{"id":7859,"date":"2010-09-29T07:39:38","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T11:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christandpopculture.com\/?p=7859"},"modified":"2010-09-29T07:39:38","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T11:39:38","slug":"christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/","title":{"rendered":""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I always find Kenneth R. Morefield\u2019s film reviews to be thought-provoking and interesting \u2014 and right now, they also make me a little jealous. You see, Morefield has been attending the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival<\/a>, and he\u2019s recently posted a review of a film that I\u2019m very<\/strong> interesting in seeing.<\/p>\n

The Way<\/em> \u2014 written and directed by Emilio Estevez (yes, that<\/strong> Emilio Estevez) and starring Martin Sheen \u2014 is the story of a man coming to terms with the death of his son, who died while doing The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. In his review<\/a>, Morefield describes the film as an incredibly true and realistic treatment of grief and mourning and gives especially high marks to Sheen\u2019s performance as the grieving father. He even goes so far as to call it one of his favorite films of 2010 so far.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say the movie is now on my \u201cto watch\u201d list, though I suspect that I\u2019ll have to wait for an eventual DVD\/Blu-ray release.\u00a0But what I want to focus on right now is a point that Morefield brings up in the latter portion of his review:<\/p>\n

In circles in which I sometimes converse, there have been, for as long as I can remember, discussions about Christians in the arts, about how to get more films that are faith friendly and about the corrosive moral effects of \u201cHollywood\u201d or the \u201cHollywood culture.\u201d Every now and then, though, I\u2019ll run across a song like Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cIf It Be Your Will\u201d or a film like\u00a0The Way<\/em>, that not only puts \u201cChristian\u201d films to shame but that makes me exasperated at the whole notion of \u201cChristian\u201d as an identity politics genre. If you want more great Christian art, go find great artists and support them in their desire to speak, write, and represent the truth. Hollywood is made up of people \u2014 many of whom, it turns out, are more complex, interesting, and thoughtful than we might guess based on nothing more than a quick glimpse of their IMDB filmography.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We Christians are awfully good at defining ourselves by what we\u2019re against<\/strong>, especially when it comes aspects of the culture such as movies. We\u2019re against filthy and obscene language. We\u2019re against sex and nudity. We\u2019re against violence (though, if we\u2019re honest with ourselves, we\u2019re not nearly as consistent with this one as we are the first two). We\u2019re against humanism, materialism, secularism, and a whole host of other \u201cisms\u201d.<\/p>\n

These stances may be rooted in noble ideals and goals. However, the end result of this negative way of thinking about and approaching culture is all too often a \u201ccircle the wagons\u201d mindset marked by paranoia and fear of \u201cmoral contamination\u201d rather than by confidence, conscience, and grace (not to mention the Fruits of the Spirit).<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s a question for you: what if we as Christians didn\u2019t let ourselves become\u00a0so easily marked by what we\u2019re against<\/strong> \u2014 by what we fear and hate in the culture \u2014 but rather, by what we\u2019re for<\/strong> \u2014 by that which we celebrate, affirm, and rightfully enjoy? That is, life, truth, peace, grace, love \u2014 all of which see their ultimate expression in the Gospel of Christ, and which are certainly present in the works of those who are not Christian, and may very well be hostile to the faith.<\/p>\n

Marilynne Robinson touched on this in a recent Christianity Today interview:<\/p>\n

Christians acting like Christians would be the most effective possible evidence for the truth of what they profess. And here I am referring to the Sermon on the Mount, to Matthew 25 \u2014 those hard teachings that run so strongly against the impulses toward judgmentalism and exclusivism that assert themselves whenever any group decides to feel threatened. If Christians believe what they claim to believe, that the church is the body of Christ, how can they think any \u201cculture wars\u201d are necessary to its survival? Its wars, past and present, are the most telling charge brought against it. And Christians should care for what is true in every sense of the word\u00a0true.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Robinson was referring to Christians\u2019 reaction to science writers such as Richard Dawkins, but her words are just as applicable when talking about Christians\u2019 reactions to Hollywood and other aspects of the culture at large.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the rub, something that throws a curveball at the idea that such art will or must always be of a positive, upbeat, whitewashed variety: sometimes celebrating life, truth, etc. entails venturing through dark and difficult territory that can and should make us uncomfortable. After all, we find at the center of the Gospel of Christ the horrific torture and death of Christ himself.<\/p>\n

