What Is Art For?
By Paul M. Gould
Note: We will return to our normal format in two weeks, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this article from the August Worldview Bulletin issue by Paul Gould on the topic “What Is Art For?” followed by a roundup of some helpful resources.
What Is Art For?
by Paul M. Gould
In last month’s Worldview Bulletin article, I explored the nature of art. Art is an artifact or performance that communicates meaning and has either aesthetic properties (such as beauty, symmetry, discord, ugliness, etc.) or is connected to past or current forms of art. In this essay, we want to consider the question of purpose. What is art for? There is considerable debate on this question. Some argue that art is simply to be enjoyed but not used; others argue that art is a tool to be used to forward an agenda and enjoyment is of secondary importance. To get clear on this question, let’s begin with some helpful distinctions noted by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato.
In the Republic, Plato distinguishes between three kinds of valuable things. He speaks of things that are valuable in themselves, things that are valuable for the benefit they bring, and things that are valuable both in themselves and for the benefit they bring. When it comes to art, how are we to understand its value? If we think art is merely valuable in itself and not for what it brings, we miss out on the power of art to point to the divine. If, on the other hand, we think that art is only valuable for what it brings, we reduce art to propaganda. Instead, I suggest, art is something that is both intrinsically valuable (valuable in itself) and valuable for what it brings.
Art can and does point to the divine. God can use art to witness to reality, including the divine reality. But we also want to be careful. We don’t want to fall into the habit of merely “using” or “making” art only for evangelism. To do so is to commodify art. It is a failure to respect the form of art, and as a result (as is often the case), the art won’t be any good and the evangelistic effect will be muted. In an interview with The High Calling, Makoto Fujimura provides a helpful perspective on the relationship between art, evangelism, and the gospel. Fujimura responds to the question, “How then do you see art as evangelism?” Here is his reply:
There are many attempts to use the arts as a tool for evangelism. I understand the need to do that; but, again, it's going back to commoditizing things. When we are so consumer-driven, we want to put price tags on everything; and we want to add value to art, as if that was necessary. We say if it's useful for evangelism, then it has value.
And, there are two problems with that. One, it makes art so much less than what it can be potentially. But also, you're communicating to the world that the gospel is not art. The gospel is this information that needs to be used by something to carry it. Only, that's not the gospel at all. The gospel is life.
The gospel is about the Creator God, who is an artist, who is trying to communicate. And his art is the church. We are the artwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. If we don't realize that fully, then the gospel itself is truncated; and art itself suffers.[1]
Fujimura’s point is a good one: all of life is art, God is the supreme artist, the gospel story is the true story of the world, and the church is God’s handiwork. When we make art in the derivative mode, we are imaging the divine artist—and that will be a powerful witness for Christ. But we don’t want to reduce art to propaganda—it is valuable both in itself and for what it brings.
This means that art finds its proper home in the context of theism. The artist is someone who helps us catch a glimpse of reality as it is. The artist awakens us to the beauty and goodness around us as we see it in the painting or play and then to look through it to its source. As Tim Keller notes, “A good artist will reveal something about the greater reality in an indefinable but inescapable way.”[2] Or as Eugene Peterson colorfully puts it, “It’s the vocation of the artist to active our senses so that they . . . pull us [into the beauty around us] . . . so that we’re conscious of the beauty of the Lord.”[3]
So, the artist peals back the curtain to reality, and helps us see the sacramental and participatory nature of the world; all is gift, all is sacred, all is from God, a God who lovingly creates, sustains, and calls us to perfection. Artists remind us of our status as pilgrims on the way to God and they help sustain us through encounters with beauty that give us hope and power to continue on the way.
Notes
[1]https://www.theologyofwork.org/the-high-calling/blog/artists-are-catalysts-interview-makoto-fujimura-part-2#.UZKoEyvEpkg
[2] Tim Keller, “Why We Need Artists,” in It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God, ed. Ned Bustard, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, MD: Square Halo Books, 2006), 120.
[3] Eugene Peteson, Leap Over a Wall; quoted in Janine Langan, “The Christian Imagination,” in The Christian Imagination, ed. By Leland Ryken (Colorado Springs, CO: Shaw Books, 2002), 91.
Helpful Resources
- The new August 2019 issue of Themelios has 214 pages of editorials, articles, and book reviews. It is freely available in three formats: (1) PDF, (2) web version, and (3) Logos Bible Software.
- From Crossway Books: “Students: Get Free Digital Access to 7 Study Bibles, Original Language Resources, and More.”
- The Evangelical Philosophical Society has a very nice collection of papers free to download in three different categories:
Philosophy of Theological Anthropology Project
Philosophical Discussions on Marriage and Family Project
Christian Philosophers in the Secular Academy
- You can now also access the full archive of Philosophia Christi, the journal of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, through The Philosophy Documentation Center. See here for details.
- Check out biblicaltraining.org where you can listen to course lectures presented by notable evangelical scholars, free of charge. See the full list of courses here. These are great for listening to while commuting, traveling, exercising, or doing house work. Among the 130 courses are 10 on worldview issues.
- Take a look at the Library Extension, available for Firefox and Chrome. As you browse books and e-books on web pages, the Library Extension can check your library's online catalog and display the availability of that item on the same page.
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