#22 - Godless Art (Guest Post)

On the heels of our Good Friday Experience, I thought Wendy's thoughts here provide a great perspective - not just about the artwork that was on display here at the church, but about all forms of artistic expression.  Perhaps this is why movies speak so deeply to me, even the ones (especially the ones?) that have no overt spiritual themes.

by Wendy Scott

The Chilean poet, Gabriela Mistral, once wrote, “There is no godless art.  Although you love not the Creator, you shall bear witness to Him creating His likeness.”

How does that statement sit with you?  I’ll be honest.  My first reaction to her statement was complete disagreement.  I can think of so many offensive pieces of art I have seen in museums (remember that exhibit in New York that was in the news a couple of years ago?) and books over my lifetime that seem not only godless but made intentionally to defame the Creator.  It seems as though there are some artists who live not only to be shocking in their art, but who use it as a platform to blatantly blaspheme.

Upon further consideration, however, I think I see what Mistral was saying.  It’s not whether the art an artist creates is specifically intended to venerate God or not.  It’s that the mere act of creating anything portrays likeness to the Creator.  We are miade in His image, and He is first introduced in Scripture as the supreme Creative Being.  Whatever creative juices we have, whatever art we conceive, construct or produce is merely a shadow of the creative characteristics of the Ultimate Creator who formed us with the capacity to create.  If at any moment, man creates something, whether it honors God or not, he exercises his God-ordained ability.  Man’s mere act of creating, therefore, confesses that there is another Creator, and that One greater than himself.

I don’t pretend that this makes me feel better about some of the terribly disturbing art that has been created throughout the history of man.  But just as with any other ability God has given man, he can either choose to use it to glorify Him or dishonor Him.  It does, however, make me feel better that God will foil all attempts of man to mock Him.  Those who choose to exercise their creative ability to blaspheme the Holy One only end up playing the fool, because God will be glorified no matter what.