Good News and Bad Art
Posted: 22 December 2011 Filed under: Appreciating Art, Blogs | Tags: art, gospel coalition, greg thornbury, mike cosper, scotty smith, video Leave a comment »
"I'll be home for Christmas" by Thomas Kinkade, whose work is mentioned by the Gospel Coalition guys.
It’s about time I posted something Christmassy, or in fact anything at all… I’ve got a Christmas post ready to go up in the next day or two, but for now I thought I’d point you to this great video conversation at The Gospel Coalition: Bad Art and the Tortured Beauty of the Cross.
The discussion between Scotty Smith, Mike Cosper and Greg Thornbury focusses on the way evangelical Christians can often be pretty unrealistic in the art they create. The results are often at best inauthentic, and at worst just plain bad. And they usually fail to connect with the real experiences of either Christians or non-Christians.
These guys don’t say everything they could, and it’s a bit annoying that they all just agree with each other, but it’s a really helpful starting point. Here’s the video:
For what it’s worth, I agree with them. It’s tempting to just create nice things, but which don’t really capture or connect with the world around us. But it’s a fine line to tread. While I think we have to avoid kitsch art that ignores the reality of life in a fallen world, we shouldn’t revel in it either. As Christians, we have a good news which is honest about reality as it is, but which also offers hope for the future in the Lord Jesus. If we didn’t have that, then of course we would want to pretend everything is already lovely. But we can be real about the world now because we can be real about what the world will be like, thanks to Jesus.
Also, I love what Greg Thornbury is wearing.
