Back in 2004 author James Elkins published a book called ‘The Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art’. As Elkins saw it, religious sincerity and sentimentality prevented religious thought from being taken seriously in the art world. Much has changed since Elkins’ publication in 2004, and contemporary art is no longer a stranger to religion and spirituality. You can explore this further in a review of his book by Sarah White here.
But we want to raise a different question in this article – what about the strange place of contemporary art in Christianity? Our focus in this article is how the arts can provide space for discussion and contemplation around questions of faith.
Art and the Christian Union Context
Think of your own Christian Union context - is art ever used as part of your CU mission? If it is used then how?
Some of the most common ways we see the arts used as part of CU activities is to:
- Draw people in – maybe flashy posters or Instagram posts
- Illustrate a talk – perhaps your speakers have made references to films/artworks/songs to back up a point they have made in their talk
- Create an atmosphere – music playing in the background, pretty decorations, making a space ‘vibey’...
Good publicity, relevant cultural references, and creating a joyful atmosphere are all great ways to engage creativity in our evangelism. However, we are severely limited if we believe that these are the only ways art can enrich our communication of the Gospel. Creativity has a much greater part to play in the way we approach mission.
Beware of ‘Using’ the Arts
Before considering the place of arts in CU mission today then, it is worth first heeding the warning that Makoto Fujimura gives in his book ‘Culture Care’.
“Even today artists are often valued in the church only if they create art for the church, or at least “Christian art.” We cannot “use” the arts for evangelism or discipleship any more than we can “use” a human being for utilitarian purposes.”
We mustn't reduce the value of the arts to what they can be ‘used’ for. To think of art simply as a utility that can be judged by its usefulness for our purposes is to suffocate it from its full potential. Art is a gift from God given out of his abundant generosity - an invitation to join him in stewarding and exploring the complex and beautiful material world that he has fashioned.
When art is torn away from open and speculative conversation, and limited instead to a blunt tool for persuasion, it loses its capacity for rich and deep reflection.
Consider for example the 2021 film 'Don't Look Up', directed by Adam McKay that drove home a clear message about the danger of climate change. While empathising with the desire to highlight the climate crisis, many criticised the film for the heavy-handed messaging that took precedence over thorough plotline and character development.
In a Christian context think also of the film 'God's Not Dead', in which film is turned into a propaganda-style instrument to convince viewers of the supremacy of Christianity. The film has met reactions such as this one:
"The greatest offence of the God’s Not Dead series may be its failure to imagine for its audience what a truly radical belief in a living God would look like. The movies, crippled by their own narcissistic inward turn, prove their imagination is far, far too small."[1]
God's Not Dead opts for a shallow presentation of Christianity with poor self-awareness and a failure to honour the complex reality of people's lived experiences. This is a real danger faced when we use the arts merely for smuggling in subliminal or direct messaging - it flattens both the medium and the message! When we reduce the arts to propaganda itt will quickly become apparent to an audience that we do not care about our audience, we simply care about pushing our agenda. This is the danger when we 'use' the arts rather than celebrating how richly it allows us to communicate.
Cute Christianity
Another risk we run when we are eager to share a direct Gospel message through art is to create kitsch or 'cute' work. Panicking as to how to incorporate Jesus into our work we might try to include Bible verses in a painting, illustrate a Bible story, or paint beautiful pictures of a perfect world of goodness and light. Without belittling kitsch and naive art too much, we must be careful not to convey a superficial understanding of the rich depth of God's Word and the complexity of His world.
Look at the following image for example:
This work was likely intended to communicate the hope that remains in this world, its potential for goodness, and the importance of beauty and justice. But the most likely response to this work would be to believe that the artist has a shallow relationship with reality and can not cope with wrestling with the world as it is today. The artist might be accused of glossing over reality with idealistic and fantastical landscapes untouched by brokenness - making it difficult to connect meaningfully with the work.
The addition of Bible passages is a common temptation for Christian artists (in this case it has been added onto the artist's work by someone else). Whilst we love God's Word and make it our mission to share it, taking it away from the context of the Bible and using it to decorate our artwork may perhaps be doing both our artwork and God's Word an injustice.
Rather than pasting it on the surface of the work, how much richer would the work become if we were to study what Scripture says about beauty, justice, and humility and allow them to shape our view of the world, which will inevitably begin to work through not only what we do with our artwork but also how we approach the act of creating and of mission more broadly.
A New Way of Seeing
So, what does this all mean for the arts and mission? ... How can we maintain the value of art as a space for meaningful connection with others without reducing it to cute, kitsch, or a mere tool to supplement our evangelism?
Creating and making is one of the ways we communicate with others. Through the creative arts, we can open up spaces to discuss, reflect, feel, and look at the world differently.
Consider the following reflection from painter David Hockney:
You don't need an art critic to tell you Monet was a great artist. You can see it yourself; you absolutely can. I cam out of that exhibition and it made me look everywhere, everywhere intensely. That little shadow on Michigan Avenue, the light hitting the leaf. I thought: "My god, now I've seen that. He's made me see it." Most people don't see things like that. They can't get pleasure like that can they? Monet gives it to you though, for he was a generous spirit, and you can take pleasure in looking at things freshly.
Can you see how the artwork transformed Hockney's perspective of the world? Monet did not tell Hockney how he should look at the world, he did not reduce his work to a message 'look at the light'.
Monet does not seek to tell, but rather to show a new way of seeing. He opens up our imagination by sharing his way of seeing the world and inviting others to look with him.
Monet's work has utterly transformed the trajectory of how we see the world around us and has done so not with clumsy propaganda, but by inviting us to share in his way of seeing.
David Hockney © © David Hockney / David Hockney
Art creates space that people gather into and around. As we gather together we inevitably begin to reflect with one another about how we see life and the human experience. This is the natural power of the creative arts and is something worth celebrating. Through empathy and imagination, art can help us to bridge gaps and create meaningful dialogue. When thinking about art and mission for a week-long arts event hosted by the IFES movement in Puerto Rico, Staff Worker and artist José notes:
“Art is common ground for humans. It’s a shared language. It allows dialogue. When people see my artwork, they want to know what’s behind it. And then you have permission to talk about almost anything, and it doesn’t feel uncomfortable." [3]
Hopefully, we can begin to see that art and mission doesn't have to be cringy, cute, or kitsch or push the Gospel like a piece of propaganda. Rather, art can create meaningful spaces to develop deep connections with those around you. Art can help us to reflect together on what life is all about, helping us to listen to one another's experiences and work together to uncover truth and hope.
Keep on reading part two to explore some practical examples from Lois of creative ways to share the Gospel on campus.
Part 2: Creative Ways to Share the Gospel
1. Alissa Wilkinson, 2018, https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/3/17180138/gods-not-dead-light-darkness-evangelical-christian-persecution-race (accessed April 2024)
2. https://www.thedavidhockneyfoundation.org/chronology/1995
3. https://ifesworld.org/en/prayerline/bridging-the-gap-through-art/?switch_language=en
