Arts, Christianity and Culture

2009-09-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

Why Christians Should Engage the Culture
“ There is a flow of history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind.. the results of their though world flow through their fingers”(Francis Shaeffer)
God is creator, the supreme paradigm of all beauty and the fountain of endless inspiration for men, since creation. When God ordained Adam to keep and maintain the Garden of Eden, he was in fact, making men co-creator with Him.
We bear God´s image, and among many communicable attributes with the Father, the need for aesthetics, for beauty, became ingrained in our human DNA. Even perverted minds such as Adolf Hitler, dreamed of a city that would represent his Thousand-Year Reich, he had a taste for what he considered “Pure Art”.
How then should we Christians interact with our culture? Take for instance visual arts, why have the contemporary church notably distanced itself from this area of human endeavor? It can be argued that the church values arts in general, to the proportion that it connotes some evangelistic usefulness or has explicit reference to Christ, thus implying a true “Christian Art”, or, “art with a spiritual purpose”. If that is true, no wonder the great majority of traditional Evangelicals (at least in the West) have a stronger taste for Academic School of Art (especially art depicting biblical scenes) and ignore, for example, abstractionism.
Should we then use the same rationale concerning all other areas of human knowledge such as medicine or Architecture? Is there an “evangelical medicine”? The answer is obvious, what makes something or someone set apart for God (or holy) is the heart, the inner motivation that suffuses every action, every creative act.
God, in His common grace, gave to men ability to create music, take for instance this Biblical passage:” 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute”. Genesis 4:20-21 (New International Version).If you take the Bible as inerrant as I do, you have to agree that all human kind benefited from Jubal´s skills, a God given ability to His creation. We can call it “common grace”.
Consider the great personalities of the Bible like Moses and Daniel, they were deep-rooted in pagan cultures, and assimilated their values, wisdom and technology, they participated in their culture, but they never made the mistake to buy into a syncretistic religion, religious pluralism was not part of their agenda. Daniel stood up for truth, not bowing down to the King, as to a god, and suffered the consequences.
We need to see ourselves as “A city within the city”, that is, the church as counter-culture, always finding creative ways to be part of our culture, and at the same time, salt and light of the world, as Jesus told us to do.
Michael Horton wrote: “Being a Christian doesn't mean that we have to renounce every aspect of popular culture and learning. It just means that if we are involved in secular education (whether the arts or sciences), we should think about our new-found knowledge from a Christian viewpoint. (Australian Presbyterian November 2007).
I personally believe that we can contribute with our gifts and talents to build up our community; the pastor is not the sole recipient of God´s revelation who performs spiritual acts, every believer when he or she wakes up in the morning and goes to work, is building the Kingdom of God: entrepreneurs are generating wealth to benefit the community, C.E.O´s are making decisions that will affect positively the community, artists are painting and composing to express God´s creativity, housewives are caring for their families and so on, every instance of our lives count, as we submit ourselves to the Father.
“They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers”. (epistle to Diognetus)

Art Résumé
Lucas Ribeiro
I had a great experience years ago studying at “ Escola de Artes Visuais Parque Lage” under the supervision of Beatriz Milhazes and Daniel Senise, and also spent some time learning ceramics ( Arts of Fire) with Celeida Tostes. I never stop painting, my activities as theologian and architect only enhanced my perception o f art.

Here we can see a glimpse of our discussion during classes with Luiz Pizarro( left) and Daniel Senise ( to my right). We were talking about my painting which was on the floor right beneath us.

New Series
Let me present to you my new work, it is commonly known as collage, using mixed media on canvas, produced in the months of July and August 2009.

" Shipwreck 45X30 cm" Mixed media on canvas

” Thy Will Be Done”- Mixed media on canvas. 60x40 cm

" Spitz-35x20 cm"

" The Mummy-60x45 cm"

”Red Fish” 1,00X 1.30 cm.

“ Red Train” 70x50 cm mixed media on canvas

" The Fighter" 80x1.10 cmm" Mixed Media

" Beach Boys-50x45 cm"

“We Believe” 1,00x 80 cm “