Theology and Art

You may recall in fairly recent years that a banana duct taped to a wall was sold for multiple millions of dollars as 'art'.

More recently an artist sold, well, actually it was nothing, for a pretty penny as well. The invisible sculpture sold for over 18,000 dollars.

Modern art has oftentimes been ridiculed by many for the very simple yet abstract shapes, with many saying "even I could do that!"

Even some landscape scenes far 'surpass' that of reality with gaudy over saturation and insane levels of detail that quite frankly don't exist in the real world.

So it begs the question: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

And what about documentary images? What I consider to be one of the greatest photos ever taken, is a shot taken place during a roundup of calves to castrate them. Not exactly a scene you want to remember, is it? Yet Sam Abell is a brilliant photographer and managed to make it a shot that is the epitome of composition in photography.

What I'm getting at is that, just like there is an absolute in morality, and how we approach worldview, I believe that theology also has something to say about what we consider both artistic as well as entertaining.

Just because we throw the label 'art' onto something, does not make it either artistic or morally acceptable.

I'd also argue though that just because a scene is not 'pleasant', does not make the art itself morally unacceptable.

How do we determine what is what?

I think Paul gives us a great guideline in Philippians 4:8:

"Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

Primarily I believe this is speaking of spiritual things, and what we are to base our lives on. But to a lesser degree I think it ought to inform our opinions on what we find enjoyable in the realm of entertainment and art.

I'll start with the area of entertainment as it is more evident in our lives.

What then should we allow to enter our minds through our eyes and ears, and even food into our mouths?

Well it should pass the test of what Paul has prescribed. Is it true? Should we allow untruth to fill our minds? I don't mean fiction, but should we be careful to watch shows and movies that promote wicked and untrue ideology? Is it honorable? Does it honor God and His Word? His image bearers? Is it pure? Is it filled with immorality? Is it lovely? Or does it promote that which is ugly as if it were good? Is it of good repute? Or does it elevate that which is evil? Is it excellent in what it displays as well as how it's made? Is it worthy of being promoted, of being shown as something good? Just some examples of how we can look at that verse to help us determine.

And of course I want to mention I'm not saying to be legalistic, each one has a conscience. But that should be fed by Scripture.

There are certain things that are just plain unacceptable for a Christian to partake in. Brutal violence designed to praise gore and brutality, explicit scenes, and senseless and vulgar language, and even elements of horror, that which is demonic, are all things that Christians need to be mindful of in what they find entertaining. But outside of that, I think it begins to fall into more of a conscience issue. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.

But what of art? What even is art? It's sad that in todays age art has really begun to go by the wayside. Most shows and movies aren't designed to be art, but to make a buck. And paintings, photography, drawings, etc. have really taken a back seat. And in this article I can't even begin to touch on music and written works.

But whatever you find to be art, let it be informed by Scripture as well. Is it a masterful use of technical expertise (like aforementioned photo by Sam Abell)? Does it evoke a sense of wonder and beauty? Does it tell a story worth telling?

Maybe a banana duct taped to a wall does all that. But I hardly find that to be something that requires any skill whatsoever. Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy that says "I could do that just as well!" But, and I'm not calling that sinful; I understand that sin infects everything, including our minds and how we think of these things.

But God created a beautiful world, and I think it's fair then to expect two things: that we as His image bearers also create beautiful things, whether it's in the work we do at a construction site or office, how we raise and nurture our families, or in artistic endeavors and in the entertainment field. Secondly, that He determines what truly is "art".