See No Evil? (Discernment in the Arts) - Carolyn Arends

Many of us who peruse this blog love stories (whether those stories be told in novels, playhouses or movie theatres.) Many of us here also seek to follow the Apostle Paul’s encouragement to train our minds on “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, [and] whatever is admirable (Phil 4:8, NIV).” Often, we face a quandary. What if, to tell a story honestly, unsavoury or downright evil behaviours must be portrayed?  Are we constrained—either as consumers or creators of art—to keep certain topics or words off limits?

This spring, I found myself struggling through this question with a group of college students in a class I was teaching on faith and the arts. We could all agree upon extreme cases of exploitative and gratuitous sex, violence and abusive language that are clearly outside the bounds of the Philippians 4:8 mandate. But we were less sure what to do with greyer areas. What if the questionable elements in a story are not there to titillate, but rather because they are an important part of telling the truth about the human condition?  The Bible itself contains many frank and unflinching depictions of human depravity; if we were to legalistically and thoughtlessly apply the Philippians 4:8 mandate to Scripture, we’d have to censor a good deal of what is there.

Despite several lively debates, we never did arrive at a clear consensus on this issue. But we did settle on a framework that helped us at least begin to more thoughtfully and prayerfully engage with stories of all kinds. When tasked with evaluating a piece of art in any genre, we asked ourselves three questions, inspired by the Church’s long history of appropriating (quite appropriately, I think) Plato’s three Transcendentals.

Is it good?

Is it true?

Is it beautiful?

The first question – Is it good? – involves ethics and morals. It requires us to consider not only whether a story contains offensive words or scenes, but also whether the worldview it tacitly conveys is an ethical one. It might be possible for a film to be rated “G,” but embody an insidious worldview in which material success is considered the ultimate meaning in life, or people are merely means to ends. Conversely, it might be possible for a movie to contain violence, sex or language, but provide a perspective on the human condition that moves the viewer towards a more ethical or moral stance.

The second question – Is it true? – is an even more theological one. Does the story—whether it is fact or fantasy or something in between—say something honest about the world and the people who inhabit it? Does it hint at anything true about God? Even if the worldview in a story is in conflict with the Gospel, can it teach us something true about the perspectives and needs of the people who hold it?

The third question – Is it beautiful? – has to do with aesthetics. It asks whether the art in question is well-crafted and successfully formed. A depraved story may be breathtakingly depicted. (In such instances we should proceed with caution.) Or, as is sometimes the case in explicitly “Christian” storytelling, a good and true story may be shabbily crafted. (Caution is required here, too! Please!)

With these three questions, my students and I were able to begin a process of discernment that each of us will be working through for the rest of our lives. We might decide that a story lacking in one of the Transcendentals can still be worthy of our attention due to its strengths in another.  Most essentially, we felt challenged to try to create work ourselves that was deeply good, unflinchingly true, and as beautiful as we could possibly make it.

I pray you will go and do likewise!

Carolyn

PS – My own adventure in art-making this spring involves recording an album of Christmas originals, which will be released October 15, 2014.  This project will be my 11th CD; it’s the first one we’re crowdfunding. We’re asking people to consider pre-ordering the album (with great discounts and perks) in order to help us make it. Please check out our Kickstarter project. Thanks!

The Three Platonic Ideals: Truth — Martin

In my recent blogs I have been talking about the three Platonic ideals: First Goodness (Nov. 14), then Beauty (Dec. 31); and now we’ll look at the third — Truth. These concepts have all been under attack in recent days. The politically correct are troubled by absolutes — particularly by Goodness and Truth.

Although Christians are comfortable with the word Truth, post-modernists have undermined it so that it’s viewed subjectively. In the same way that the ideal of Beauty has been watered down by the misconception that it is "in the eye of the beholder", many now contrast what is "true" to one person with what is "true" to another. Personally, I don’t like the word Truth to be used to mean "what I think is real"; we already have the word "believe" to indicate that. I prefer to save the word Truth to mean what really is, regardless of whether it is perceived or not.

If we don’t reserve this word for this purpose, we no longer have a simple way of expressing the idea of something that really is regardless of our perception. If I say, it is true that God sent Jesus to die for us, I don’t merely claim to believe it, but that it is fact regardless of what people may say. In his essay "The Death of Words" C.S. Lewis says that when "you have killed a word you have also...blotted from the human mind the thing that word originally stood for. Men do not long continue to think what they have forgotten how to say."

It is true, that sometimes believers falsely claim to have a corner on Truth. I think of the Catholic church persecuting Galileo because they believed in a geocentric universe. I think of when we use the Bible as a science textbook, dogmatically claiming to have a full understanding of everything that happened when God created the world, interpreting scripture in ways that may never have been intended. We need to proceed with humility as we speak of God’s Truth.

