The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries...
Transcript of The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries...
![Page 1: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Mark D. Harris
MD, MPH, MBA, MDiv
PhD Student – World Religions, SBTS
ThM Student – Christianity and the Arts, SBTS
https://mdharrismd.com/2015/12/10/christianity-and-the-arts/
THE LOCAL CHURCH, THE ARTS, AND
SHAPING THE WORLD FOR CHRIST
![Page 2: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
OBJECTIVES – ATTENDEES WILL:
• Describe the arts and discuss shaping the world
• Discuss how members of other religions use the Arts to shape the
world to their liking.
• Summarize the history of the Arts in Christian work.
• Describe how the arts help:
• Teach ethics and morality
• Meet human physical and psychological needs
• Build communities
• Reveal the person of God
• Discuss how churches and parachurch organizations today are using
the arts to effectively shape their world for Christ.
![Page 3: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
THE ARTS DESCRIBED
• Types
• Music
• Visual arts – painting, photography, sculpture
• Architecture
• Literary arts – poetry, prose
• Performing arts – dance, theater
• Description (instead of definition)
• Western aesthetics - “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to
aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary
significance.”
• Most of the world – “used to worship God, praise great people, express emotion,
communicate information, make money, and accompany other actions from building
furniture to flying airplanes
• Christian Arts - Art by professed Christians, Art with Biblical or Christian themes, and Art
created for a Christian audience
![Page 4: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
SHAPING THE WORLD
• Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit –food/shelter, work, relationships, religion
• Groups do the same thing - Businesses, governments, other organizations
• Even animals modify their environment to their own benefit
• Shaping the World for Christ means:
• Bringing others to a saving faith in Christ
• Building godliness in current believers and communities
• Shaping the greater society with a Christian understanding of the world
![Page 5: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
USES OF THE ARTS
• Thought of Western aesthetic – the arts are for contemplation and
reflection.
• Thought of most of the world throughout history – THE ARTS ACT –
they shape the world to the interest of the artist and the community.
![Page 6: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
SHAPING THE WORLD - THE ARTS USED IN HEALING
AND WORSHIP
• Sri Lankan Sanni Masks
• Mask corresponds to symptom
(headache, fever, etc.)
• Mask used in dance and song ritual
to cure disease
• Christian Catacomb Art
• Christ the Good Shepherd
• Peter and Marcellinus
• Used for worship
![Page 7: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
HOW MUSLIMS HAVE USED ART TO SHAPE THE
WORLD
Selimiye Mosque, Edirne,
Turkey, 1575 – Architect
Mimar Sinan,
Tapestry made in the Muslim
world by Muslim artist
How can these works of art shape the world for Islam?
![Page 8: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
HOW HINDUS HAVE USED ART TO SHAPE THE
WORLD
Durga Temple, Fairfax Station, VA
Angor Wat, Cambodia
![Page 9: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
HOW BUDDHISTS HAVE USED THE ARTS TO
SHAPE THE WORLD
Buddhist temple at
Borobudur, IndonesiaPainting of the
Buddha, Thailand
![Page 10: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
HOW CHRISTIANS HAVE USED THE ARTS TO SHAPE
THE WORLD
• Early Rome – house churches used simple art such as fish, bread, etc.
• Themes shared with Jewish religion
• Later Rome – Christians taking over pagan temples and adapting pagan art to
Christian themes
• Middle Ages – Christendom culturally dominant in Europe
• Art to reveal God, support Church, exalt kings and control people
• Renaissance and Reformation – Protestant reaction against Catholic
excesses in art.
• Modern Period – Christendom retreating and secularism/liberalism advancing
in the West.
• Except music, Church largely out of the arts
• Postmodern Period – Church rediscovering the power of all of the Arts in
shaping the world for Christ.
![Page 11: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
USING THE ARTS TO…
• Teach ethics and morality
• Meet human physical and psychological
needs
• Build communities
• Reveal the person of God
![Page 12: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
THE ARTS TEACHING ETHICS AND MORALITY – PROCESSION TO CALVARY
![Page 13: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
DISCUSSION
• The painting
• Where is Jesus?
• Who are the red clad men?
• Why is Jesus in 1st century garb and everyone else in 16 th century
clothing?
• Why is the windmill atop the strange mountain?
• What are the bystanders in the picture doing?
• The painter
• Pieter Brueghel (1525-1569), Netherlands
• The times
• Reformation and Dutch Revolt against Hapsburg Spain
• How could this painting shape the world for Christ?
