As part of my attempt to think again about books and their purpose and proper use, I re-read my art paper from December 2013, written during my year at Augustine College. The task was to write about art and the Christian: how the Christian approaches art, what it is supposed to do for the Christian and how it should then be used. The term 'art' referred to here is painting, sculpture and architecture, but if we think of art as something created by man and used as a tool to show what is good, true and beautiful then certainly literature and the proper use of writing would be included. Thus the sentiments expressed could equally be applied to how the Christian approaches reading and to his use of books.
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Art And The Christian
Art is made up of many
diverse categories of created things which man makes in his search for beauty,
meaning and truth, and its role in culture varies widely. For Christians especially art takes on a
different role than simply enjoyment and pleasure. Art is, in the Biblical
sense, the traits and attributes of God in manmade forms, which leads us to the
giving of divine order to the temporal world. As humans are the image-bearers
of God, representing humanity and making
God present, we think of what was said at the very beginning “’Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness.”’[1] We
make God present in us as humans through being what we were made to be, and in
creating art we also attempt to make images of people and things so that we can
glimpse God through them being what they were made to be. Art as the making of
images through which we see the Creator, then, cannot be completely constrained and regulated for
Christians due to the diversity within art in its forms, the artist’s
intentions in creating a piece of art, the state of the mind and heart which
views the artwork and the way in which God chooses to reveal Himself.
In trying to decide what makes good art, in
the qualities which good art should possess, and in guiding a Christian’s
aesthetic, art has some general properties which should be considered. The
intention of the artist to manifest the attributes of God in created works of
art ought to be an essential property, not an accident, of art’s nature for
Christians, and as a tool art should do what it was created to do. Deciding on
what the correct view of art, then, is fraught with difficulties for Christians.
Certainly it leans heavily on background, religion, culture, individual
experience and other factors, with what is sacrilege to one person being sound
doctrine to another, so to speak.
However, if in looking
at art we soon decide through personal taste what we call good art for
Christians, then something is perhaps amiss, the aim of art being not to please
us, but to manifest God and draw us closer to Him. Art is a tool for doing
something, not pleasing someone, so when we look at art it is to be through the
eyes of reasoned thought about what art is for and what it is doing, not simply
how it makes us feel, or whether we like or dislike it. We have a duty to art
to look at it in an appropriate way, as charitable viewers, not merely seeking to
gain pleasure from it. As humans it is in our nature to disregard what we do
not like, not considering that there is more to art than meets the eye.
In deciding by what art
should be judged, then, consider verses like Philippians 4:8 and 1 John 2:15.
First, we are to chase after “whatever is true, whatever is honourable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is
commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.”[2] We
know that human things are transient and the human mind very changeable and
fickle, and yet we still chase after worldly ideas of beauty, meaning and truth.
What feels right and what is comfortable in art does not help us to the proper
end of art. Instead, Christians ought to seek for things that are honourable,
pure, lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise, by God’s standard in the Bible
through the things in which we see God manifested.
Art is a tool, as has
been established. It is created to do something, not simply to provoke a
reaction, or display an artist’s skills, but to hit a particular chord in a
human being. It has, then, a role to play in the Christian life. A part of
human nature is revealed in good art, something that transcends styles,
schools, periods, particular artists or any other thing in art, and which shows
us holiness in a way which other mediums cannot. God manifested in art is
beauty, truth and meaning all in a work of man in stone, paint or some other
medium. So we should look instead for the good in art, for the qualities of
images which we as image bearers use to transcend our natural limitations and
see God manifest in His creation. Art at its best overcomes the natural
barriers which separate us from God and allow us to see His image more clearly
in ourselves. Like any tool, however, art can be used in wrong ways and to the
wrong ends. Art can also have many forms and its truth and the purpose in which
art does what it was created to do can pass us by if we are not mentally and
spiritually equipped to come into contact with it. Equally, art can mislead and
misrepresent God and distort His images and image-bearers if not used properly.
A building like the
cathedral of Notre-Dame at Chartres, erected between 1145 and 1250 AD, for
example, a cathedral covered inside and out with images, in stained glass, in
stone carvings and over the doorways, all of which are calculated and
well-thought out attempts to represent not just the Biblical stories, but also
the ideas and concepts of theology which form the foundation of Chartres in
stone, and of the faith of generations of people. Natural light on the inside
makes another powerful statement in space and time about God and about the mind
which can rise through material surroundings to truth. God is made present in
the cathedral through the images of nature, humanity and Biblical truth, both
that which we can grasp, and that which is still beyond us. Taking then the
idea that art is God manifest in images made of creation and intended to make
Him present, we see that the cathedral, at least, causes images to be used to
express God and His perfect creation in imperfect and human terms, but,
nonetheless, in ways with which we as humans with our feet on the ground can
engage with and be raised to a glimpse of God through.
Contrast this with a
more modern work, The Lights Going On And
Off[3],
which has no real majesty, no clamouring statues to proclaim God present, or
any deliberate attempt to manifest God in an image. There is a use of space and
light, certainly, but something is missing. There is no truth or meaning for
the light to illuminate or raise us from the material to the divine. There are
no images in which to glimpse God and see Him manifested, no symbols or
signposts to the divine except what empty walls and doorways tell us. Even the
light which features so heavily is artificial, man-made, and controlled, and
would seem rather to subdue our spirits than raise us to truth. It does not
make God manifest, unless we think of Him as a celestial being on whom we can
call when in need and ignore the rest of the time, like controlling the light
switch of a room.
Another powerful
example would be the painting Myra,
by Marcus Harvey[4],
which is made up of children’s handprints and depicts a murderess. As a human
being she was given the image of God, but did not act as a human being was
created to act, and so holiness is absent in her image reproduced for the art
gallery. The artist’s motive in creating the work was certainly not to make God
present, but more probably to trigger a reaction from the viewer. Juxtapose
that painting with the images in The
Wilton Diptych[5],
especially the image of Mary. We do not know the exact intentions of the artist
in painting her, but there is something there which catches our attention. She
is neither proud, nor defiant, nor unapproachable, but she shows the qualities
and attributes of God and a human being doing what she was created to do in her
humble stance and bowed head. She bends her head in supplication, holding the
Christ child, as the Mother of the Church.
Thinking, then, about
what art is for, the purpose it serves and the correct way of using it, we come
back to the idea of God being made manifest in art, as He is made manifest in
us, His image-bearers. The individual Christian has a duty both to himself and
to art itself to view and use art in ways which honour God as the Original,
himself as the image-bearer and the artwork as an image created by human hands.
We cannot impose strict limits on art as it is such a wide and varied field,
but we ought to use it properly ourselves, remembering that good art makes
Christ present and the hand of the Father as the Creator known, even as it
should also faithfully attempt to represent what has been given us in the
world. The intention of the artist should be to create his best likenesses of
the images he sees in the world, making the Creator known in His creation,
while the viewer of art’s intentions should be to see what God has done, to
revel in His images and to faithfully bear what has been given us to bear. Yes,
art can teach, and yes, art can be used to illustrate theology for the masses,
so to speak, but its first duty is to the one who made it possible for art to
be created and to His creatures.
[1] Genesis 1:26a, Holy Bible,
English Standard Version, Crossway Bibles, 2001.
[2] Philippians 4:8, ibid.
[3] Martin Creed, The Lights Going On And Off, 2000.
[4] Marcus Harvey, Myra, 1997.
[5] The
Wilton Diptych, Richard II Presented to the Virgin and
Child by his Patron Saint John the Baptist and Saints Edward and Edmund, 1395.
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