categorically average

May 24, 2006

studio Today, we wrap up the ‘first steps’ of relevintage. If you’ve been following along in your notes, you know that I have been laying out a vision for relevintage.

Again, relevintage is an amalgamation of the words relevant and vintage.

This blog exists to be a voice for the cultural redemptive in the church and the world. And in keeping with the postmodern principle of BOTH/AND, relevintage recognizes that we can be both relevant and vintage simultaneously in both of those spheres, not EITHER/OR.

We have looked at 4 of the 5 core values of ‘cultural redemption’ that relevintage will be built upon:

Today we will be looking at value #5: the arts as a vehicle for cultural redemption.

Now, I chose ‘a’ over ‘the’ because I recognize that the arts are not the only vehicle, but probably one of the most, if not the most, influential ‘vehicles’ that are impacting culture pervasively. [I would include the media as a close second]

Let’s dig in…

Much of what I will be writing in this entry is admittedly inspired by Franky Schaeffer. His book, Addicted to Mediocrity, has made a profound influence on me.

Schaeffer is the son of famed theologian Francis Schaeffer. He is also a movie producer, painter, and champion of the arts.

In his book, Schaeffer tackles the fragile issue of the Chrisitian’s blind spots when it comes to the arts. I am attempting to shape Schaeffer’s argument into a call to the cultural redemptive to understand two things:

How Christian art has been relegated to a ‘category’ and a subculture
How to create art that glorifies God and engages culture

Let me start with a fiery quote from Schaeffer:

The arts, cultural endeavors, enjoyment of the beauty of both God’s creations and of man’s creativity-these creative gifts have in our day been relegated to the bottom drawer of Christian consciousness, despised outright as unspiritual or unchristian.

The deficiency has been the cause of many unnecessary guilt feelings and much bitter fruit, taking us out of touch with the world God has made, with the culture in which we live, and making us inffectual in that culture.

Schaeffer goes on to say that Biblical teaching actually supports that the arts, creativity, enjoyment of our own creativity, the creativity of those around us-in short, all the beauty comes as a direct good and gracious gift from our God.

In other words, the arts, the enjoyment of them, the expressions of creativity need no spiritual or utilitarian justification. They are what they are.

The early church had this high view of creativity and the arts [see Bach; Michelangelo]. Christians for many centuries dominated the creative expression. It is no coincidence that they also dominated the culture in which they lived.

Today, Christian endeavor in the arts is illustrated by the contents of your local Christian bookstore. Now, I’m not saying that is all together bad, but it has as Schaeffer says, it has “borne bitter fruit”-in that, in many ways, it has stifled and destroyed God-given creative instincts in individuals.

Something happened on the way to the 21st century.

Life became divided into categories and compartments. Worst yet, as Schaeffer says, “there became a hierarchy of spirituality.” The arts, creativity, and enjoyment of beauty were set aside for spiritual goals for Christians to achieve.

What are we to do?

Schaffer says these three things:

Christians must free themselves from the misconception…that everything must be measured in terms of its usefulness to the cause of Christianity
Christians must realize a compartmentalized view of spirituality places some things on a higher plane than others, making a strange hierarchy within the Christian world
Christians should be least threatened of all by new artistic ideas, by experimentation, by taking risks…if our feet are solidly rooted on truth

So what does this have to do with relevintage?

Again, the heartbeat of this blog is to help individuals engage with culture. If there is no seperation between Christian and secular art, we need to find redemptive ‘metaphors’ in all of art to engage with society.

As mentioned in a previous entry, this will include music, movie, and books reviews, as well as creative ways the church can engage culture with the arts-with the intent of encouraging ‘engagement.’

This concludes the vision portion of what relevintage will be about. Again, I am sure that the underpinnings of this blog will evolve. Nonetheless, I look forward to the conversation…

Category Posted in relevintage, vision