![Page 14: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
THE PRODIGAL
SON
What do you see?
What do you feel?
![Page 15: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
DISCUSSION• The Painting
• The bystanders – not seeming to understand
• The prodigal – ragged clothes, shaved head and face, one shoe, the image of pain, poverty, and shame
• The older brother – disdainful, stiff, proud, holding himself apart from the joyful reunion
• The father – embracing, forgiving, left hand larger than right, humbling himself
• The Painter – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669)
• How could this painting shape the world for Christ?
• As Christians, who do we identify with? Whom should we become?
![Page 16: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
SUSANNA AND THE
ELDERS -
DANIEL CHAPTER 13
• Two voyeurs observe
Susanna bathing.
• They request sexual favors
and she refuses.
• They accuse her at the
council of meeting a lover in
the garden, a capital offense.
• Daniel appears, cross-
examines the elders,
discovers their lies.
• The men are convicted and
executed.
• Justice is served
![Page 17: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS
GIUSEPPE BARTOLOMEO CHIARI (1654-1727)
What do
you see?
What do
you feel?
![Page 18: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
SUSANNA AND
THE ELDERS
(UTRECHT
SCHOOL)
What do you see?
What do you feel?
![Page 19: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
DISCUSSION ABOUT SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS
• What do the various paintings portray?
• How do you suppose the perspectives of men and women would
differ?
• Who are you in the picture?
• What moral lesson does this teach?
• How else could this impact your ministry?
![Page 20: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
THE ARTS MEETING HUMAN PHYSICAL AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
• Biophilia
![Page 21: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
• Natural light and outside
greenery (accessible
through large windows)
decrease anxiety,
depression, and negative
thoughts
EVIDENCE BASED DESIGN AND BIOPHILIA
• Fort Belvoir Community Hospital
• Gardens speed healing
• Large nature photographs decrease blood pressure, stress
![Page 22: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
• National Intrepid Center of Excellence,
WRNMMC
• Traumatic Brain Injury
• Psychological Health
• Healing arts therapy (music, painting,
drawing
• Similar design as FBCH to achieve
similar effects
OTHER MEDICAL FACILITIES
• Cleveland Clinic
• Art displays benefit mood in visitors
• Water features and gardens
improve overall health
![Page 23: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
THE ARTS BUILDING
COMMUNITIES
• Communities of artists
and communities of art
lovers
• Where do Christians
artists in your area form
communities?
![Page 24: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
• Sainte Chapelle, Paris - Consider how a
peasant farmer living in squalor could
feel the presence of God in this church
• The Light
• The towering walls
• The echo of the Gregorian Chants
THE ARTS REVEALING THE PERSON OF GOD
• Kreuzberg Monastery,
Germany
• Consider how an illiterate
Christian could learn about the
Passion from the stations of
the Cross
![Page 25: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
AGNES DEI (1635-1640)
What do you see? What do you feel?
![Page 26: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
DISCUSSION
• The painting
• The lamb is bound for slaughter
• The whiteness and detail of the lamb contrasts with the indistinct
blackness of the background
• The halo suggests that this is more than just an ordinary lamb
• The lamb is not resisting but passively awaits what is to come
• The painter - Francisco De Zurbaran (1598-1664)
• Spanish, painting for monasteries near Seville
• The times
• Spain was the first modern global empires, “Golden Age to 1659”
• The ongoing Spanish Inquisition
• How could this painting impact your ministry?
![Page 27: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
USING THE ARTS
TO SHAPE THE
WORLD FOR
CHRIST IN 2017
![Page 28: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
PITFALLS
• The local church remains a church, not an art studio.
• The arts supplement, they do not replace, the Word in the church.
• Arts can lead to idolatry.
• Pastors and congregants may feel inadequate to use art well.
• Music has been a battlefield in the church for millennia. Visual and
other arts can become the same.
![Page 29: The Local Church, the Arts, and Shaping the World for Christ · SHAPING THE WORLD •Everyone tries to modify their world for their own benefit – food/shelter, work, relationships,](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022070720/5ee0c7d5ad6a402d666be425/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
CONCLUSION
• The arts have been used extensively in history for Christian
work.
• The arts help:
• Teach ethics and morality
• Meet human physical and psychological needs
• Build communities
• Reveal the person of God
• Churches and parachurch organizations today are using the arts
to effectively shape their world for Christ.