What is good art?
What is the difference between “Christian” and Non-Christian art? According to
Steve Turners book Imagine there isn’t correlation to good art and “Christian
art”, but true art that reflects
the absolute character of God – Christian Art. He points out that “A key issue in the strained
relationship between Christianity and the arts is the perceived division
between secular and sacred”(Turner p47). I agree with Turner and believe this
is a problem, and so many people run into this problem for number of reasons.
They draw a line through art and label it’s worth based on religious or secular
meaning, when in fact art should be looked at in a much different and larger
way. We need to be looking at the issue of creation and Christianity backwards.
There are some good reasons for this that turner helps point out in his book.
He explains that if you don’t understand God Made All and Owns All then you run into determining whether a song, book, painting, or sculpture is “Christian” or non-Christian… or what is to being “small minded”, instead of just asking if its good art. He says’s “Christian” art, in this sense, is usually either an aid to worship or a means of evangelism. Not surprisingly, it developed and flourished at a time when Christianity offered the commonly accepted explanation for life” (Turner p23). I agree with turner that this in itself is not “art”, nor is it Christian art, it is only one very finite example of “art” and especially finite I you label it “Christian” art. I also agree by saying, today’s “Christian” art alone is not good worship, its just evangelism and flaunted religion. It is not a true appreciation for the creation as a whole, the observable, existence… the expressible, - all what God made. So often we see that “Christian” = “Religious art” instead of actually Christian, or (to see all things can point to Gods Character).
I believe only when you know God do you truly know the fundamentals that come from his natural character which dictate good art, that are seen in nature, in the culture, in our human condition, and so much more. I believe Christianity is the only religion, which knows Him best, because we not only know him through observing nature as other religions do, but we also have His Word! So it should be that because we are Christian, it can all be identified through art so long as the Art is made of what we know to be fundamentally God's Character. In a sense I am saying all people know of God (whether they admit it or not), through the workings of nature. And from what I understand, to be Christian is to just see and accept more of these fundamentals then to be another religion or atheist. Anyone can recognize true beauty, (Overarching label of God). So it is not that non-Christian artists are wrong, that their art is bad, or that the artist is from another religion, but that the artist is limited in what he may be trying to express as beautiful – God's Character.
Its funny how Turner has helped me come to this conclusion. It is contradictory to what most artists in the world who are Christian see themselves to be, because most Christian artists believe to be constricted and limited. They can only sing about praise, only sing about worship, they throw in Bible versus because these things have become Christian. Christian artists are stuck to writing about only religiously/obsessive “Christian” subjects when they see everything else God is in, wanting to express that too. It is because they see it backwards, as I said earlier; good art is art that reflects God's character, which is what I listed earlier - good virtue, absolute morality, and truth. Also imprinted in nature because nature shares his thumbprint. Christians know God's character better then others because they have The Word and see nature according to His word – which is Christian – finding God's character and seeing it in everything. Unfortunately what I am getting at is, they only talk about The Word, that is what we know to be worship, and then we forget about nature and anything that is of nature is then secular, instead of labeled apart of Gods character/Thumb Print. Christian artists are not limited at all, they just need to take back this understanding.
As I understand it. When people take the light [of Jesus] they are able to see not just “a world” but a real world, a true world, a virtuous world, and they are able to take back this world because they have been given the power to do so. With the light of The Word at our feet we can begin walking again, step by step away from the fall. Unfortunately we don’t get to that part, when we get the Bible we stick to the Bible, we don’t go out and then begin exploring the world that was taken away from us, which we were blinded to. We just don’t see it this way. The world, or lady bugs, frogs, white fences, farms, guitars, poetry, automobiles [the capacity to create and then travel], romance, the rainforest, grassy plains, oceans, [scuba diving] adventure is all apart of the Lords creation. We don’t need to use “Christian” themes to express good art - like "swinging the flag of Jesus" in whatever we make [metaphorically speaking]. Even give art “Christian” undertones. We just need walk with confidence, courage, faith, and absolute certainty that we believe what we believe and then use every art form, express everything on earth, on this planet, to show why we see it to be Christian. Show the world why we believe God created this all, loves us, and walks with us. We don’t need to paint, or sculpt him literary, or write about him literally
Yet, artists not only have a hard time doing this, people have a hard time doing this because when you think Christian, you think "Jesus, Church, and Bible" - "Christian". You don’t think about the complexity of nature, the vastness of space, ladybugs, fields of flowers, you expect something in art to be a sermon, not the fingerprint of God. God made the world, God is of the world and the world is of God, although fallen, it has been redeemed through Christ and given a second chance to be seen in such a marvelous light. Through the candles he holds at our feet by his resurrection. So actually, we first need to acknowledge that Christian art is not something that reflects a sermon, or engages us in a transformation experience, Turner explains that Christian art can be photographing the shadow of a dollhouse, to photographing a river and great mountain landscape. Both of those things are in fact real and both of those things in themselves, not how the artists creates them to look, are a reflection of God. Everything that is good comes from God and should be sacred, not viewed as “Christian” or Non-Christian. The Christian artists must preserve everything that is good within the world. Everything we see the fingerprints of God on, which is 90% of creation. Everything that is evil [10%] must be destroyed - evil is what we know to be the opposite of good virtue, absolute morality, and Truth… opposite to the fundamental character of God which is observable by the things laid down before us, seen only through knowing the word and looking at nature, looking for the character.
