Doxology, Part 3

For the Christian who longs to think biblically and understand all of life in light of the Gospel, something terrible is lost when Evangelically Correct thinking dominates culture. In fact, the Christian subculture is likened by many to the ghetto.

Why do we allow ourselves to wallow in a ghetto?

We wallow because, to borrow from Franky Schaeffer, we are addicted to mediocrity. And we are addicted to mediocrity because we have lost the idea that an artwork can be a doxology in itself. We have lost our intellectual moorings, preferring instead to let others do our thinking for us. We put our stock in well-known Bible teachers or influential leaders, rather than doing the harder work of cultivating our own minds. Truly, it is a sin we have all committed.

As Franky Schaeffer writes in Addicted to Mediocrity, “Christians must free themselves from the misconception of more than a century that everything must be measured in terms of its usefulness to the cause of Christianity.” When things or talents must be measured in utilitarian terms, rating the effectiveness of one against the other, then a natural hierarchy develops that falsely places some gifts and talents and the use of one’s time in certain and specific ways on a higher plane than others. Rather than seeing the whole of man and thus the whole of life as equally valuable in spiritual terms because Christ is the leader of the whole person — not just a compartmentalized area here and there — the false dichotomy creates a pecking order. This problem is especially true for the Western church where some spiritual gifts are valued, but not all. The problem also leads to an application of the Gospel that is often less than accurate to the true heart of Jesus. On the one hand, some Christians focus so much on the ministry of the Word that the ministry of deed is left behind. On the other hand, many churches have altogether abandoned the ministry of the word and clung to social programs and reform. Both miss the point Jesus was making when he taught that his followers needed to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16). It is by the truth of the word that a Christian knows what it means to be salt and light. Psalm 119:105 says that God’s word is a lamp by which the path is lit. But Jesus is clear that the salt is to be spread and the light is to be put on a lampstand so that it can be seen; “that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Art is powerful communication. It cuts across barriers, it exposes us to each other and ourselves and — in the case of the visual arts — it says things that are often too deep for words. Forms of art which use words such as music or poetry often allow us to approach deep issues in a safer manner than simply having a direct conversation with someone. The poem or story or song operates at a distance provided by a healthy detachment or construction of a fictional scene that helps us face reality within ourselves.

For example, in Hamlet, we are able to struggle with the issues of our existence, madness, the sovereignty of God, jealousy and plenty of other matters of the soul because it isn’t happening to us at that precise moment. And in the unfolding of the story we are able to grapple with things that would overwhelm us otherwise.

Art forms touch us all at profoundly deep levels. We all know that the best films, the best books, the best songs, the best paintings are those works that we gravitate to over and over again. We know the story and the outcome, and still we absorb the art because it speaks to us — often with a growing richness where, over time, we become aware of messages and meanings that we had previously missed. Furthermore, the great works of art are those which examine us. A great book is not so much the one that the individual reads; it is the one which reads the individual. Each one of our lives is a story. Consequently, art, no matter what form, has a kinship with our souls because it is in one way or another telling a story. Again, Biblically, this rings true. The creation of the universe, the fall of man, the process of redemption and the eternal spiritual conflict that wages until the conclusion of all time is the greatest story. This in no way is the use of the term “story” to mean that which is not true. The point is simply this: Biblical Christians need to recapture their minds and their ability to cherish art because of the story in which we live. The modern church, in many ways, has forgotten this.

And so the call to artful living is, for the Christian, a high calling which is vanishing. We must live artfully, expressing the Imago Dei with joy because we see the beauty of God revealed in art. We must not choose the path that leads to mediocrity.

Related Links:
    “Doxology, Part 1″, by James Cordrey
    “Doxology, Part 2″, by James Cordrey
    Buy Addicted to Mediocrity at Amazon.com