Theology Blog

Lately I have found myself thinking about, discussing and arguing about Christian art. I put both words in separate quotes as a way to be both sarcastic and make a point that the two together are in fact rare, especially when quality is factored into the equation. Art, for the purposes of this rant, I mean blog, includes all classically understood forms of art as well as film, music and literature. So often, something that is truly artistic is not at all intentionally Christian. That said, it is my belief that whether Christian or not, the Holy Spirit can speak to us through all art and is the one who redeems all things. The Christian subculture has a tendency to try to create a lot of Christian art, but its quality is rarely good. Truth be told, many times its theology is just as superficial and poorly done. It seems to me that much of what is being produced and sold today is as theologically sound as that which is being produced by culture. That’s not to say that culture is better than Christianity, but it seems in our attempt to compete with mainstream culture or create our own safe subculture, we have let go of theological reflection. We reject many things produced by society as bad etc, and blindly accept that which is labeled Christian when it is often as Biblically solid as the other. This is of great concern to me. I see many Christians getting far more excited about “Christian” movies, books and music than they ever would about the Scriptures, the church or service. While it is ok for these things to motivate and encourage us, we must filter them. We must reflect theologically about them. They cannot be our meat, nor can they be our water, sun or nutrients. Its all dessert. The truth is that anything can point us to Christ if we look, pray and reflect theologically and carefully, unfortunately our lens when it comes to culture blinds us, as does our lens to the Christian subculture and all it produces. What we miss out on is the opportunity for growth and to see the Spirit speaking to us in every moment of our lives.