Nathan E. Lewis

Recently, I dragged myself to see our children perform “The Tempest.� I thought to myself, “These grammar school students are way over their heads! I’m going as a supportive parent and pastor, to view an educational exercise.� I was wrong. >To my great surprise, I was attending a fine production at our church school, St. Stephen’s Academy. The children produced something more than an educational exercise. They presented Shakespeare’s play in such a way that we were able to recognize it as the work of a master artist. These kids had not only memorized their lines, but they were well directed and acted far beyond their years!
Evergreen has dabbled in the arts and each offering has prompted me to wish for more art created and presented by the church. My desire is that the church would present God’s goodness, truth, and beauty through as many medium and events as possible, on various levels of ability and skill. Evergreen should promote the arts. You might say, “Wait a minute: what do you mean by “arts?� What kind of art should we promote?� Is there such a thing as “Christian art?� Hans R. Rookmaaker wrote in 1970, Modern Art and the Death of a Culture. Anyone interested in “Christian art� should read this thoughtful work by one of Francis Schaeffer’s disciples. He writes:
“…Christian art is not art that uses biblical or other Christian themes. Picasso painted
more than one Crucifixion; but they were curses rather than done in faith. Many biblical
themes were handled in a Humanist spirit after the Renaissance. And, of course, almost
all heresies have found some sort of expression in art. No, what is Christian in art does
not lie in the theme, but in the spirit of it, in its wisdom and the understanding of reality
it reflects. Just as being a Christian does not mean going round singing hallelujah all
day, but showing the renewal of one’s life by Christ through true creativity, so a
Christian painting is not one in which all the figures have haloes and (if we put our ears
to the canvas) can be heard singing hallelujahs. Christian art is nothing special. It is
sound, healthy, good art….In a way there is no specifically Christian art. One can
distinguish only good and bad art, art which is sound and good from art which is false
or weird in its insight into reality.�
Rookmaaker refreshingly liberates art from false boundaries of religion, sending Christians into all the world to create art. But what does he mean by “good,� or “bad?� He says that bad art is “false or weird in its insight into reality.� What does he mean by “weird?�
Dorothy Sayers, in her essay, “Toward a Christian Esthetic,� reviews Plato’s thoughts on art, mostly from his classic Republic, in which he categorically bans most art forms from his ideal society. Plato banned most art because he was convinced that it was a poor conduit for morality. He first bans all art that depicts unwholesome or immoral subjects. (At first, Plato’s rule might sound good to you, but it is not a biblical concept of art.) Toward the end of his Republic, Plato has eliminated art of wholesome and moral subjects for these reasons: 1) Art is an imitation of an imitation; no matter how accurate the artist’s representation is of an object or a scene, it is prone to deception or mere entertainment of the viewer; 2) Art can work upon the emotions without producing any real change in the mind or behavior of a person; a person might view a play, get all worked up, then leave the theatre to resume a life unchanged. Sayers suggests that much of Christian thinking about art is Platonic rather than Christian.
Sayers writes:
“Now here, I believe, we are getting to something – something that Plato’s heathen philosophy
was not adequate to explain, but which we can begin to explain by the light of Christian theology.
Very likely the heathen poet could not have explained it either. If he had made the attempt,
he too would have been entangled in the terms of his philosophy. But we are concerned, not
with what he might have said, but with what he did. Being a true poet, he was true in his work –
that is, his art was the point of truth in him that was true to the external truth, and only to be
interpreted in terms of eternal truth.�
Sayers connects art with truth. The artist connects us through his/her art to larger and abiding presentations of truth. Sayers continues to define art: “The true work of art, then, is something new; it is not primarily the copy or representation of anything. It may involve representation, but that is not what makes it a work of art. It is not manufactured to specification, as an engineer works to a plan….� Finally, Sayers writes the one unique contribution Christianity gives to art: “This word – this idea of art as creation – is, I believe, the one important contribution that Christianity has made to esthetics….But it is significant that the Greeks did not have this word in their esthetic at all. They looked on a work of art as a king of techne, a manufacture.� There is nothing wrong with engineering, manufacturing, or replicating. Art is simply something other than these. Perhaps you are among many that appreciate a painting that accurately portrays Mount Hood. Many people think an artist to be a master if she can precisely paint every feature of a person’s face. Have you ever walked into a museum encountered cubism and said, “Modern art is not art! You call painting an orange square on a yellow canvas art?� Rookmaaker reminds us:
“The only Christians who did not ignore modern art were an intellectual group of liberals, who
took the side of the new movement, often even claiming modern art as a new religious art.�
Then Rookmaaker offers one good reason for Christians to view modern art and participate in
conversation and dialogue about it: “In fact, confronting these works of art, we cannot escape
the fact that our own view of reality is challenged. Inevitably we are drawn into an argument with
modern man about his ideas, about values, norms and ultimate truth, about humanity and our
responsibility to help build the future world. These are deep and difficult problems, undoubtedly.
But the positive good in this art is that it makes all cheap answers, all worn-out traditions, all
ideas that are not firmly based in real truth, pale and useless and senseless.�
Dialogue about art of any kind is fruitful for the church. My desire is that members of the church, would produce more art. We should be less afraid of producing it correctly. Our young children’s art is just as much art as a painting hanging in a gallery downtown. Occasionally our young children’s art is displayed on the walls of the sanctuary at Evergreen. What a display of human creativity! Their work truly and effectively reminds us as we come into worship the Creator, that we are made in the image of God.
