Art and the Bible - Francis Schaeffer
Mark and Bev Tindall
quotes from Art and the Bible, by Francis Schaeffer...
As evangelical Christians, we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe
of life. The rest of human life we feel is more important. Despite our
constant talk about the Lordship of Christ, we have narrowed its scope to a
very small area of reality. We have misunderstood the concept of the
Lordship of Christ over the whole of man and the whole of the universe and
have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for
our lives, and for our culture
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The Lordship of Christ over the whole of life means that there are no
Platonic areas in Christianity, no dichotomy or hierarchy between the body
and the soul. God made the body as well as the soul, and redemption is for
the whole man.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If Christianity is really true, then it involves the whole man, including
his intellect and creativeness. Christianity is not just "dogmatically" true
or "doctrinally" true. Rather, it is true to what is there, true in the
whole area of the whole man in all of life.
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How often do Christians think of sexual matters as something second-rate.
Never, never, never should we do so, according to the Word of God. The whole
man is made to love God; each aspect of man's nature is to be given its
proper place. That includes the sexual relationship, that tremendous
relationship of one man to one woman. At the very beginning God brought Eve
to man. A love poem can thus be beautiful.
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The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.
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Christianity is not just "dogmatically" true or "doctrinally" true. Rather,
it is true to what is there, true in the whole area of the whole man in all
of life.
The ancients were afraid that if they went to the end of the earth, they
would fall off and be consumed by dragons. But once we understand that
Christianity is true to what is there, including true to the ultimate
environment -- the infinite, personal God who is really there -- then our
minds are freed. We can pursue any question and can be sure that we will not
fall off the end of the earth. Such an attitude will give our Christianity a
strength that is often does not seem to have at the present time.
But there is another side to the Lordship of Christ, and this involves the
total culture -- including the area of creativity. Again, evangelical or
biblical Christianity has been weak at this point. About all that we have
produced is a very romantic Sunday school art.
We do not seem to understand that the arts too are supposed to be under the
Lordship of Christ.
I have frequently quoted a statement from Francis Bacon, who was one of the
first of the modern scientists and who believed in the uniformity of natural
causes in an open system. He, along with other men like Copernicus and
Galileo, believed that because the world had been created by a reasonable
God, they could therefore pursue the truth concerning the universe by
reason. There is much, of course, in Francis Bacon with which I would
disagree, but one of the statements which I love to quote is this: "Man by
the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his
dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however, can even in this life
be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by
the arts and sciences." How I wish that evangelical Christians in the United
States and Britain and across the world had had this vision for the last
fifty years!
The arts and the sciences do have a place in the Christian life -- they are
not peripheral. For a Christian, redeemed by the work of Christ and living
within the norms of Scripture and under the leadership of the Holy Spirit,
the Lordship of Christ should include an interest in the arts. A Christian
should use these arts to the glory of God -- not just as tracts, but as
things of beauty to the praise of God. And art work can be a doxology in
itself.
Eric Fisher
i plan to save them as soon as i can get enough spam oughta my in box.
haha