Art

Art at Veritas

We are created in God’s image, and creativity is part of that image. We seek and desire beauty because we desire God. For the Christian, arts do not stand by themselves. They are one part of the creative ecology of our lives. Everyone is an “artist” in that everyone should view what they do, whether plumbing, accounting, music, drawing, painting, engineering, or housekeeping, as an expression of the beauty and excellence of God.

For as God is infinitely the greatest Being, so He is allowed to be infinitely the most beautiful and excellent: and all the beauty to be found throughout the whole creation is but the reflection of the diffused beams of that Being who hath an infinite fullness of brightness and glory; God…is the foundation and fountain of all being and all beauty.
– Jonathan Edwards, The Nature of True Virtue

Three Positions for the Christian Artist

1. Art for the Church – The artist as servant of the ministry of the church
2. The artist as missionary/prophet/worker-in-residence in the broad world of arts
3. Art Facing the Church – The church responding and reacting to the broader world of arts

In the art facing the Church, we should engage and see it as opportunities to understand our culture, to see the need for redemption and respond to it by showing the gospel of Jesus that renews and restores.

In the broad world of art from the church, artists need to put their gifts to work doing the most radical, fun, outlandish, and confrontational stuff they can imagine.

In the Church, they need to be servants of the ministry of the Word and pray, sing and respond in worship with creativity!