Abraham Kuyper, in his classic, Lectures on Calvinism, admits that Calvinistic communities have been guilty of destroying art, especially the art of the Roman Catholic Church. To this day, the Reformed churches suffer the blows of accusations that we are anti-art. Kuyper convincingly rehearses the history of Calvin’s Geneva, one of the centers of new expressions of art. Kuyper gives several examples, including the creation of new worship music in Calvin’s church. He writes:
“If this is the general merit of Calvinism, or rather the change which it effected in the domain of music,
by forcing the idea of the laity to give room to that of the general priesthood of all believers, historic
accuracy requires a still more concrete elucidation. If Bourgeois was the great master whose works still
assure him a front rank among the most notable composers of Protestant Europe, it is also worthy of note
that this Bourgeois lived and labored in Geneva, under the very eyes of Calvin and even partly under his
direction. It was this same Bourgeois who had the courage to adopt rhythm and to exchange the eight
Gregorian modes for the two major and minor from the popular music; to sanctify its art in consecrated
hymn, and so to put the impress of honor upon that musical arrangement of tunes, from which all
modern music had its rise. In the same way Bourgeois adopted the harmony or the song of several
parts. He was the man who wedded melody to verse by what is called expression.�
One of the great ironies, if not travesties of the Reformed churches today is that they have sanctified the music of Geneva and the two musical generations flowing from Geneva as the only proper music for worship. Calvin gave to us a church that created music and involved every single worshipper in singing that music! Therefore, we should continue to write music, to develop music, to offer music to the glory of God. My dream includes a growing number of musicians at Evergreen creating and offering music, new music that is “singable,� that matches music with lyrics, that reminds us that we have gathered to worship the Creator, who made us in his image. Have we forgotten that Handel was snubbed by the artists of his day, at first, locked out of society? He was creating something new to the glory of God. We listen to the Messiah today and have a difficult time viewing it as controversial. The lyrics are straight from holy writ! But the music was new, innovative, and contrary to the rules that a society had set to control art. Should the church control art or make it?
Sayers was a Christian who thought that we should make art. She had some definite ideas on how we should make art. She writes:
“The poet is a man who not only suffers the impact of external events but also experiences
them. He puts the experience into words in his own mind, and in doing so recognizes the
experience for what it is….A poet does not see something – say the full moon – and say:
‘This is a very beautiful sight; let me set about finding words for the appropriate expression
of what people ought to feel about it.’ This is what the literary artisan does, and it means nothing.
What happens is that then, or at some time after, he finds himself saying words in his head and
says to himself: ‘Yes – that is right. That is the experience the full moon was to me. I recognize
it in expressing it, and now I know what it was.’ And so, when it is a case of mental or
spiritual experience – sin, grief, joy, sorrow, worship – the thing reveals itself to him in words
and so becomes fully experienced for the first time. By thus recognizing it in its expression,
he makes it his own – integrates it into himself. He no longer feels himself battered passively
by the impact of external events; it is no longer something happening to him, but something
happening in him; the reality of the event is communicated to him in activity and power. So
that the act of the poet in creation is seen to be threefold – a trinity – experience, expression,
and recognition: the unknowable reality in the experience; the image of that reality known
in its expression; and power in the recognition; the whole making up the single and indivisible
act of a creative mind.�
Art is a field in which our experience, expression, and recognition come together. Perhaps, this is why the church at times has felt threatened by art. This “trinity� may be the very root of people’s fear of art. But this “trinity� is also the compelling reason for the church producing art. We fear subjectivity eroding the objectivity of doctrine in the church and so we deny art its rightful and helpful place. Since we believe in absolute truth, we are quick to squelch anything that might appear to be relativistic, and so expression is silenced. We make up rules like, “Art is distracting.� Indeed some movements have used art to muffle the clarion gospel. However, when the gospel is effectively preached, applied to all of life, the expression of individuals and communities flourish.

perusing art on the www
Some of our sister congregations are presenting the arts impressively in their communities. Closest to home is our sister congregation, Evergreen in Salem. Go to her web site, linked to evergreenpca.com to check out the Grassroots Festival in Salem. This gathering of local musicians was founded by and is hosted annually by Evergreen! Go to gracevancouver.com to check out the arts at Grace Van, our sister congregation in Vancouver, B.C. Redeemer Church in Indianapolis has a far-reaching arts ministry. This sister congregation is gathering resident artists who have studios at the church property. Check it out at redeemindy.org. The Pastor at Redeemer PCA is Jason Dorsey, who some of you know from his time spent in Oregon and his preaching at Evergreen.
Jason’s brother is a fine example of a Christian, who is an artist. Find his paintings at galleryintheloft.com. Also, Kathy Mier, art instructor at our St. Stephen’s Academy, is a fine artist who shows quite a bit of art at her studio in Sellwood. You can see her work at www.gallery7126.com. In this issue of the Evergreen Explorer, I have interviewed two artists, who are Christians and married to each other. They are friends of mine and have been guests this past week in our home, and so I interviewed them. Mike and Liz Kaufmann are conceptual and experimental artists. Liz has recorded her music on the Asthmatic Kitty label. You can hear a sample of her music and order her CDs at asthmatickitty.com. These are but a few artists seeking to glorify God through their art.