Historical vs. Spiritual Accuracy
Glenn Laubaugh
Christian Art - Historical or Spiritual Accuracy?
by Glenn Laubaugh - July 6th 1997
(gle...@up.edu)
What is the importance of Christian Art?
Although this may appear to be a simple question that may be easily
answered , I dare say that the true meaning has escaped many modern
academics.
The reason why I say it escapes many modern academics is that often, in
the academic world, critics will complain that particular works of art,
even those works of art by the most famous artists in the history of the
world, are "not historically accurate". More precisely, typical comments
would be: "Peope in the middle east didn't ever wear clothes that looked
like that." "Those buildings are middle-age European buildings; they are
not from ancient Jerusalem." "The middle east landscape doesn't look like
that. They don't have trees that look like that there."
Of course none of those paintings are historically accurate. Even if the
artist was familiar with what ancient Jerusalem looked like, none of these
artists would ever have painted it that way - at least, not if they were
as good as they are reputed to be.
So, the picture of Moses on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel isn't
historically accurate. So, Moses never wore the clothes of a 1500's
German peasant. SO WHAT? Historical accuracy was never the goal of the
paintings on the Sistine Chapel ceiling or of stained glass windows. With
the exception of illustrations that are for academic uses ( ie, drawings
of ancient Jerusalem to help provide and understanding of historical
context of scripture ), no artist would ever try to reflect historical
accuracy in these paintings.
The primary goal of Christian art is to assist in making the stories of
the scripture more meaningful to the people.
Is historically accurately representing the clothing of Moses going to
make the work of art more meaningful to the people? Not if they have no
idea what Moses wore in the first place. In fact, it is better that these
illustrations ( be they paintings, statues, stained glass, or anything
else ) have matierial that is as familiar to the primary viewing audience
as possible.
This requirement of religious art, perhaps, is lost by modern day
academics because they are viewing the art through the eyes of a 20th
century Ph.D. rather than through the eyes of a 16-th century German
peasant. The original artists did not design their art for 20th century
Ph.D.s to be the primary viewers.
Let us take an example out of scripture that will perhaps prove the
importance and value of not having historical accuracy. Following is 2
Kings 6:8-17, as translated by the American Bible Society's Today's
English Version:
The King of Syria was at war with Israel. He consulted his officers
and chose a place to set up his camp. But Elisha sent word to the king of
Israel, warning him not to go near that place, because the Syrians were
waiting in ambush there. So the king of Israel warned the men who lived
in that place, and they were on guard. This happened several times.
The Syrian king became greatly upset over this; he called in his
officers and asked them, "Which of you is on the side of the king of
Israel?"
One of them answered, "No one is, Your Majesty. The prophet Elisha
tells the king of Israel what you say even in the privacy of your own
room."
"Find out where he is," the kind ordered, " and I will capture him."
When he was told that Elisha was in Dothan, he sent a large force
there with horses and chariots. They reached the town at night and
surrounded it. Early the next morning Elisha's servant got up, went out
of the house, and saw the Syrian troops with their horses and chariots
surrounding the town. He went back to Elisha and exclaimed, "We are
doomed, sir! What shall we do?"
"Don't be afraid," Elisha answered. "We have more on our side than
they have on theirs." Then he prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes and let him
see!" The LORD answered his prayer, and Elisha's servant looked up and
saw the hillside covered with horses and chariots of fire all around
Elisha.
If an artist were to do a painting of the above section, potrayed just as
Elisha's servant's eyes were opened to the large army of the Lord gathered
on the hillside, there would be several choices of settings for the
painting.
One choice would be a "historically accurate" view, in which the artist
would actually visit the ancient site of Dothan, and paint the picture
based on existing landscape as much as possible.
Another possible choice of setting, and by far the one with the most
impact for the modern viewer, would be to place the chariots of fire on a
hillside above a familiar 20th century city.
The meaning of the painting is to communicate the power and protection
provided by God. Therefore, even though the painting would be far from
historically accurate, it would be best to place Elisha and his servant in
modern day Hong Kong with those chariots of fire observing the incoming
Chinese military. Although a view of historic Dothan would be
historically accurate, the protection provided by God's army in modern
times is "spiritually accurate", and has a much greater communication
appeal than does the historically accurate perspective.
One illustration says quite plainly "Fear not, dear brothers and sisters
in Christ in Hong Kong! Though the Chinese may have an impressive
military, we have more on our side than they have on theirs. It's true:
the body they may kill, but we know who will win in the end." This is the
spiritually accurate version of what is in the scriptures.
The other says "God has a big military that was used to surround Dothan
3,000 years ago, and it was used to rescue the Prophet Elisha." This is
the historically accurate view of what is in the scriptures. Projection
of this into modern day times is left to the viewer to perform.
The spiritual accuracy, therefore, should be the focus of Christian art.
The modern implications of ancient happenings is much more important than
attempting to perform a historically accurate representation of these
events.
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Glenn Laubaugh
gle...@up.edu
Alumnus,
Mechanical Engineering program
University of Portland, Oregon,USA