Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky said that “Beauty will save the world.” Reflecting on those words in his 1970 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn asked, “What sort of a statement is that? … How could that be possible? When in bloodthirsty history did beauty ever save anyone from anything?”
I’ve always loved this line from poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, / And every common bush afire with God; / But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, / The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”
What this means is that the Christian worldview is not merely something we look at in order to analyze, study, and use with non-believers. It is something we are to look through. When we do, we see the brilliance of the world God made, the beauty of it along with the truth.
In September, the first prize at the annual Colorado State Fair art competition went to a submission entitled, “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial.” The painting was submitted by Jason Miller and depicts an ornate stage and costumed performers, washed in beautiful golden light. Miller, however, did not paint the image. Instead, he typed in a few prompts on a search bar, and an artificially intelligent art generator program, called Midjourney, did the rest.
A world-renowned artist recently created a painting that captures the heart of Jesus Christ in the popular TV series The Chosen.
Sometimes Christians think of “culture” as all the “bad” stuff “out there.” But culture is simply what humans do with the world. When God told Adam and Eve to fill the Earth and subdue it, He was telling them to make good culture. The result is that there are stories, art, music, and technological inventions that glorify God and build His Kingdom. Christian believers’ contributions to culture and the arts have been historically some of the most beautiful and influential in the world. But evil corrupts culture-making, too. That’s why humanity also makes art that spreads bad ideas, lifts up false idols, and hurts people.
Enjoying, engaging in, reflecting on, and creating art is a profoundly divine activity. God is, as theologian T. M. Moore puts it, “the Great Artist.” Made in His image, humans are also creators. Artistic creativity is, in fact, an integral and distinguishing capability of being human.
