Art for Heart's Sake

"Whether one is an artist or not, I think as Christians we are all implicated in the horrendous deficiency of imagination, the visual illiteracy, the dispassionate celebrations of ‘the joy of our salvation,’ the uncaring lamentations of our sorrow for the oppressed and wounded, our lack of protest for the destruction of our ecosystem and the consumerist kitsch that is the predominant expression of faith in most of the Christian community." - Betty Spackman

This quote is a stunning portrayal of what seems to be a continuing idea that looms over the Christian world. Christians are so often accused of putting out sub-standard art (of varying types), and this accusation does not come from the 'secular' realm alone. Rather, Christians who emphasize the church's engaging in culture are quick to make this point. In addition, I wonder if culture as a whole is guilty of losing its imagination. The movie industry seems to be pumping out tons of remakes, making me wonder if there is anything new under the sun at all. If Christians are living the best life possible, and bearers of the best news possible, shouldn't we be putting out the most fresh art possible? My guess is that there is a nagging sense of separatism that continues to eat away at the Christian artistic enterprise.

What do you think?

Man, This Lady

"In Luke's version of the story of Jesus' summary of the law, the teacher asks him to obvious follow-up question, 'who is my neighbour?' Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan. A man, lying dying in the road having been brutally beaten and robbed, is ignored by two righteous but fearful priests, but then helped by a passing Samaritan. At different points of history he might have told the story in terms of Protestants and Catholics, or Sunnis and Shias, or Americans and Communists, or Evangelicals and gays - the point remains the same. The person who acted with grace and mercy towards 'the other' was the one who was the true neighbour.
This is another strange answer from Jesus. He had been asked who his neighbour was; the reply he gave was to explain how to be a good neighbour, the implication being that there is no one who is not our neighbour, no one to whom we should not show mercy. The 'other' in the world around me is everyone around me."

Other: Loving Self, God, and Neighbour in a World of Fractures by Kester Brewin, pp. 9-10

"Here is the most important verse in the Bible about new creation: 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!' (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christian men and women are to live a life that moves beyond the fall, beyond the battle of wills. If new creation does anything, it unleashes the power to undo the fall in our world. I cannot emphasize this enough: the story of the Bible is the story of new creation in Christ" (189).

This is a excerpt from Scot McKnight's The Blue Parakeet, a book that I have been reading through over the past few weeks. McKnight's whole point is to try and show readers a new way of viewing the Bible (which, he suggests, is not really new at all). In this method of reading, we see the Bible for what it is - the story of God. In reading the Bible as Story, we are able to see an account that moves from oneness (creation) to brokenness (fall), and back towards oneness in Christ that will be fully realized in the eschaton. With this understanding as our interpretive lens, we can see the Bible for what it is - not a puzzle or book of laws, but as an account of what God is doing in history and how he has spoken to various people in various times and places. Indeed, God still speaks to us today (as McKnight would say) in our days and our ways. So, let's accept the invitation to be wrapped up in this story.