idea magazine

Talking about ... The Arts

July / August 2007

The arts affect us in ways that can be hard to fathom. It's not an intellectual matter; it goes much deeper than that. Art stirs our emotions with a force that statements of fact rarely achieve. We respond to the aesthetic dimension in a non-rational way. It is not irrational, but something besides rational thought processes are at work when we listen to music or look at a painting. Since the time of the Enlightenment (17th-18th centuries), rationalism dominated Western culture. We over-emphasised logic, reasoning and evidence, and downplayed aesthetics, emotion and spirituality. But in recent decades the tide has turned and the West has increasingly rejected this sterile approach to life.

This is not to say that art was not important throughout this time. Whatever worldview dominates a culture, the people within it are still human, with spiritual, emotional and aesthetic needs. As Tolstoy remarked, "Art is not a pleasure, a solace or an amusement; art is a great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling."

Tragically, the Church bought into rationalism and swallowed the idea of a separation between the sacred and the secular. It became dismissive of creativity that was not used for sacred purposes, at best tolerating it as neutral and often condemning it as worldly and corrupting. This was not simply mistaken at a psychological level; it denied a basic theological understanding of human beings.

Since we are made in God's image (Genesis 1.27), we should be creative like our Creator. Tolstoy is right because the aesthetic dimension is such a vital part of creation. Our artistic endeavours, whether labelled "sacred" or "secular", are echoes of God's creativity. This means that art and spirituality are inextricably linked.

It's no surprise, then, that explicitly spiritual or religious themes come up again and again in the arts, and not just in the work of Christians. Consider two of this summer's biggest blockbusters. Spider-Man 3, like many films, plays around with religious imagery at times, but it is a striking parable about the way giving in to temptation allows evil to consume us, whereas repentance brings release. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is more interested in the supernatural than the spiritual, but the struggle between good and evil becomes increasingly intense as the series progresses, and the theme of self-sacrifice is central.

In visual art, Mark Titchner, shortlisted for last year's Turner Prize, explores systems of belief through his work. Earlier this year Canadian artist Cosimo Cavallaro caused a storm of controversy over his My Sweet Lord, a life-size sculpture of a naked, crucified Jesus. The problem was not the nakedness (people were crucified naked, after all), but the fact that it was made out of chocolate and was due to have been exhibited at Easter.

Faith on film

Sometimes the religious content comes to the foreground of films. Sherrybaby tells the story of a young woman (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who is trying to reconnect with her daughter and rejoin society after a prison sentence. She experiences an enormous tension between her addiction and a rather confused faith.

Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty (2003) from Catholic director Tom Shadyac, puts spiritual issues as central as they can get when Bruce's former rival, Evan Baxter (Steve Carell), is told by God (Morgan Freeman) to start building an ark.

Makoto Fujimura is a highly respected American artist. He's a Christian painter of abstracts whose home and studio was very close to Ground Zero in New York. His work, like all great art, is a reminder that beauty can take us beyond ourselves. It points to something even greater, something transcendent. It ignites a sense of hope and of longing, because it's bound up with our spirituality.

Spirituality in art isn't simply about transcendent beauty, however. Sherrybaby is not primarily about giving us images of beauty to fill us with joy and hope, but rather about showing the difficulty of life in a fallen world. As well as reflecting our creation in God's image, the arts must also acknowledge the reality of our rebellion against God and its consequences.

Good art, whoever it is by, moves us emotionally, confronting us with the truth of the human condition, prompting us to respond to the brokenness of our world and to open our eyes to signs of God's grace at work.

It will also stir up the deepest longing of the human heart: the longing for peace with God.

• Find out more about the issues raised in this article at www.damaris.org/ideamagazine
• www.ToolsForTalks.com provides a one-stop shop to help teach the Bible in the language of contemporary culture. The site contains quotes and illustrations taken from the latest films, music, magazines and TV - updated weekly.

Tony Watkins is resources and training co-ordinator for Damaris Trust