Evangelical Art?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The\" \/>\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\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelical Art?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html\",\"name\":\"Evangelical Art?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\"},\"description\":\"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Evangelical Art?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad\",\"name\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fr. Dwight Longenecker\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evangelical Art?","description":"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The","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\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evangelical Art?","og_description":"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html","og_site_name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","article_published_time":"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00","author":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html","name":"Evangelical Art?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-09-02T13:32:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad"},"description":"Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article from Touchstone Magazine asking why Evangelicals don't produce good literature. The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evangelical Art?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/9a47bc6ba9c0a8c532dc90230d7ad3ad","name":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8dbbfbf5b6d096630322e90bce3f0cec?s=96&r=g","caption":"Fr. Dwight Longenecker"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/dwightlongenecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/author\/frdwight"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3000\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":3000,"date":"2007-09-02T13:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-02T13:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art\/"},"modified":"2007-09-02T13:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-02T13:32:00","slug":"evangelical-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2007\/09\/evangelical-art.html","title":{"rendered":"Evangelical Art?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Thanks to the Roving Medievalist for a link to an interesting article <\/a>from Touchstone Magazine<\/span> asking why Evangelicals don\u2019t produce good literature. The author, who is an Evangelical, asks good questions and appreciates Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s insights on faith and art. He also laments the lack of good art or even a theological theory of art amongst Evangelicals.<\/p>\n

I am sure there are Evangelical exceptions my theory, and I am open to being convinced otherwise, but I don\u2019t know any great Evangelical artists, writers or composers do you? There are some historic Protestants to be sure, but where are the contemporary artists from the Evangelical world?<\/p>\n

I have written elsewhere about this. G.K.Chesterton said \u201cAll arguments are theological arguments\u2019. It is the same here. I believe Evangelicals find it difficult to produce great art because they do not have a sacramental theology, and without a sacramental theology they cannot have a sacramental worldview, and without a belief that grace is coming to us through the physical world, how can you possibly produce great art?<\/p>\n

Without a sacramental view of the world (indeed with a theology that is downright anti-sacramental) you have to ask yourself what art is for. If grace cannot be communicated through the physical world (and by extension through art) then art can only be didactic or illustrative. Thus the Evangelical will typically only be able to produce illustrations, allegory or heavily didactic work.<\/p>\n

My brother in law\u2019s mother is a case in point. Ma Craft was a brilliant artist. Stirred by a wonderful vision, she produced hundreds of great charcoal drawings, paintings and prints. However, being a good fundamentalist lady she found it difficult to leave the art to speak for itself. Many of the pictures were given Scripture verse captions. There is nothing wrong with this necessarily, except that the pictures were actually good enough to stand on their own, and they communicate the beauty and truth of great art without words. Her captions turned the pictures into illustrations of Bible verses. Again, I\u2019m not knocking it. They are fine paintings. She was a fine lady, and the Bible verses are great nuggets of truth.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that this isn\u2019t really the highest use of art, and I argue that it was her Evangelical theology (and other folk like her) that inhibits the development of great Evangelical art.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"