Arts: Religious Practice
Art has a lot to do with religion. Most of the ‘art-works’ unearthed by archaeologists link in with some religious practice or other. Until recent times the church was the most important patron of the arts. Contemporary artists regularly discuss their work in ’spiritual’ terms.
The reason for this link is that both art and religion are energized by the human need to worship. We naturally call attention to the things we feel important and worthwhile. Our word ‘worship’ comes from ‘worth-ship’. The artist strives to present in a specific way the things he values, whether they are in the spontaneous brushwork of a watercolour or in the distilled language of a love poem. He invariably has a reverence for his art form. Because artistic symbols, like money, can become devalued, the artist struggles to express his insights in new ways. He will often consciously reject expressions which seem worn or easy.
Yet the artist’s creation is never really new. Earlier centuries reserved the word ‘create’ for God alone, as his is the only creation out of nothing. The artist makes neither his raw materials nor the hand which manipulates them. Even his mind is not truly his own, but a gift. The artist ‘creates’ by bringing together existing things, ideas or symbols. He is dependent for source material on nature and the culture he lives in.
The artist and his times
We cannot understand the arts apart from the culture in which the artist is working. Obviously each age has seen its own art as ‘modern’. Work which we deem traditional may once have been experienced as shockingly new, as an assault on the traditions of that time.
As an artist expresses his values he can hardly help but express to some extent the philosophy of his day. Hence the art of the eighteenth‑century Enlightenment was sombre, rational and optimistic, reflecting humankind’s faith at that period in its own potential. Similarly the diversity and complexity of our own age is apparent in the baffling variety of art produced, much of which seems motivated by disillusionment.
Because new art forms often appear to threaten existing values, many people regard them with suspicion. Christians have been particularly prone to do this. At various times in church history the attitude to the arts has been positively hostile.
Some Christians have argued that our proper priority is our relationship to God, and that the arts are either a superfluous luxury or a dangerous distraction. The Bible’s clear injunction against idolatry has been invoked, not only to prohibit pictures of Christ but also against any kind of art. Calvin thought that music contributed to the life of the church, but found drama hazardous because of its power to mislead.
Many artists have been outspoken in their criticism of Christian values and traditions, and this has confirmed some
Believers in their conviction that no good can come from getting involved in the arts.
This tension between the material world and spiritual obedience is not easily resolved. There is no doubt that the current climate of the arts does pose problems. Present art-philosophy leans towards the view that the artist’s creative liberty is absolute. Money complicates the issue too. The art market is so dominated by finance that success and value are too narrowly understood.
These factors emphasize the secularization of art, as well as the importance granted it by our society. Because art is increasingly specialized and inaccessible, artists are regularly accused of being elitist. Observers have repeatedly written about the ‘crisis’ in the arts, claiming that there is no direction for our age.
Creativity: human and divine
Christians noting the state of the arts are often tempted to dismiss this whole area of life. Others argue for a Christian involvement in the arts. The Bible says very little specifically about the arts apart from condemning idolatry — a warning which certainly is relevant to today’s art. Yet there is, at the heart of Bible belief, a powerful encouragement to the artist.
The character of God, as seen both in the Bible and in creation, shows an overwhelming imagination. God’s world is full of surprises, not the least of which is humankind’s ability to make new things. The variety of the ways God has expressed himself is boundless, which demonstrates how interested he is in material things. It is his character to express himself; the earth shows the work of his hands.
God commands men and women to make use of these things, to explore and utilize creation. Humankind has a role in God’s world as manager. This is not a passive role, but requires imagination, sensitivity, action. This means that the purpose of culture is both ‘to make the world a better place’ and also to return to God with interest the gifts he has given to humanity. That interest is collected as we put God’s gifts to work.
The person who feels called to be an artist is privileged. He has a vocation in which there is a large element of play. The hard work of artistic expression is a different sort of work from most forms of labour — not superior or inferior to plumbing, but different.
The artist’s curiosity can motivate others to discover and explore the significance of the world. The artist can introduce new insights into our regimented and predictable social order; he can make us more aware of the subtleties of life. The artist’s responsibility is to feed our imaginations, and so deepen our appreciation of what it is to be human.
The arts today
A recurrent theme of twentieth- century art has been the hopelessness of human affairs. And yet paradoxically another major theme in modern art has been more optimistic: the hope that art itself might provide an escape from the confusion of life.
Neither the pessimist nor the optimist can be wholly right. An art which is obsessed with art itself quickly becomes introspective and loses its driving force. And yet, when artists give their sole attention to the absurdity of the human condition, they fail to account for the wonder and beauty in the world.
The imaginative poetry of the Psalms makes a strong contrast to all this. These poets stress that all creation stands in relationship to its Creator: hills clap their hands, blizzards sing.
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Arts: Religious Practice
