the arts, culture, and Jesus

I have recently been blessed to be in a conversation with someone who takes both art and culture very seriously and passionately, and wrestles to reconcile its intrinsic value with how the Church of Jesus often dismisses it and even wars against it.

This person wrote an essay which I have not yet obtained permission to post, but essentially her point in her essay was that we should embrace our culture and its various artistic expressions, because though not all of us are brothers and sisters of Jesus, all of us are created by God in his image, and therefore have value.

I've posted my response to her essay below. Some of the responses are situation-specific; however, I feel many of them are easily accessible and applicable to the subject.

I read your essay in its entirety today. I now better understand your initial reaction to my talk on Sunday night. I would offer the following talking points as common ground for our conversation:

1. The unbiblical (and really, gnostic) separation between what is secular and what is sacred (or what is spiritual and what is material) is different than materialism. We were addressing the latter on Sunday night, and not the former.

2. It is too easy to take Jesus' message of denying oneself and turn it into either an ascetic life or a "castled" life, to use your metaphor. This was indeed not the spirit of Jesus' message, because it does not follow from how Jesus lived his life, nor with whom Jesus lived it. Perhaps I could have done a better job at being more clear on this point last Sunday.

3. The world is indeed alive with God, and to a very real extent, so is every person, regardless of their particular faith (or lack thereof). The fact that we are all made in the image of God, like you said in your essay, should inform not only how we view the world around us, but also should prompt us to embrace it, to a certain extent.

I'd also offer one challenge (or perhaps more accurately, a clarification or addition) to your essay:

1. Though in a sense we all reflect God regardless of our connection with Jesus, in another very real sense, we are indeed dead without Jesus. Now, to your point, it is often difficult if not impossible to see the vitality of Jesus' life coursing through the church, especially when it comes to its artistic expressions of Jesus' life through his body here on earth. This vibrant, beautiful life tragically gets reduced to lame platitudes that are meaningless and boring, usually in the name of "relevancy" or "clarity" or "practicality" or "application". Nevertheless, I can say, humbly yet confidently, that I am indeed alive in a way that unbelievers are not, regardless of how in touch they are with themselves and their world, as reflected in their various cultural and artistic expressions.

The significance of this point for me is how it informs the way I view the part of the world that is disconnected from Jesus. While I can accept their various cultural and artistic expressions as "true"--meaning they accurately and even geniusly capture their experiences in ways that demand my appreciation and careful attention--their particular expressions are nevertheless "fallen." I don't say that to devalue or dismiss their lives or expressions. Nor do I say that their expressions are devoid of any and all truth. But I do say that so that I do not romanticize something that falls tragically short of what it could be--if it were inspired by Jesus' personal love relationship with them. I say that so that I do not conflate their images with that of Christ in me. I think this conflation is tempting for most of us who have an appreciation for art and culture, and is indeed a difficult one in which to wrestle and keep in check.