This is part one in a series on Art Philosophy. Stay tuned for Parts Two and Three!
What is Art? I’ve read and thought about it for weeks, but it's still a vague concept. A few years back, I read a blogpost by Justin Taylor that summarised an essay by Leland Ryken asking if The Scarlet Letter is a “Christian book”. What does that even mean, that label of “Christian”? As Justin Taylor said about “Christian bands”, “Bands don’t have souls.” What makes a book “Christian” or not? Are Christians only allowed to look at “sanctified paintings” and not all the rest? I have always been taught that while I should have discernment, avoiding books or movies that aren’t 100% perfect means I’m missing good Art.
Recently, I read The Christian Imagination: Essays on Literature and the Arts. At first, it looked imposing, but once I started reading it, it became one of my favorite books. It opened up the idea of Art Philosophy. What is Art? What is “Christian Art”? How do I create Art? How do I enjoy Art?
First off, Art isn’t just painting and sculpture. What we are taught in Art class doesn’t encompass it all, although visual Arts like painting and sculpture can be Art. As a writer, I am keenly aware that writing can be Art, but because we separate English class from Art class, we think of writing as only a science and not an Art. We learn “music appreciation”, but we often don’t realise that music can be Art. I am not the biggest music person, but I enjoy good music. Drama is an obvious example of Art, but we often don’t even think about it. Dance can also be an Art form (Why Swing Dance). Even architecture can be Art. A well-built cabinet or countertop can be Art. Filmmaking is the combination of many types of Art: for instance, a script must be written, a set built (or dressed up), acting, photography… My friend Nathan recently created a short film titled Flipped Justice that is an amazing example of Art. If I use a lot of examples of writing-art in this piece, it is only because I am more familiar with it. (For more on different types of Art, check this out.)
Now that I’ve established a few types of Art, or rather that Art isn’t confined to a few types, I need to explain why I keep saying that each thing “could be” Art. Art isn’t an object, creation, performance. Painting can be Art, but not every painting is Art by definition (some paintings are propaganda, for example). Art is something deeper. A poem is not at heart a piece with rhyme and rhythm: a poem is a way to view the world. I still haven’t completely figured out what Art is, and I cannot offer a complete list of Art’s attributes, but let me offer what I’ve figured out so far.
One of the most important things I learned in The Christian Imagination is that salvation is not Art’s only goal. Non-religious Art is just as valuable, because people are wholistic beings: although our souls are an important part of our beings, we also have physical needs, emotions, etc. If God made the ocean, then the ocean is worth writing poetry about. If God made trees, trees are worth drawing a picture of. If God made emotions, emotions are worth writing a song about. If our goal is only to support “religious” Art, we also forget that “religious” doesn’t just mean Christian.
As Christians and Artists, we are called to use our gifts to share Christ, but that doesn’t mean every story we write should end with the character praying the sinner’s prayer. Not only is that a skewed view of salvation, but it is also cheesy, untrue (not realistic), and will audiences. Obviously, the cheesiness turns away unbelievers, but even as a Christian myself, the unoriginality and lack of creativity in that just screams, The author couldn’t dream up a better, more edifying ending! Don’t get me wrong: I get excited when souls decide to follow Christ! But instead of writing a story about a character who prays a prayer, write a story about a character who makes a decision, or maybe a character who decides to live life his own way (like King Saul). Praying the prayer has become the new "happily ever after". Just compare this to the Bible: although the end of Revelation is “happily-ever-after”, it is not happily-ever-after for every “character”.
As I said, we are wholistic creatures. Yes, I am called to share Jesus. But, more than that, God calls me to create good Art. Again we ask: What is good Art? Even things created by unbelievers can be Art. In fact, because Christians have gotten stuck in the “religious Art” rut, unbelievers often create better Art than we do, and that’s a shame. When I see “Sunday School Musical” and “Guitar Praise” in a Christian bookstore, I roll my eyes. What did Paul say about not copying the world around us? God calls us to use what He has given us: part of Imago Dei is the ability to create. Art doesn’t have to be 100% original (you can create a response to something, for instance), but Art seeks to tell truth in a creative way. God told us to sing a new song. Creativity, then, is a criterion for Art.
E. M. Forster said the goal of a story is to make the reader wonder, what happens next? Art is no good if our hearts aren’t captured by it. Art doesn't mean just fiction, either. Even the essayist needs to hook the reader’s attention. My goal in this essay is to teach you something and change your thinking. But how can I accomplish that if I don’t get your attention? First, I’ve got to hook you.
