Art for the Glory of God

The Kelly's have a trip to Chicago planned this weekend. One of the places I'm most looking forward to visiting is the Art Institute of Chicago. Here's a copy of Carl Stam's Worship Quote of the Week that you can subscribe to at http://www.wqotw.org/.

Do you believe that non-Christians can create art that glorifies God? Should a devout Christian painter limit his or her output to works that are explicit in telling the story of God's redeeming purposes? In today's WORSHIP QUOTE, pastor-scholar Philip Ryken clarifies some important issues concerning life, art, and Christian faithfulness.

SOLI DEO GLORIA-ART THAT GLORIFIES GOD
The doctrine of creation teaches that by God's common grace, the gift of art inevitably declares the praise of its Giver. Thus non-Christian as well as Christian artists can represent virtue, beauty, and truth. It is important to remember, as Nigel Goodwin has said, that "God in His wisdom did not give all His gifts to Christians." But even if God may be glorified by art that is not explicitly offered in his honor, he is most truly praised when his glory is the aim of our art.

This does NOT mean that all our art has to be evangelistic in the sense that it explicitly invites people to believe in Christ. To give an example from another calling, the way in which a Christian who makes cars glorifies God is not by painting "John 3;16" on the hood. Rather, he glorifies God by making a good car. Similarly, the artist glorifies God by making good art, whether or not it contains an explicit gospel message. The sculptor glorifies God in her sculpture; the architect glorifies God in his building; and so forth. Because it works with the materials of creation, the artistry itself is capable of conveying the artist's commitment to a good, loving, and gracious Creator.

Another way to say this is that art can be Christian without serving merely as a vehicle for evangelism, or for other forms of preaching. Such a utilitarian perspective impoverishes the arts. A more complete perspective on Christian art recognizes that a creation always reveals something about its creator. What artists make tells us something about how they view the world. Thus the art of a Christian ought to be consistent with a life of faith in Christ. This is not always the case, of course, because artists struggle with their fallen nature as much as anyone else. Nevertheless, as Francis Schaeffer wrote, "Christian art is the expression of the whole life of the whole person who is a Christian. What a Christian portrays in his art is the totality of life." Johann Sebastian Bach [whose birthday is March 21] is famous for signing his works with the letters "sDg," standing for the Latin phrase SOLI DEO GLORIA-"to God alone be the glory." This was a pious act that indicated the composer's sincere desire to present his art as an offering to God. The important thing, however, was not so much the letters that Bach added to his score, but the music itself, which in its ordered beauty was a testimony to his faith in God. In the same way, every artist whose talents are under the lordship of Jesus Christ will produce art for God's sake.

-Philip Graham Ryken, ART FOR GOD'S SAKE: A CALL TO RECOVER THE ARTS. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006, pp. 50-52. ISBN10: 1-59638-007-1.