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Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts

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A small book on a big topic is a dangerous proposition. It may show disrespect for its subject by bragging that it can be read in a short time, such as Kant in 90 minutes. (Kant in 90 minutes is not Kant at all.) On the other hand, a short book can thoughtfully introduce a profound subject worthy of further consideration; it may be a primer. Art for God's Sake is a worthy primer; it addresses the relationship of Christian faith and art in the hope of helping Christians "recover the arts."

Philip Graham Ryken, Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and the author of several previous books, including Written in Stone (an insightful study of the Decalogue), has in sixty-four pages outlined a biblical view of art's place in God's world. Ryken is moved by the plight of the Christian artist whose calling and work is misunderstood or rejected by the church. He realizes that Christians may be suspicious of art because of their concern for idolatry and their repulsion toward much of contemporary art, which has abandoned the ideal of beauty and revels in the bizarre, the transgressive, and the outright ugly. Ryken also laments that Christians too often reduce art to utilitarian and evangelistic purposes that fail to honor art as art. Further, Christians often laud art that does not take the brokenness of life east of Eden seriously. Quite frequently, Christian art is little more than pious kitsch, which he aptly describes as "tacky artwork of poor quality that appeals to low tastes" (p. 14).

Yet art should be consecrated to the glory of God, and Ryken instructs us briefly to that end. Thus he develops a sound theology of art based on the beauty of God's creation, our status as creative beings made in God's image (Genesis 1:26), and God's calling on individuals to create works of art. Ryken ruminates at some length on the significance of the calling of Bezalel and Oholiab, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit to be skilled craftsmen in the construction of God's tabernacle, his beautiful dwelling place (Exodus 31). God "called artists to make the tabernacle, and to make sure that they did it well, he equipped them with every kind of artistic talent. By doing this, God was putting the blessing of his divine approval on both the arts and the artist" (22). Moreover, these craftsmen produced "three kinds of visual art: symbolic, representative, and nonrepresentative (or abstract) art" (33), thus showing God's endorsement of these forms. These are only two of the significant insights that Ryken draws from the tabernacle.

More generally, "the kind of art that glorifies God is good, true, and, finally, beautiful" (42). While truth and beauty are not identical, contra Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn," they belong together. Ryken notes, "The problem with some modern and postmodern art is that it seeks to offer truth at the expense of beauty. It tells the truth about ugliness and alienation, leaving out the beauty of creation and redemption" (43). On the other hand, "A good deal of so-called Christian art tends to have the opposite problem. It tries to show beauty without admitting the truth about sin, and to that extent it is false--dishonest about the tragic implications of our depravity. Think of all the bright, sentimental landscapes that portray an ideal world unaffected by the Fall..." (43). (Ryken does not name names, but he is surely thinking of Thomas Kinkade's paintings.)

Ryken aptly summarizes this thesis in the concluding chapter, "Beautiful Savior." "This is the Christian view of art: the artist is called and gifted by God--who loves all kinds of art; who maintains high aesthetic standards for goodness, truth, and beauty; and whose glory is art's highest goal" (p. 53). He then concludes with a meditation on Christ's death and resurrection in light of this thesis. The ugliness of human sin required that an all-beautiful and all-glorious God send his Son to become a disfigured and mutilated sacrifice that we might be redeemed. In this sense, "the cross screams against all the sensibilities of his divine aesthetic" (55). Yet this was the only way for redemption to be won: "Sin had brought ugliness and death into the world. In order to save his lost creation, God sent his Son right into the absurdity and alienation. There Jesus took our sin himself, dying to pay the price that justice demanded. It was such an ugly death that people had to turn away" (55-56). But God transformed this ugliness into beauty through the resurrection, in which Christ is given a glorious and triumphant body. In light of these tremendous realities, "we should devote our skill to making art for the glory of God, and for the sake of his Son--our beautiful Savior, Jesus Christ" (58).

I am the worst artist in the world. I'm sure there are some who would contest that claim, but if you were to ask me to draw something (anything!) I think you'd quickly agree that I am about as bad as a person can get. It is strange that I am such a terribly poor artist as I come from a long line of very capable artists. Yet somehow, when the various family genes were combined to form me, all of those artistic genes fled.

Not only am I the worst artist in the world, but I also have a strong dislike for most of the visual arts. For many years I thought that my dislike of these forms of art stemmed from my lack of talent in this area. But after much reflection I think there may be another source for my dislike of art. In my education I was constantly taught that art is inherently subjective--that meaning is assigned to a piece of art not by the artist but by the person gazing at it. I was taught that I was to study a work of art, allow it to speak to me, and understand the meaning of the work to be whatever came to mind at that moment. I may not have been able to express why I found this unsatisfactory, but it led me to dislike art and even to distrust it.

In recent years I have been recovering from this viewpoint. Art For God's Sake by Philip Graham Ryken, pastor of historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, has helped in this recovery. It is a short book, weighing in at only 64 pages, but one that is thick with satisfying, biblical reflections on the arts. Ryken argues for the recovery of the arts among Christians. He argues also for the objective nature of the arts--an objectivity which encourages us to seek out the meaning the artist meant a work to display.

