If you are looking to start a fight with Christians, there is hardly a better subject to do so than the arts. Music, movies, paintings, and literature have provided no small battlegrounds for Christians to war. We are emotionally invested in the arts. A song, a book, or a film has affected us, marking a milestone in our lives. To question it is to question me and the person I have become through my experience. Fighting is more than the defense of a proposition of truth about the validity or invalidity of a form of art. Fighting is an act of self-preservation.
There are those in the Christian world who have little to no appreciation for arts that aren’t explicitly Christian. All of your reading must be directly Bible-related. Music must be lyrically Christian. If the music is instrumental, it must be associated with a well-known hymn so that you can sing along in your head while you listen. Paintings and sculptures must be of biblical characters and scenes. Anything that is not explicitly “Christian” must be rejected out-of-hand.
Others in the Christian world have grown up or discovered that this is a deficient view. Since “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” everything about God’s good creation can be appreciated and enjoyed. Unfortunately, we sometimes slip into justifying our enjoyment of arts that are irredeemably ugly and, therefore, unhealthy. If anyone begins to question our immersion in these arts, we begin sounding like the Corinthians: “All things are lawful!” We have crossed our theological “t’s” and dotted our doctrinal “i’s,” readying our shields for the onslaughts of those Christians who might question our choices.
Not all ugliness is irredeemable. The aesthetic of the cross, rooted in love, teaches us that art can be both terribly ugly yet deeply beautiful; it can be immensely disturbing yet strangely comforting. There is an ugliness in art that is necessary to tell good stories truthfully. But there is an ugliness in art that is irredeemable. That irredeemablity stems from its telos to draw people in and lead them to think and live in ways contrary to wisdom. There is art that in form and content molds our minds, wills, and emotions to re-order the world contrary to God’s design.
The tricky aspect of this art is that it may have the superficial trappings of beauty. But like harlot folly, its beauty is meant to entice you to follow the path of death (cf. Proverbs 5:1-6; 7:24-27; 9:13-18). Dwelling upon harlot folly’s aesthetic qualities–appreciating her curves, symmetry, the color of her eyes, the way her hair falls on her back–is taking fire into your bosom.
The reflections of many Christians on the life and music of Prince after his death brought these questions to the fore again (at least in my mind). I was in high school when Prince made it big. He was edgy with his mad skills and sexually explicit lyrics. At his death I observed as Christians of my generation waxed nostalgic about being mesmerized by Prince in those early years. His skill with a multitude of instruments was particularly praised. There were some references made to his salacious lyrics, but that was all overcome by his hypnotic musical ability. It can certainly be argued that he had skills.
But it was a ring of gold in a pig’s snout. It was mesmerizing harlot folly who led (or at least sought to lead) listeners into foolishness.[1] Justifying songs such as Darling Nikki, Little Red Corvette, and Cream is an exercise in protecting the virtue of harlot folly.
Prince, of course, is not the only one who is defended. He is only the most recent. Sadly, there are some Christians who will be screaming, “All things are lawful!” But for those who are being shaped by a cruciform aesthetic (as Paul seeks to do with the Corinthians), that is not the proper question. In fact, when we are only asking that question about our activities, odds are that we are trying to justify something that we know is not the best for us. Paul doesn’t respond to the Corinthians by saying, “No, all things are not lawful.” He calls them up to a higher standard, one that encompasses the lawful but thinks about that in which we engage at a deeper and more profound level: “But all things are not profitable” (1 Corinthians 6:12).
By the letter of the law, we may be able to justify our appreciation for the skills of harlot folly–she is made in the image of God, you know–but when the entire narrative of harlot folly is taken into account, it is difficult, and even dangerous, to dwell upon the particulars of her beauty. Each aspect of her superficial beauty is moving her admirers to a denouement of destruction.
When engaging ourselves with the arts of any kind, that which should be determining the depth of our involvement is the question, “Is it profitable?” Profitability is broadly defined for us as that which cultivates godliness in thinking and action, shaping us more and more into the image of Christ. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to ask of all that we listen to, watch, or read, “Where is this leading me? Does that pathway reflect God’s purposes for my life and the world?”
All art is telic. It is shaping our emotions, the way we think, and what we do. The more we immerse ourselves in a certain form of art, the more our minds are conformed to those ways of thinking. The art to which we give ourselves should be that which somehow reinforces the way God has ordered his creation in Christ Jesus and moves us to toward being those new creation people.
In determining profitability, we must also ask ourselves, “Are form and content appropriate?” What is the story that is being told? Is that story appropriate? Even if parts of the story are ugly, are they appropriate contributors to a beautiful purpose? For example, questions of nudity in film or paintings are common. There are times that it is appropriate. The ugly beauty of the cross includes nudity. It fits the narrative of necessary shame that contributes to the display of love of Christ for his bride. There are times in films such as Schindler’s List that nudity is anything but sexual. As Jews are being stripped and led to concentration camps, their powerlessness and shame before their captors depicts the realities and horrors of those historic events.
But it is not always the case that nudity is appropriate or even necessary to a story. There is nudity that is, for all intents and purposes, the object of the story; the hook that is meant to draw you into sordid lives. Maybe a Christian appreciates the talent of the producer or director, admiring his skills. Maybe he can appreciate the great camera work in pornography as well, but no matter how good the camera work is, the telos of the film is certainly not appropriate and can’t be justified by any Christian.
Good artists and good art take a person where he is and seek to move him to a better place. This better place may be no more than slap stick humor that causes people to laugh. The medicine of laughter is good for us. Music may be a salve for a hurting soul or the expression of joy of a grateful heart. There are works of art that may even take us to some deeply troubling places that cause us to think about evil, our participation in it, and how we might seek justice. Wherever it moves us, we must be aware of where it is moving us to make sure that we are following after the true beauty of lady wisdom and not the deadly beauty of harlot folly.
Bill Smith is Pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.
[1]I have been informed that Prince eventually cleaned up his act. I wouldn’t know personally because I was never a fan of Prince. My reference here is only to the appreciation I saw from Christians concerning his early music.