Toward a Biblical Aesthetic

Despite the ever-swelling list of literary works which testify to the endeavor on the part of evangelicals to relate philosophy, sociology, psychology, and other fields to twentieth century Christian living, the relation of biblical teaching to human artistic endeavor continues to be a neglected area of thought. The pages of the Old and New Testaments abound with evidence that an aesthetic attitude of a special kind is characteristic of God’s people. It involves not only the arts per se, but a quality of living which, in Christian thought, distinguishes a human being created in the image of God from an animal.

Today evangelical Christianity is faced with the urgent task of providing the world with a real alternative to materialistic living—whether Western or Marxist. The present century needs a comprehensive demonstration of the biblical truth that man is not intended by his Creator to “live by bread alone.” In such a context the Christian artist finds his mission and his opportunity to serve contemporary society. His task is to develop an aesthetic based on biblical truth and Christian experience, which will utilize his powers in contending for Christ through the broad approaches of the visual arts, music, the theater, architecture, and other phases of artistic expression.

Modern iconoclasm among Christians, needful as it has been against the abuses of certain movements, has often been so reactionary that the creation and interpretation of true, dedicated Christian art have been utterly stifled. Instead of encouraging Christian men and women who have talent and ability in artistic pursuits, evangelicals have consistently made one of three common errors in their relationships with young artists: 1. they have directed them to schools of aesthetic experience which have no appreciation for the Christian beginning-point in philosophic expression or cultural attitude; 2. they have advised them to restrict their efforts to “religious” art; or 3. they have discouraged them entirely by implying that artistic impulses are from the evil one.

THREE COMMON ERRORS

It is disturbing that the young people who have succeeded in artistic endeavors and those who have formed conclusions regarding the function of art in the total Christian experience, have done so usually with the help of scholars who entertain no decided Christian convictions. Two options are thereby open to them. The students can follow thinkers whose naturalistic tendencies lead to an inevitable relativism in aesthetic value judgments; or they can follow artists and authors who begin by making idealistic assumptions. In the first instance there is the danger that relativism will have repercussions in ethical judgments made by the same individuals. In the second case, while relativism and its dangers are avoided and there is a more stable basis for the assessment of the worth of a given piece of art, the idealistic approach robs the Christian student of an intellectual integration of his ethical and aesthetic values, and fails to relate to his actual faith in its initial assumptions.

Those who would restrict Christians to “religious” art are also guilty of a damaging error. They are like the Christians who imagine that evangelism is a program that confines itself to inviting people to church. They are reluctant to wrestle with true-life people in their own habitat. Religious art is a field of rich possibility to be sure, but it touches only the hem of the garment of the aesthetic experiences of human beings. The ostrich-like approach has characterized too many aspects of fundamentalist outlook. As a result, the great movements in the history of art have been supremely ignored because they have taken place outside the specifically “religious” category. A truly evangelical point of view, on the other hand, exempts no human experience from study and evaluation because it is considered “unreligious.” The symphonies of Beethoven, the literature of Shakespeare, and the art creations of Picasso are not all specifically religious in conception, but they cannot therefore be exempted from the realm of legitimate Christian inquiry.

By linking art with the demonic, some evangelicals have displayed a fundamentalist attitude which has been correctly criticized by liberal theology and philosophy. The ‘counselors’ who endeavor to move young people away from their innate interest in the arts because they do not foresee how such a vocation can make any contribution to the cause of God’s Kingdom, have robbed contemporary society of an influence which could have made a worthy and needful addition to the total witness of twentieth-century Christianity. Such an attitude is related to the fear of scholarship and philosophy typical of the anti-intellectualism of certain fragments of Christianity, and has abandoned the field to the anti-Christian forces in the battle for the minds and spirits of men. To dodge the problem, to default the issue, and to argue that art has nothing to do with the battle is to ignore the true nature of he human species.

The aesthetic area is one where the evangelical position is highly vulnerable. Christians may hold to a highly stable definition of values in ethical thinking, yet superficially tolerate a highly relativistic attitude toward aesthetic values. To say that this is axiological inconsistency is the kindest sort of understatement. It would seem that a careful study of value judgments in art, biblically oriented, on the part of evangelical scholars, and a fresh consideration of the problem by Christian ministers and laymen, is one of the great needs of our day.

Younger Christian students need encouragement and motivation if they are to wrestle realistically with the aesthetic problems and needs of our times and not surrender in desperation to a watered-down idealism or to naturalism in aesthetic philosophy. For the Christian student who is seeking to give glory to Christ, any art philosophy erected upon a naturalistic or idealistic rationale is an altar built of unregenerate material. The stones may be pure gold, but the sacrifice is unacceptable. Let those who are in covenant relationship with Christ raise to him a sanctified altar of dedicated, Spirit-filled artistic accomplishment. When the problem is taken seriously, a serious gap in evangelical thinking will be closed.

Captive

To escape the tenacious pleadings Of a patient God has been impossible.

He gives so much, pursues relentlessly.

He never tires,

But wearies the mind, the heart, the conscience Until at last the weariness is rest,

The emptiness is filled,

The disappointment gone.

God is Victor!

Captive in Christ.

ROBERT WINSTON ROSS

Samuel M. Shoemaker is the author of a number of popular books and the gifted Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. He is known for his effective leadership of laymen and his deeply spiritual approach to all vital issues.

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