Refiner’s Fire: Pre-evangelism through the Arts: Are We Missing Out?

Christians are making little effort to counter the secular impact of the graphic arts on our culture.

When the first-century church went out to evangelize, it was a different world than the one we try to reach today. The good news, with its message of forgiveness and salvation through grace, must have been good news indeed to many first-century Jews. What is more, they already understood the concept of a personal God. They were even expecting a Messiah. The pagan world, too, had an understanding of the supernatural.

Today, the good news is now old news. Our culture is the antithesis of Christianity. Humanism, with its emphasis on the sovereignty of man, is a great barrier to Christianity. Another barrier is the rationalistic dualism of Descartes. To put it simply, most popular secular thought concerns that which can be perceived by the senses and understood rationally. The Christian world view opposes those ideas. Add to that subjective morality, materialism, nihilism, and so forth. The gospel needs to be explained as well as proclaimed; the prima facie cases against Christianity are too numerous.

The point here is that if people in the first century were ready to respond to the gospel, people in the twentieth century are not. You cannot tell someone that God loves him if he does not believe in God. You cannot tell someone his sins are forgiven him if the word means nothing to him. Yet these truths must be told. But to do it we must prepare the ground; without that we cannot reap the harvest.

How do we go about it? One important way is through the arts. Many people now take literature, the visual arts, music, theater, film, and television more seriously.

Film, in particular, is considered one of the most important forces for change in this country. Television is also important, and together, these two, film and television, offer images of life that are much more accessible than reality itself. Because of that, those images become reality for the masses. No one film or television program can single-handedly shape a new public consciousness, although some have succeeded significantly. The subtlety of such films as Cousin Cousine, where adultery is justified, glorified, and normalized, penetrates our moral consciousness. In this film, morality and adultery are not part of the same issue. Television programs often deliberately attempt to shape our moral views. For example, in an episode of “All in the Family,” the cause of gay rights was sanctioned and homosexual marriage accepted.

Other films attack Christianity itself: M*A*S*H, Marjoe, The Magic Christian, and In the Name of the Father. Even films where everyone charmingly lives happily ever after present their characters as doing so without God. The Hiding Place is, of course, encouraging, but the effect of one film on the whole of the mass media is minimal. We need more films by Christians, and these will have to be subsidized by the church and other Christian organizations. No commercial company or producer will produce Christian films unless they become “popular.”

In literature, Christianity fares somewhat better than it does in the mass media. We have T. S. Eliot, Flannery O’Connor, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and W. H. Auden, for example. The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia clearly and gracefully depict courage, purity, valor against impossible odds, and honor. The works of Charles Williams go further, reminding the twentieth century that there is a spiritual realm, and Lewis’s space trilogy convinces readers of the potential for evil within that realm. But the grotesque modern human condition can be understood best through the reading of such secular authors as Kafka, Lawrence, Miller, or Beckett. And we should admit that with dismay. Where are the Christian writers who can penetrate the bewilderment of the soul? Where are the Christian writers who can explain and answer issues?

The same thing can be said of all the other arts. Visit any gallery of contemporary paintings and you come away with a true feeling for angst. Or look at the screaming “portraits” of Francis Bacon: you will understand more about despair and alienation from them than could be conveyed by any essay. Is there a reason why the conditions of hope and reconciliation could not be presented with as much depth and power?

I cannot say too strongly that Christians should be involved in the arts. But we should understand each art form in terms of its possibilities and limitation—a difficult task. Art is complex and there are few experts among us. Nevertheless, we must begin. We should not, however, exploit art as if to justify our involvement in it. Art may be prophetic, even didactic, but never propagandists. If it is, our art will be insincere and third-rate.

Art can be a quiet witness, in the same way that an individual Christian life can be. In such media as the novel or film we can put the truth into words. But that does not mean using a heavy-handed or contrived plot. Subtle nuances speak more powerfully. The greatest art, after all, was created by those who valued something far greater than their art. How much more should we be able to contribute, knowing the highest value of all?

James L. Hodge directs Still Point Films, Inc., in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts.

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.