2008 Woodie Awards
Should Christians be Artists?
Lydia Ferraro
Issue date: 4/2/08 Section: Opinion
In the 2006 movie Amazing Grace, William Pitt asks his vocationally-confused friend William Wilberforce whether he will "use his beautiful voice to praise God or change the world". For Christians who are called to change the world, it may seem as though we should be the last ones taking our time to make things in this transient world more aesthetically pleasing. Aren't there more immediate needs to be running to the aid of, like poverty and emotional hopelessness? Because of the seemingly peripheral nature of art (as a pleasurable appendage to existence, and not really a practical force in it), I begin to wonder how we as Christians can be global actors, meeting needs and advancing God's kingdom, when we are so busy fitting poems into iambic pentameter or fine-tuning our guitars for a new melody. Are these outlets of artistic expression good ways to "redeem the time" given us? Am I wasting my Christian potential by mediating on novels and stopping to photograph the flowers?
My pursuits in life are dominantly artistic. Like the way a soul depends on the working parts of a human body to manifest itself, so too does my Christian personhood express itself through creative outlets. I believe that God has given me a calling in life and that it is artistic in nature and purpose. And so these questions begin to become very personal and relevant to me as I finish my college degree, pursue further learning, and hope to realize my callings and dreams.
I cannot, however, shake the knowledge that I am artistically inclined, and therefore artistically focused, because God Himself is an Artist and has imbedded that creative impulse into those who bear His image. To be made in the image of God is to participate in the joy and adrenaline of creating. Many of us love to create because God Himself has left His beautifully stubborn fingerprints on the surface of our souls. Perhaps it can be said that to abandon our creative impulse, when God has intentionally encoded it into our human makeup, is to defy the very nature of our divine createdness.
My pursuits in life are dominantly artistic. Like the way a soul depends on the working parts of a human body to manifest itself, so too does my Christian personhood express itself through creative outlets. I believe that God has given me a calling in life and that it is artistic in nature and purpose. And so these questions begin to become very personal and relevant to me as I finish my college degree, pursue further learning, and hope to realize my callings and dreams.
I cannot, however, shake the knowledge that I am artistically inclined, and therefore artistically focused, because God Himself is an Artist and has imbedded that creative impulse into those who bear His image. To be made in the image of God is to participate in the joy and adrenaline of creating. Many of us love to create because God Himself has left His beautifully stubborn fingerprints on the surface of our souls. Perhaps it can be said that to abandon our creative impulse, when God has intentionally encoded it into our human makeup, is to defy the very nature of our divine createdness.
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