valuing the arts
posted by luke on Friday, February 15, 2008 at 12:02 AM
The arts are an integral part of urban/cultural renewal. The arts are an integral part of the redemption of the whole person.
A dichotamy between the arts and academics is not only invalid, but pagan. It posits (and stems from) a gnostic-like dualism between body and soul.
The arts do justice to the fact that we are human beings, enfleshed spirits. The arts--music, dance, theater, painting, drawing, sculpture, jewlery, ceramics, printmaking, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, industrial design, etc...-- do justice to the incarnation and the resurrection of the body. The arts posit the importance of the physical world, an emphasis that is desperately needed in a church that is focused on an ethereal eternity, having forgotten the coming resurrection of the righteous.
This is, of course, not to mention a number of other benefits one gains from studying the arts and how those benefits affect the rest of one's education and worldview.
The arts teach us how to think spatially. The arts teach us how to look at the world--to ponder, to meditate, to listen, and to engage before we talk; before we form opinions or make judgments. The arts teach us to appreciate beauty, skill, hardwork, perseverance, and discipline. The arts teach us to appreciate life and enjoy God's good world. The arts teach us that actions speak louder than words, or (if that's too cliche') that our message needs an appropriate and corresponding vehicle.
And I am here only talking about the medium or form of the arts, not to mention the content or the message of any given piece and what that might have to say.
The arts, you see, are essential to the Christian worldview. To say, as a Christian, that the arts are unimportant or that what is learned in an art class is unimportant? That is to give mere lip-service to the Christian worldview without understanding it