What if \u201cChristian\u201d art \u2014 or, if you prefer,\u00a0art created by Christians \u2014 wasn\u2019t concerned primarily with being identified as \u201cChristian\u201d art, and therefore toeing the party line that such a term necessarily implies, but rather, with simply telling the Truth \u2014 e.g., the Truth about our humanity in all of its horror and glory, in all of its fallenness and splendor, in all of its contamination and redemption?<\/p>\n

If Christians want to send Hollywood and our other supposed cultural \u201cfoes\u201d a message \u2014 assuming that\u2019s what Christians ought to be doing in the first place \u2014 might that not be a more effective method than our our usual tactics of protesting, boycotting, and fear?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if Christian art merely told the Truth? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223,"featured_media":8095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,10,11],"tags":[413,693,779,1334],"class_list":["post-7859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-film","category-general-culture","category-headline","tag-emilio-estevez","tag-kenneth-r-morefield","tag-martin-sheen","tag-the-way"],"yoast_head":"\n"Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ and Pop Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Morehead\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Morehead\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/\",\"name\":\""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/37866f912978aba01c775c555a6b5338\"},\"description\":\"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/\",\"name\":\"Christ and Pop Culture\",\"description\":\"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/37866f912978aba01c775c555a6b5338\",\"name\":\"Jason Morehead\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a84f229aedbb6d82c32060a21113a5a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a84f229aedbb6d82c32060a21113a5a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jason Morehead\"},\"description\":\"Jason Morehead lives in the lovely state of Nebraska with his wife, three children, zero pets, and a large collection of CDs, DVDs, books, and video games. He's a fan of Arcade Fire and Arvo P\u00e4rt, Jackie Chan and Andrei Tarkovsky, \\\"Doctor Who\\\" and \\\"Community,\\\" and C.S. Lewis and Haruki Murakami. He's also a web development geek, which pays the bills \u2014 and buys new music and movies. Twitter: @jasonopus. Web: http:\/\/opus.fm.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/opus.fm\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/jmorehead\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way","description":"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way","og_description":"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/","og_site_name":"Christ and Pop Culture","article_published_time":"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00","author":"Jason Morehead","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Morehead","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/","name":""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00","dateModified":"2010-09-29T11:39:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/37866f912978aba01c775c555a6b5338"},"description":"What if Christian art merely told the Truth?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/2010\/09\/christian-art-seeking-after-a-better-way\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":""Christian" Art: Seeking After A Better Way"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/","name":"Christ and Pop Culture","description":"Where the Christian faith meets the common knowledge of our age","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/37866f912978aba01c775c555a6b5338","name":"Jason Morehead","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a84f229aedbb6d82c32060a21113a5a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a84f229aedbb6d82c32060a21113a5a2?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jason Morehead"},"description":"Jason Morehead lives in the lovely state of Nebraska with his wife, three children, zero pets, and a large collection of CDs, DVDs, books, and video games. He's a fan of Arcade Fire and Arvo P\u00e4rt, Jackie Chan and Andrei Tarkovsky, \"Doctor Who\" and \"Community,\" and C.S. Lewis and Haruki Murakami. He's also a web development geek, which pays the bills \u2014 and buys new music and movies. Twitter: @jasonopus. Web: http:\/\/opus.fm.","sameAs":["http:\/\/opus.fm\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/author\/jmorehead\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/christandpopculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}