The purpose of the book is twofold. Ryken wishes to "encourage Christian artists in the pursuit of their calling and to give artists and nonartists alike a short introduction to thinking Christianly about the arts" (17). The proper place to begin thinking about this topic is Scripture. We will find that Scripture affirms the value of art and artists "while at the same time protecting it from the corrupting effects of sin" (17). And so Ryken begins in an obvious place, showing that in Exodus 31 God specially called and equipped two men to build His tabernacle. The passage teaches four fundamental principles for the construction of a Christian theology of the arts: the artist's call and gift come from God; God loves all kinds of art; God maintains high standards for goodness, truth and beauty; and art is for the glory of God. The next four chapters expound upon these four principles.

Here is a brief summary of these four principles:

The artist is called and gifted by God--who loves all kinds of art; who maintains high aesthetic standards for goodness, truth, and beauty; and whose glory is art's highest goal. We accept these principles because they are biblical, and also because they are true to God's character. What we believe about art is based on what we believe about God. Art is what it is because God is who he is.

The book concludes with a reflection on our beautiful Savior and the exceeding ugliness that was His death and crucifixion. "The center of God's masterpiece of salvation was an event of appalling ugliness and degradation" (54).

And so Ryken concludes that artists should use their artistic talents to bring glory to God. And further, the church should take a leading role in encouraging this type of expression. Art For God's Sake, while a short book, was encouraging to me and I trust would be equally encouraging to those who feel the need to express themselves through their artistic talents. I hope that this book will prove to be a catalyst in sparking a recovery of the arts.

Most art in the last fifty, or even one hundred years, has lost its beauty, particularly sacred beauty, and in response Christians have abandoned the arts. In Art for God's Sake, Philip Graham Ryken makes a case for both the calling of Christian artists as a ministry and for Christians as supporters of the arts.

Ryken reminds readers that art comes from the supreme Artist, God himself. He says of Him in creation, "...like a painter adding watercolors to a sketch, or like a composer developing variations on a melodic theme, God takes the forms of creation and adds content. He fills the water with sea creatures, the sky with birds, and the land with wild animals." (22) The author then informs readers of the first mention of artists in Exodus 31, when the Lord commissions the tabernacle through Moses, and the craftsmen used for various media were called of God, inferring that art is meant to glorify God. He says that the gifts God gave to these artists showed the necessity of "spiritual insight as well as practical skill."

In the spirit of Francis Schaeffer, Ryken makes a worthy defense of the rich variety of arts, and encourages believers to recapture that which elevates the Lord. He defines worthy art as good, true, and beautiful, the last being somewhat subjective. The book is brief, only 58 pages, and has a helpful section that follows with suggestions for further reading. And Ryken's writing is conversational, making it something anyone would enjoy. Highly recommended. - Anne Walker, Christian Book Previews.com

Ryken has written some wonderful things and preached some great sermons, but this book is not in that category.

While he does affirm the arts explicitly,and say some very encouraging and true things, at the same time he undermines his very goal. An example of this is when he states at the outset "images easily lend themselves to idolatry"(p.11).

This simply isn't the Biblical perspective on art. Art does not cause or lend itself to idolatry any more than a lazyboy chair lends itself to sloth. If art was the cause of idolatry, God would not have commanded art to be made within His place of worship.
The reformers made it clear that anything and everything can become an idol. John Calvin was right when he said, "our hearts are idol factories." Art does not cause idolatry. It is an occasion for it, just like the approval of man, money, power, etc. I believe this misunderstanding is part of the problem - we need to stop singling out art as somehow more evil or tempting than the other things we worship.

Ryken's presents a proof of his point in Exodus 31-32. In examining the golden calf passage he writes, "Anyone who doubts the tendency of artistry to become idolatry needs only to read on into Exodus 32 (p. 49).
Amazingly, given Ryken's knowledge and wisdom, he misses the real context: The artist, Bezalel, who is commissioned by God in Exodus 31 is not mentioned in chapter 32. His artwork is not yet created or mentioned either.
Who made the golden calf? Aaron. Exodus 32 is about priests giving in to the desires of the people, and people being prone to return to their old slavery to sin, not about the art commissioned by God being used for idolatry.

Ryken is confusing the issue he seeks to clarify.

disappointed.

I have much respect for Phillip Ryken and even more for his father who was my professor. You're better off going to his father's books for insight into faith and art. In fact, given that his father made more insightful analysis decades ago, why write this book? I guess it makes money, or a publisher thought it would. So, the better question is why read it? If you are a typical Evangelical (statistically less likely to have a college degree than the rest of America), then maybe you need to read this. If you have any background in art or theology, then skip this one. It's superficial. It's mostly a collection of quips about art by authors from the past 50 years based on mostly weak connections to scripture. Not that everything Ryken wrote is false or useless. It's just that we're way past a need to validate the arts as a spiritual enterprise. There are Christians making art in contemporary religious and secular contexts en masse. There is no need to recover the arts. The Evangelical audience just needs to get educated in how to interpret art. That would be a useful book. Teach Evangelicals how to engage the arts. This book does none of the heavy lifting addressing the messiness of the real problem with American Christianity and the arts -- prejudice, lack of education, misinformation, and the fact that Evangelicals created their own subculture for 50 years that now they cannot understand the rest of the world that left them behind. The artists (Christian or otherwise) are waiting for you, not the other way around. This book is just another superficial rehashing of what hundreds of Evangelical books have said before, only this one has less depth and insight. Ryken missed the opportunity to take the old arguments further and gives no sense of the the state of affairs in the arts and in the church in 21st century America.

