Dear 4everhis85, I haven't read through the other posts, so I may repeat what other's have said.Let me start off with telling a little of my background. I painted my first painting at age 3. My mother wanted me to become an artist. She loved art. I started taking art classes at the art museum at age 5. My entire life has been involved with or wrapped in art of some form or another, from painting to drawing to photography to digital art. When I was saved at age 26, I gave up chasing fine art as a career. After graduating with a BFA, I was disgusted with the "Art World" and it's selfish philosophical pursuits. This is not to say that I don't do artistic things on occasion, however, I do not seek to express myself. One of the greatest lessons I am learning as a Christian is how to comminucate with others and share with them. My entire life has been centered on art. Thus, art was my way of communicating. However, I have found it largely problematic for many reasons. The most obvious is love. How can you love a person when you are disconnected from them?To explain this, let me first give an art history lesson. Art spawned from idol worship. The first traces of art that we have are of carved images of idols. I am sure this is quite obvious when looking at early art history. One of the most artistic early cultures were the Egyptians, and look at the abundant idoltry. One of the things that art does is that it carries information through time. We know about the Egyptians and thier culture from the art they created. They have been immortalized by thier art. Other early civilizations have long been forgotten and left unknown because a lack of art. Fast forward to early Christianity. From what I was taught in my art history courses, early Christians believed that it was wrong to make art of any kind. Thus, there is very little art from the early Church. If they did make carvings, they did so in a cartoonish way as not to mimic nature to realistically. This mentality carried on through the Church for nearly a 1000 years during a time we call the "Dark Ages." This period is referred to as the "Dark Ages" not because it was dark, but because the only art that was produced was the bible. We have little to know record of history from this time period. Thus, it is like a dark gap in the history timeline. All the art of this time was typically handwritten copies of the bible. Scribes devoted thier lifes to this one purpose. Drawings were added to the pages, however, the drawings were kept cartoonish and never life-life. This changed during the renaissance period when artist started making things look more realistic. They were copying the style of the early greeks and romans, influenced by the sculptures of the Greek and Roman period. As many know, this time created many famous artists that are now immortalized such as Leonardo Divinci and Michael Angelo. Fast forward again. We come to early American and the Puritans. Early America was greatly influenced by the Puritans and thier beliefs. The puritans believed as the early Church, and did not believe in making any graven image of any kind. They did not create "Christian Art." Whenever anything was crafted, such as a table or a chair, it was always done very simplistic, not bringing any attention to the object. They verred away from decoration. Thus, early America did not have an identity in the "Art World" and it would not until Jackson Pollock in the 1950's. Because of early Puritan influence, the American style is based more upon functionality rather than beauty. For instance, we like big bulky comfortable sofas, while the Europeans have more elegant and refined furniture. I have fallen a little of track. Art from the "Dark Ages" was about communication. Most people during that time could not read. So, when they wrote out the bible they included little cartoons to show visually what the bible was talking about. This carried through of course through the renaissance. Many European Churches, sculptures and paintings, have been created to communicate the gospel to people who could not read. However, art became more and more about beauty as artists mimic Greek and Roman sculpture. They also started promoting thier own personal ideas in thier art by creating highly stylized art. This style and beauty effect later lead to the Impressionist and Expressionist artists such as Van Gogh. In this modern era that we live, art has many different functions and purposes. The most common is entertainment, although many artists will deny entertainment is art. Movies and video games are just as much art as a painting or drawing. It is just a different medium. Some other modern purposes: communication, aesthetic appreciation, decoration, education, expression, therapy....there are probably many more. The big one that has invaded American culture is personal expression. This is the one that bothers me most. Every artist has an opinion about life and the world, and they think or feel thier message is some sort of personal gospel which needs to be spread to the world. Art has become deeply personal. By this, people seek to glorify themselves. "Look at my art!! Look at how good it is!! Look at how good I am!! Worship me!!" This is very dangerous. Many artist are very self-righteous people. I can't stand them really. And yet, I am an artist. Praise be to the Lord who saved me from self-righteousness and has humbled me under His feet. Next question: Can art glorify God? Musicians do it all the time, so I think art can do it too. Going back to the question of love. Art is a medium of communication. It is the in between. Let's say I have something to tell you. I make a painting and mail it to you. Then you look at it and try to determine my message. The problem is this, art is impersonal. Rather than come visit you in person and give you the message with the love of my presence, I have given you an impersonal piece of art. While it may comminucate the message, it does not give you me. When I love someone, I give myself to them. Instead of giving you me, I have given you a work of art. This object has become between us. After spending an entire lifetime trying to give my love to others through art, I am trying to learn now for the first time how to love people in person. I am not hiding behind a camera anymore. (Laugh at the irony as I post this on a message board.) I am not looking at a person as an object, a thing that I am trying to draw. Rather, I am involved in a Church confronted with real people who have more needs that to hear a silly message. Often times, they need not be told anything. All they need is a big hug. Art cannot give hugs. Should Art be used in ministry? Art fails at communicating often times because it leaves for too much interpretation. Art is subjective. When you are trying to deliver a clear message such as a sermon, it fails. However, art does give people an experience. This is something a sermon cannot deliver. This is what I think.....Art should always be used to glorify God. We should never seek after our own good, our own glory, or our own benefit. It brings God glory when we love others. We should create art as a gift for others, not expressing ourself, but expressing God. This means we are not seeking our own glory, but the glory of God by giving to others His love. Art is a tool. This means that it aids us. However, every tool needs a good worker. Art should never be used as the primary thing by which to deliever a message or the primary thing to lead someone to Christ. How can a tool work without a hand holding it? If someone creates a website, or a movie, or a painting or anything else, and expects that people are going to know Christ because of it, they are foolish. These things are tools to help you in ministry. This means, we need to love people in addition to these tools. Don't just give a movie to someone and tell them to watch it. Watch the movie with them and talk about it. I guess I fear art used in ministry because many people are replacing love with art. And this is not good. Art can be used to enhance ministry efforts, but it should never replace love that comes from giving people our time, our presence, our being.Lastly, art is the product of death. Throughout history, people have created art to immortalize themselves. Art carries a message to exist when the artist is gone. When the time comes that we live forever, we will no longer create art. Why would we? We will be too busy trying to live and play with God and each other. We will all be united as one. I do believe that God instilled in all of us a desire to create. We are children of God. God is a creator. And I do believe in Heaven we will also create things. However, it won't be art. It will be something else that we can not yet imagine. Anyway, those are some of my thoughts on the subject. As scattered as they may be. I hope this helps. In love,Blake
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