Art Every Wednesday (29)

This morning I came across an interesting excerpt from a book about Wagner by Bryan Magee that makes the case that Christianity is anti-art, and so I thought it would be a good occasion to put forward the reasons I think that Christianity and good art are not mutually exclusive, but rather, understood rightly, art finds a home in the Christian worldview.

In this excerpt Magee is arguing that Greek tragedy was the "highest point ever reached in human creativity." He says this because it is the fusing of many different branches of the arts - poetry, drama, costumes, mime, instrumental music, dance, and song. Also, it was great because it came out of a humanistic worldview. It came out of a religion that celebrated the glories of man without having to turn to a god to find meaning and beauty. In the passage below he makes the case that this high art form disintegrated in part because of the rise of Christianity, which was "in effect, as it was bound to be, anti-art." Magee says,

"[Greek tragedy's] available content dissolved when Greek Humanism was superceded by Christianity, a religion that divided man against himself, teaching him to look on his body with shame, his emotions with suspicion, sensuality with fear, sexual love with feelings of guilt. This life, it taught, is a burden, this world a vale of tears, our endurance of which will be rewarded at death, which is the gateway to eternal bliss. In effect this religion was, as it was bound to be, anti-art. The alienation of man from his own nature, especially his emotional nature; the all-pervading hypocrisy to which this gave rise throughout the Christian era; the devaluation of life and the world and hence, inevitably, their wonderfulness; the conception of man as being not a god but a worm, and a guily one at that; all this is profoundly at odds with the very nature and existence of art. Such a religion, based as it is on the celebration of death and on hostility to the emotions, repudiate both the creative impulse and its subject matter. Art is the celebration of life, and the exploration of life in all its aspects. If life is unimportant - merely a prelude to the real life that is to begin with death - then art can be of only negligible importance too."

Magee makes several claims about Christianity:

1. Christianity divides man against himself.
2. Christianity devalues life.
3. Christianity teaches that this present life, and by association, art is of negligible importance.

I want to make the case that each of these claims arise from misunderstandings of what Chrsitianity truly teaches and, when understood rightly, Christianity is not anti-art, but actually impells people to value art, make good art, and love the beauty and goodness that art brings into the world.

1. Christianity divides man against himself.
Magee says the Christianity teaches man to "look on his body with shame, his emotions with suspicion, sensuality with fear, and sexual love with feelings of guilt." If art arises out of the human experience, and if these aspects of the human experience are denied, then the possibility of art ends before it begins. I would argue, however, that Magee is mischaracterizing Christianity in these areas. Rather than teaching man to view his body with shame Christianity celebrates the body. It is forever an embodied religion, teaching that matter and our bodies are good and to be enjoyed, and that includes emotions and sexuality. Any shame associated with our bodies that we experience in the present is a passing thing, and was neither the source of our bodies, nor is it their destination.

The truth is that Christianity claims to make a restoration in the human identity rather than separating man from himself. Because the Christian story says that all aspects of life are not as they were meant to be, does not mean that it is saying they are wholly evil. Christianity is not skeptical of all of life, but neither is it naively trusting, rather it is realistic. How does apply to art? It is a story that inextricable ties man's true identity to creativity. God is himself a creative being, and that creativity is a celebration of life, and humanity is made in God's image in that we also are creative beings. There is a sense in which we are only living out of our true identity when we are living out of the fact that we are created to create.

2. Christianity devalues life.
Magee says that "Christianity devalues life and the world and hence, inevitably, their wonderfulness; the conception of man as being not a god but a worm... is totally at odds with the very nature and existence of art." Christianity is not naievly optimistic about the state of humanity left to itself, and if that is what he means by a devaluation of life then I suppose he is right. But the Christian story does not end there - it ends in a massive affirmation of life and of art specifically. It says the world was made good and retains traces of glory everywhere. Creation is indelibly marked with the imprint of God's goodness. It is his workmanship and that goodness cannot be eradicated. The world is, as Francis Schaeffer said, "a glorius ruin."
Insisting that it is in fact in a ruined condition is not devaluing life, nor is at odds with the nature of art. The stories that happen in this world are a mixed bag of joy and sadness. They are shot through with glory and with loss. That is not pessimism. Turn on the news, build something, hope, raise a family, pay careful attention to the turbulent currents of your own heart and you will see that we are glorius but we are ruins.
It is out of this understanding that the best art arises. Art involves sadness and hope mixed up together in a way that mirrors what we experience in life. It is not the job of the artist to smear a veneer of optimism over the truth of human experience, but it is their job to tell true stories. The Bible says that all of creation groans with longing to be freed form its bondage to decay, and as long as that is true art will tell stories that echo that longing, which may appear to be a devaluation of life, but are truly a celebration of it and are redemption songs that await the day when everything ruinous is taken away. Which brings us to the third claim.

3. Christianity teaches that this present life, and by association, art is of negligible importance.
The restoration Christianity heralds does not make bad art, nor does it make people who withdraw from the world as if it were of negligible importance. C. S. Lewis said that it is precisely those who are most taken with the next world who accomplish the most in this one. The kingdom of heaven is such that all those who draw near to it are scattered again into the world to fight for the good of the world. All of life is important and all of life is to be redeemed, that includes art. So Christianty sends artists into the world of art for the common good and bids them to use their God-given creativity to translate the true experiences that are common to the human condition into art and make something beautiful and glorious of them. It arms people with a resources to fall in love with the beauty in the world. It sets mankind on a course to spread that beauty through art or through any other means. Magee says it well when he says that "Art is a celebration of life and the exploration of it in all its aspects." Christianity proclaims no other message.