Why Christians Care About Art

Our aim is to prevent our guardians bring brought up among images of evil – as it were in a meadow of bad grass where, cropping and grazing in abundance, they little by little and all unawares build up a huge accumulation of evil in their soul. Rather, we must seek craftsmen with a talent for capturing what is lovely and graceful, so that our young, dwelling as it were in a healthy place, will benefit from everything around them. Like a breeze bringing health from a good place, the impact of works of beauty on eye or ear will imperceptibly from childhood on, guide them to resemblance, friendship, and harmony with the beauty of reason.

– Plato, Republic (ca. 380 BC) III. 401 b-d (italics mine)

Art can be one of the trickiest topics of conversation for a Christian to broach. Within Christian circles, putting forth an opinion on creative arts can lampoon you with unsolicited theological labels – the favourite poles being ‘staunchly fuddy-duddy’ or ‘carelessly liberal and experiential’. Outside the church, a Christian criticism of art is often accused of speaking to a subject which it has no expertise on, or of attempting to impose its cultural norms on society

In this quote from Republic, Plato shines a light on the nature of art which I think resonates with the Christian perspective. Plato suggests that art has a powerful ability to shape the way people see the world. It can shape the character, values and goals of an individual in a way in which other influences cannot. The distinctive feature of art is that it is able to do this ‘little by little and all unawares’. It is able to do this ‘imperceptibly’. Christianity holds that it is then extremely important as to what content an individual is being exposed to ‘little by little and unawares’.

What I think this means is not that a person listens to the Beatles in 1966 and then decides to throw away outdated mores about sex in 1967. Rather, that a person listens to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Who, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors, reads On the Road and a little Allen Ginsberg, notices that people go to jazz and beat clubs now and then, and pretty soon finds it ridiculous to hold onto traditional views about sex in any strong sense.

This explains why many Christians hold firm views about public Christian music and architecture – it is important for someone, somewhere to get the message right about what this art is communicating so that individuals are not ‘little by little and unawares’ led in different directions on important matters. It is important for the individual Christian to attempt to scrutinize the message of the music, books, paintings and architecture she chooses to surround herself with in her private life, since these will everyday, ‘little by little and unawares’, be affecting her character and outlook.

So this is a handy little insight from Plato about the Christian approach to art in church and private life. However, it seems to open a can of worms in regards to public, political life. Plato is famous for being an über-conservative in regards to art and politics. From his fundamental premise as outlined above, he went on to ban the majority of artists from his theoretical, ideal city, and suggested that the ‘guardians’, an elite class of warriors who serve as the political leaders of the society, should be in control of the message which all public art will disseminate. Today, it is hard not to think immediately of some of the totalitarian regimes of the Twentieth-Century and some current non-liberal societies which seem to have picked up this idea and ran with it to the harm of its citizenry.

However, I think this begs a helpful question for the Christian. If we agree with Plato that art has a unique and powerful ability to convince individuals of ideas which define their lives, and if we hold that there are better ideas which ought to define people’s lives, what ought the Christian to think of important and influential pieces of public art? Of popular movies, TV shows, significant novels and even billboards which are currently shaping most people’s environments?