CAN WE HAVE A RENAISSANCE?
Or, what is wrong with Christian art?
I would like to put it to you that Christian art at present (apart from a tragically few notable exceptions) is mediocre, lacks courage, is looked down on by many Christians (never mind people in the world), and needs a revival. We need a renaissance amongst artists of the manifestation of the Spirit of God in their work. This, I would like to suggest, is not a difficult thing, and can be achieved by some key decisions and actions on the part of us, the artists. We need to die to our ideas, our achievements, and ourselves and allow God to use us as media through which to speak in whatever art form He has gifted us.
I suggest that Christian Art can be said to be either:
1. Art that is produced with a Christian or biblical basis, moral or ethic
2. Art that is produced by Christians to the Glory of God, possibly in order to praise Him or to communicate His message
The problem with definition no.1 is that you can produce art which fits this definition whether or not you are a spirit-filled Christian, and whether or not the Spirit of God is in the work. There have been many admirable and high-quality portrayals of bible stories on both stage and screen, for instance, produced by people in the world. Of course this work still holds a certain power, in that it is exposing the word of God to people, however it is lacking the powerful anointing carried by an artist who is truly operating under the Spirit of God.
The problem with definition no.2 is that even if you are a spirit-filled Christian artist producing work that fits this definition, it can still be, and usually is, mediocre. It also can be lacking the powerful anointing carried by an artist who is truly operating under the Spirit of God. These are the two problems I would like to tackle in this paper.
I think that Christians would all agree that Christian Art should be excellent far beyond imagination, but I would like to suggest that the reason for its artistic excellence should be because it has been conceived and inspired by the very Spirit of God. The reason for its material excellence (ie excellence in production, performance, execution, display etc) should be due to our own commitment, discipline and high standards.
Exodus 31:1-3
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the Tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts…’
I would like to suggest that Christian Art need not necessarily be evangelistic or even obviously biblical. God can choose to touch people however he wants to, and we should be open to His inspiration. This of course opens us to the problem of knowing whether our inspiration is from God or not. I can suggest two ways of resolving this question.
The first is to go to the Word of God, the Bible. In every way, our work should not breach any of the guidelines He has given us to live by (1Thess 4:1-12). Also, we should not in any way be seen to encourage worldly principles (1Thess 5:22, Avoid even the appearance of evil). So our work, and our methods, should be Godly.
We must look at the product – if it is of God it will be high quality, it will be excellent in every worldly sense. But it will also be more than that, it will have some intangible quality, capture something awesome, something not merely human – and that is the result of divine input.
It is my opinion that most Christian Art does not measure up to the two bench-marks of either excellence or divine inspiration. I have some good ideas as to why not. They are mainly to do with our lack of submission, and our striving to do things in our own strength.
I believe that one serious problem is that too often Christians and churches allow grace to excuse them from producing excellence. They know other Christians will ‘have a good report’, they know other Christians will encourage them. After all, when was the last time you saw a Christian approach another Christian and say ‘You know, I really don’t think your current work is up to scratch!’ The problem with this is that Christian artists are rarely challenged to reach higher levels, and they are too often encouraged to stay in the rut they are in, and continue to produce work at whatever level of mediocrity they are at. This is tragic when the Bible actually tells us to ‘speak the truth in love.’ Christians shy away from practising this scripture because too often it is used as an excuse to unfairly criticise people. But I pity the Christian artist who lives in blissful ignorance because no-one is brave enough to honestly and constructively critique their work.
We need to be encouraging discipline, and excellence in both spirit and deed in one another, as well as being encouraging. It is too easy to just encourage and not criticise constructively. Now of course this course of action is not easy and because of that it requires us to have a greater measure of sensitivity and wisdom. We also need to be teachable ourselves so that we can receive constructive criticism from others, and not cut ourselves off from growth from that source.
However I believe that the major problem that hinders us from creating work that truly glorifies God is that we have not truly died to ourselves. Some artists will be offended at my saying this, but consider – maybe we have done so in our personal life, but most often we have not done so in our art. Our own ideas still reign supreme, are too precious to us. We need to die to those things, and let God birth inspiration in us.
One reason for this is that we have learnt our art from worldly sources, people who draw on their angst or the extremes of contemporary culture to produce their art – but not on the Spirit of God. We must be careful that we are not drawing on our flesh to produce self-expression and then dedicating it to God. What we then discover as Christian artists is that we pray earnestly and sing ‘praise the Lord’ and then we go off try to think of how we can glorify Him in our art. And what we end up with is a human effort trying to portray the divine. This is why mediocrity reigns supreme; we cannot, in our human limitations, adequately express the supernatural qualities of a being outside our understanding.
So how do we tackle this problem? I suggest that we should be open as completely submitted channels to let God express himself through us. Not throwing away who we are but letting God take who we are and express Himself through our uniqueness – but using His power, not ours. So often we say ‘Lord, take my life, use me, mould me’ but we still approach our art as if God was looking on from the outside – ‘See, Lord, what I have done to praise you!’ When it should really be, ‘Lord, I am amazed at what you have done through me. It is so beautiful, so impacting, so truthful and so powerful that there is no way it could have come from me.’
I believe that the main cause of this crucial problem is that our insecurities and our subconscious baggage prevents us from being so completely submitted to God. Indeed living in that place of total submission is not easy and in fact is often painful. It involves acknowledging all the petty, ugly, truths about ourselves – for only if we allow His divine nature to penetrate so deeply can we be so submitted and consumed by His Spirit. This is a problem faced not only by artists but by every Christian who is serious about knowing God intimately, and is interested in much, much more than just playing church. There are reams of books written on this subject so I am not going to tackle it here. Suffice it to say that we need to be constantly on guard that this area of our life is functioning at the deepest level of honesty.
This, I believe is the crux of the matter. A lack of ego, and submersion in the Spirit of God, and a submission to God’s purposes, God’s timing, God’s ideas. Not that we should be paralysed and never do anything without seeing spiritual neon signs in the sky outlining our steps; no – we need to be wise. We need to be sure, with ruthless scrutiny, of where our motives lie, and where our ideas are coming from. Do not be afraid of losing your identity; God made you who you are for many good reasons, and one of those is that he can say things through you that will not be said through any other, in ways that are totally unique to you. He will not hijack your will, your ideas or your creativity. But he will explode them into new realms of beauty, effectiveness, and communication. He will take you on an amazing journey beyond your wildest imaginings; it is His promise:
‘Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.’ Ephesians 3:20-21