some would wish to say - perhaps even legitimately - that mathematics involve a sort of art, there is nonetheless a difference between mathematics and the creative arts. You don't generally want surprises in math; but creation aims for surprise. We can see this in the results of God's own creation. Stopping for a moment to survey the grandeur of natural beauty compels us to acknowledge a sense of wonder - even in the face of things which we have seen before, perhaps daily. And of course, there is surprise in the strange combination of amusement and beauty that can be found in many of God's creatures. Beauty is not the product of a syllogism; it involves order, but order comes into its own in creation only when it is balanced with something like surprise.

Once again, much more can be said - and I may periodically add and revise here - but hopefully these few half-developed thoughts will be of some help to you as you reflect upon - and appreciate! - the arts.