Front Cover of Art for God's Sake from Wheaton:
Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the
Arts, by Philip
Graham Ryken is a solid resource, which aids in nurturing a deeper
understanding of the arts and assists in cultivating a Biblical worldview and
theology of the arts.
Art for God’s Sake
is an unassuming, simple, and easy to read book about recovering the arts and
restoring them to their right place in God’s kingdom for God’s kingdom
purposes, and to God’s own Glory. Ryken summarizes his work, “This is the Christian
view of art: the artist is called and gifted by God-who loves all kinds of art;
who maintains high aesthetic standards for goodness, truth, and beauty; and
whose glory is art’s highest goal.”
Ryken proposes that art has a redeeming purpose in God’s
plan and that art deals in the currency of reality and truth. This reality should include the hopeful
aspects that the gospel narrative gives us. Ryken says, "Christian art is
redemptive, and this is its highest purpose. Art is always an interpretation of
reality, and the Christian should interpret reality in its total aspect,
including the hope that has come into the world through the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Philip
Graham Ryken assesses the importance and the value of art in God’s world
saying, “At its best, art is able to satisfy our deep longing for beauty and
communicate profound spiritual, intellectual, and emotional truth about the
world that God has made for His glory.” Not only is the aesthetical value of
art highlighted here, but also the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and
truth-value as well.
Ryken balances the goodness, truth, and beauty of art with
the predominant dangers of art. He says,
“Art trades in images, and images easily lend themselves to idolatry. Artists know this from their own experience.” When we are dealing with the fallen nature of
humanity and a fallen creation, the prideful struggle for adoration
emerges. The temptation is to be
God. “Art is always tempted to glory in
itself, and nearly every form of art has been used to communicate values that
are contrary to scripture. Art is fallen
as any other aspect of human existence,” says Ryken.
Christianity and the church are also confronted in Art for God’s Sake. Ryken criticizes art with a good message that
is done badly. He says, “Ultimately this
[kitsch-tacky] kind of art dishonors God because it is not in keeping with the
truth and beauty of His character.” While
“art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart,”
according to Ryken, bad art may not have this same desired outcome and does not
bring God glory.
Ryken also advocates involvement in the artistic
community. Participation in the arts is
essential for Christians engaging and cultivating culture. “When Christians abandon the artistic
community, we loose a significant opportunity to communicate Christ to our
culture. Furthermore, when we settle for
trivial expressions of the truth in worship and art, we ourselves are
diminished, as we suffer a loss of transcendence,” Ryken asserts. He also emphasizes that the individual
suffers loss of wholeness, or transcendence, when the arts are not engaged
meaningfully.
The majority of the book, Art for God’s Sake, looks at these themes and God’s calling and
equipping of the visual artists Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus
31. From this passage and these two
artists, Ryken uncovers four fundamental principles for a Christian theology of
the arts.
The four fundamental principles for a Christian theology of
the arts are:
1. The artist’s call and gift come from God.
2. God loves all kinds of art.
3. God maintains high standards of goodness, truth, and beauty.
4. Art is for the glory of God.
In looking at Bezalel and Oholiab, the visual artists that
were called by God to build the Tabernacle, Ryken says, “The calling of these
artists reflects a deep truth about the character of God, namely, that He
Himself is the supreme Artist. We know
this because the very first thing God does in the Bible is to produce creative
works of art (see Genesis
1-2).” The insights from these
passages about the creative nature of God, and that artistic nature in humanity
as His image bearers are paramount in considering the arts.
Our involvement in the arts is a creative enterprise, which
engages us with our creator God. Ryken
makes this connection: “Art is an imaginative activity, and in the act of
creating, we reflect the mind of our Maker.” He also affirms that God’s
creativity communicates, “God’s aesthetic standards include goodness, truth,
and beauty. And these standards are not
relative; they are absolute.” Ryken goes
on to say, “To be pleasing to God, art must be true as well as good. Art is an incarnation of the truth.” In God’s goodness and creativity, He has
given us truth in the beauty of the arts—incarnational.
Ryken sees art’s original intention as being good. Because of art’s goodness, truth, and beauty,
he sees art as sacred and challenges the unrealistic divide between the sacred
and the secular. Ryken observes, “Some
Christians continue to think that certain forms of art are more godly than
others. They make a sharp distinction
between the sacred and the secular, not recognizing that so-called secular art
is an exploration of the world God has made, and therefore has its place in
deepening our understanding of God’s person and work.” In short, art is God’s.
Ryken gives application to his presumptions about art as he
concludes his book. He begins answering
these implicit questions, “How does the Christian engage in the arts? What does a Christian artist look like? What does Christian art look like?” He answers, “Christian artists celebrate the
essential goodness of the world that God has made, being true to what is
there.” Ryken says this about “Christian
art,” “The kind of art that glorifies God is good, true, and, finally,
beautiful.”
The essential motivation of Philip Graham Ryken is stated in
the title of his book, “Art is for God’s sake.”
Ryken seeks to recover the arts and restore them to their intended
purpose as part of God’s good kingdom. Ryken
is clear, “What we believe about art is based on what we believe about
God. Art is what it is because God is
who He is.” Art is a gift from God and
God calls and equips the artist to for His own glory. This call communicates God, as Ryken says, “Why
does God call people to be artists?
Because He is an Artist, and we are made in His image.”
Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the
Arts, by Philip
Graham Ryken is an important book for us to consider as Christians. Ryken makes the topic of the arts and the
study of theology in the arts accessible to the layman. This book is a fantastic primer to deeper
study and reflection on the subject of theology in the arts and comes highly
recommended.
This review has been published in part on Amazon.com and on goodreads
and has been published in full on Examiner.com.
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