Then I’ve got to keep you. Every time you go back to a good painting, there is something more to see. Good music is always fresh. The good movies are timeless; bad movies are disposable. Good books are worth reading over and over because there is so much there. If a book isn’t worth reading again, was it really worth reading the first time? You need to engage good Art again and again because it is deep enough to make you think and has subtleties you may not see the first time. This quality of good Art is something like transcendency. The first time I listened to Josh Garrels, it felt like something from a long-lost childhood memory of Heaven. Another word for this is inevitability: once you experience Art, you can’t imagine the world without it. Good Art points to something bigger than itself.
Art is supposed to pull us in, run us around, and spit us out. Good books, movies, paintings, and dramas change the way we think. Sometimes, we take our responsibility to be discerning too seriously and become wary to let anything influence our thinking. Even if I don’t agree with the worldview in a movie, I can still acknowledge it was a well-written story with good acting. Let Art move you. When we say that all truth is God’s Truth, we mean that in everything there is a longing for Something, and since we know Who that Something Is, we can see (often better than the Artists themselves) what the Art they create points toward. We can see good Art and recognise it as such--because it is "good", it has excellence about it.
***
Next time, tune in as I continue to discuss Excellence in Art. I'll also bring up how to engage Beauty and Evil in Art. Check back next Wednesday!
Next time, tune in as I continue to discuss Excellence in Art. I'll also bring up how to engage Beauty and Evil in Art. Check back next Wednesday!
I've been on a journey to discover what Art is. As part of that journey, I dreamed up a crazy scheme: I'm going to write a book in two months. That's right, from October 1 to November 30 I'm taking a "Haiku-a-Day" challenge: each day I will write at least one haiku and a few related paragraphs of text. By the end of November, I will have a 60-page book that's a cross between a haiku anthology, a journal, a devotional book, and something else. I'm not sure exactly how it's going to end up, but I'd love to have you join the project! Click on the link below to view a preview of the Indiegogo campaign for the book. Remember, it goes live October 1!
Thank you for this post! I must admit, I've definitely fallen for the "you're a Christian, so all your work must be obviously Christ-centered" lie. I've taken up and given up fictional endeavors over the feeling of obligation to write only Christian characters, or will-become-Christian characters. But as you pointed out, that's so unrealistic and unoriginal! There's so much that I can do with a character without a single reference to Christianity or religion at all, that maybe I cannot do by making them the perfect coming-to-Christ model. Thanks for the reminder that true art encompasses more than the religion part of being a Christian. I do believe that the characters or stories that I write have the potential to point others toward Christ, even if I don't directly mention Him.
ReplyDeleteI must point out, though, that more often than not, great Story involves redemption. Rarely does someone want to read a book/watch a movie about a character who beats all odds and overcomes every challenge just to walk away from victory or reveal him/herself to be, well, a total jerk. I don't believe that you speak against this here, but you do mention that realistically, not everyone has a happy ending. I agree. That's true. It seems, though, that there is a definite tension between reality/believability, and Story. Sometimes the lines there must be blurred to produce a truly Great work (look at Les Miserables or the Lord of the Rings). Moral of the story - writing well is challenging! But it's a good challenge.
Thanks four your thoughts here. I can't wait to read part two.
I wrote a book in eighth grade, and it had nothing to do with God or Christianity. When people at my church started buying copies, I felt guilty. I thought I should've incorporated my faith in it. A few weeks later, I remember one of the ladies from my church complementing me on it. She said it was amazing how I clearly displayed my morals and beliefs in the story. I think that's interesting. It's kind of like when you are a witness through your actions, instead of your words. Simply the way my characters interacted was a testimony to my faith.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a book in eighth grade, and it had nothing to do with God or Christianity. When people at my church started buying copies, I felt guilty. I thought I should've incorporated my faith in it. A few weeks later, I remember one of the ladies from my church complementing me on it. She said it was amazing how I clearly displayed my morals and beliefs in the story. I think that's interesting. It's kind of like when you are a witness through your actions, instead of your words. Simply the way my characters interacted was a testimony to my faith.
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your comments. It's encouraging to hear that these ideas strike a chord with someone. I'm excited to share the second part of this What is Art piece on Wednesday. I hope it will help answer your questions.
ReplyDelete