But we can and should speak of Truth — of what really is — because we have some unique insights to offer. As a poet I consider words to be precious, and concepts such as Truth to be worth protecting. The word Truth carries with it the idea of accuracy — that’s why it’s an ideal; if we remove this from our concept what is left of the value Plato praised?

D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week; his new poetry book, Poiema (Wipf & Stock), and his chapbook So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed are available at http://www.dsmartin.ca/

The Three Platonic Ideals: Beauty — Martin

In November, I introduced the three Platonic ideals of Goodness, Beauty and Truth. These three ideals have slipped in and out of fashionable thought, and yet their centrality remains. As I mentioned in my blog on Goodness (November 14th) the one of these three virtues most neglected by the church, in recent years, has been beauty. This has not always been so.

During the Renaissance and the Reformation, the church (first the Catholic and later the Protestant churches) had great influence over painting, sculpture and music. Consider Biblical themes in the paintings of such masters as Giotto, Raphael, Michelangelo, El Greco, and Rembrandt. Consider the spirituality behind the music of such composers as Handel and Bach.

Today, we are beginning to again acknowledge the importance of celebrating all of God’s creation, and that the beauty of that creation tells us much about the creator. Similarly, we are learning that we are called on to imitate God — not merely in his Goodness and Truth, but also in his creation of Beauty. Eugene Peterson (author of The Message) in reflecting on Psalm 29 in his sermon "The Beauty of Holiness" said, "Beauty is our sensory access to holiness" (Image #29). He went on to say, "Beauty is the term we apply to these hints of transcendence, these perceptions that there is more going on here than we can account for."

My reflection on Beauty, from my poetry collection Poiema, follows:


Let Beauty Come

Psalm 90:17

Let beauty rest on us like a shaft of light
penetrating to the dimness of our forest floor
our eager green turns toward it

Let beauty come like rain for Hopkins’ roots
splattering exuberantly on our disappointments
making right what we could never foresee

Awaken our hibernating senses so we find
what was hiding & what was on its way
The affirmation of blessing

Let beauty grow in the work of our hands
not our own but truest beauty
growing in the work of our hands

As Peterson has said, "We are in a world at play to the glory of God, in the beauty of holiness."

D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week; his new poetry book, Poiema (Wipf & Stock), and his chapbook So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed are available at http://www.dsmartin.ca/

The Three Platonic Ideals: Goodness — Martin

I’m no scholar of the ancients; yet I’m often so drawn to ideas that ring true, that I have to give them further thought. The Greek philosopher Plato, centuries before Christ, spoke of three virtues,— Goodness, Beauty and Truth. The twentieth century snubbed its nose at these ideals as subjective wishful thinking, but such pseudo-sophistication wore out it’s welcome, when it’s ideas proved unable to stand up where real lives are really lived. Plato’s insight is worth our renewed consideration.

Of these three values, often the Christian community has embraced just two: Goodness and Truth. Similarly, even though the art community has rediscovered Beauty, it doesn’t have much to say about Goodness. Our "tolerant" Canadian society, while ready to accept Beauty and Goodness in and of themselves, is wishy-washy on the subject of Truth. I believe we need all three.

C.S. Lewis read George MacDonald’s novels when he was a young atheist. He later wrote, "The quality which had enchanted me in his imaginative works turned out to be the quality of the real universe, the divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic reality in which we all live. I should have been shocked in my ‘teens if anyone had told me that what I learned to love in Phantastes was goodness."

When we portray or bring forth Beauty, Truth and Goodness in the novels and poetry we write, in the worship we offer, in the lives we lead, we are reflecting "the real universe" and reflecting its Creator. Hollywood has trouble portraying Goodness. It produces exciting (although sometimes two-dimensional) villains, but its "good guys" are often either boring or seriously tainted. It is a rare film that captures anything substantial of Goodness, Beauty or Truth.

I believe Christian writers often have trouble finding their way, too. Do we try so hard to show Goodness and spiritual Truth that our manuscripts are no longer true to life? Are we, on the other hand, so determined to show the truth of evil in our world that we have lost our taste for Goodness? I wouldn’t want to prescribe a code for Christian storytellers, but I wonder if even some of our best contemporary writers are having trouble here. Perhaps we would all benefit by reflecting — in a biblically balanced way — on Plato’s three ideals. Yes, stories in the Bible freely tell of sin, but there are certain ideals on which Philippians chapter four tells us to focus.

D.S. Martin is Music Critic for Christian Week; his new poetry book, Poiema (Wipf & Stock), and his chapbook So The Moon Would Not Be Swallowed are available at http://www.dsmartin.ca/