Thinking about it more, this book is an ironic comment on Evangelicalism and the arts -- no matter how many books they write to address the issue, the anti-art culture Evangelicals created decades ago is not going away anytime soon. Books like this one show that the solution won't come from Evangelical theology of the arts. A true Christian embrace of the arts will have to come from a tradition that does not have a history of scorning creation, divine or otherwise. The comparison to Catholic theology of the arts is often made because the Catholic church in America has remained engaged with the arts because they have an historic, solid theology of the arts. Evangelical authors, educators, and pastors would do well to adopt an approach outside their tradition when it comes to art because, as this book shows once again, they have no effective, compelling, inspiring theology of art.

Five stars for this brief discussion of art from a Christian perspective. Ryken, minister at Tenth Presbyterian Philadelphia, interacts with the abilities of Bezalel and Oholiab, artisans of the tabernacle, to develop his topic. His discussion is very brief (less than 58 pages) but pointed. Both art and artist are viewed in relationship to God's greater person and glory. The author also deals with different kinds of art and the question of "Christian art". Writing from a reformed perspective, Ryken looks for the transformation of culture and speaks in light of the postmodern generation. The book is really too brief but will be especially good for those on the outside who desire a greater glimpse.

Yes, I am a speed reader--but 15 minutes? I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know, and that was disappointing. I suspect that this little book is actually a sermon that was written down and published. Here it is: Four points based on Exodus 31: 1) The artist's calling is from God 2)God loves all kinds of art 3)God maintains high standards for goodness, truth, and beauty, and 4)art is for the glory of God. The book elaborates briefly on these points. This is not a bad book; in fact, I agree with the premise, it is a topic that is important, and the little tome is well-written. If you know nothing about the topic, this book is an excellent morsel to whet your appetite. If you have any knowledge at all about the subject, better to pass on this one and look for something more substantial. This might very well be the book for you, it just wasn't the book for me.

One commentator opined: Michelangelo instilled into his figures of art "a sense of moral cause for action." One case of this can be seen in the facial expression of his most celebrated work, the marble statue "David." Additionally his "Last Judgement," in the Sistine Chapel, is a "depiction of extreme crisis." And much of modern religious art is in crisis.

Nevertheless in "Art for God's Sake: A Call to Recover the Arts" Philip Graham Ryken (Pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church: Philadelphia) has provided a petite volume to help promote contemplation concerning art and artists, as he urges the church to pursue beauty and the expression of it in art.

Topics include:

- Art and the Church
- Why some churches have a negative attitude regarding art
- How to produce better art that testifies to God's truth and grace (p.15)
- The artist's calling
- God's specific instructions on workmanship and artistic works

Exodus 31:1-6 "Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 "See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 "And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, 4 "to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, 5 "in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. 6 "And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all who are gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you."

"Art for God's Sake" is a commendable start as Ryken concentrates on the connection of Christianity and art to help ignite and instill an aspiration in the church to recover the arts. Because God is good and He dwells in the beauty of His holiness and He has created such a wondrous creation, the Christian should seek to emulate God through the creative expression within the arts. Yes faithful art should be aimed to bring glory to God as the artist helps the viewer enjoy Him forever, including while on earth, while pondering the beauty conveyed by the creative man made in God's image (Genesis 1:26).

The gospel "gives hope" to the man who has an "urge to create" (p. 9).

The chief truth that turned ugliness into supreme beauty was the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; moreover the glory and love of Jesus should inspire His people to "devote our skill to making art for the glory of God, and for the sake of His Son - our beautiful Savior, Jesus Christ."

Endorsed by Nancy Pearcey: "Theologically rich and remarkably readable."
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This short and concise book is extremely helpful for pastors looking for the intersection of theology and the arts. Ryken presents a biblical case for the Artist's calling; God's appreciation and love for all types of Art; God's standard for goodness, beauty, and truth and it's application in Art; God himself as Artist and Creator; and how to do and redeem Art for the glory of God. This book presents the goodness of God's original design for creativity and beauty that was marred by the fall. God is renewing all thing including Art, and Art can present the truth of beauty redeemed through the Savior and Redeemer.

This book prompted me to sign up for a painting class in my area. It challenged me to stop wasting my gift; God gave it to me and it's my responsibility to cultivate it.

Dr. Ryken does a wonderful job pointing out the importance of the arts and the role the arts should play in our society and the Christian community. He may push some buttons for those who see the arts only as an avenue for ministry -- thus the subtitle, "A Call to RECOVER the Arts".

RECOVERY seems to have as its foundation DISCOVERY which will require Christians to take the time to learn about the arts and do some hard thinking about the role they should play in the Church and a believer's everyday life of worship of a God who remains the consummate artist.