Addicted to Mediocrity
I just finished reading a good book called “Addicted to Mediocrity” by Franky Schaffer.
It is his premise that the arts and creativity is inherently a good thing given to us by God. He states that creativity comes from God, is good and needs no justification. That exercising creative gifts glorify God even if it isn’t necessarily “Christian” as long as it doesn’t conflict with God’s teachings all arts are good.
Franky states that Christians have negated the arts as a form of human expression and creativity. That Christians have limited the arts to just be about God and denied the exercise of expression and consequently has taken the church out of the realm of influence in society.
He also addresses the dichotomy of “spirituality” and “secularism”. He states that we have adopted a theology that states that “spirituality” is something separate from the rest of real life. It is above everyday things and not a part of everyday working out of our lives. It became a thing separated from the rest of life. Thus, certain things increasingly were regarded as spiritual and other things as secular.
Franky states that Christians have compartmentalized people’s lives, with things that are spiritual and things that are not. And the arts, creativity, enjoyment of beauty, even enjoyment of God’s beauty were set aside. The arts were regarded as unspiritual, unfit, and secondary to those high spiritual goal now set forth for Christians to achieve.
Franky also states that the church has taken a utilitarian view of people and their talents. That only talents that help the churches efforts, its programs, its church growth etc., are the measure of the talents worth.
He states that we must demand higher standards. We must look for people with real creative integrity and talent, or not dabble in the creative fields at all.
On p.46 is a quote specifically relating to Christian film… “…the same can be said for the efforts of so-called Christian films. They often only have one connection with good films being made, and that is that they use a movie camera and celluloid. Other than that, they have no relationship at all.”
This argument came from a book written 30 years ago! How practical it still is. We have come a long way since then, but I still sense the lack of legitimacy in the church of the arts.
Franky’s discourse on how we have created a dichotomy of “spirituality” and “secularism” and that “spirituality” is separate from the real world, actually helped me better understand the fundamental problem with Christian film. It is the fact that Christian film presents people and issues and situations that are not present in the real world. They create a “spiritual” world and put the characters in it. So consequently the audience does not engage because they spot this removal from reality and spot the fact that even in our movies we live in the “spiritual” world and not in the real world. As Franky stated there is not “spiritual” or “secular” world that we live in, we all live in the same world and that’s it.
PS One of the Chapters spoke specifically to artist, ill copy it and post it when I get some time.
It is his premise that the arts and creativity is inherently a good thing given to us by God. He states that creativity comes from God, is good and needs no justification. That exercising creative gifts glorify God even if it isn’t necessarily “Christian” as long as it doesn’t conflict with God’s teachings all arts are good.
Franky states that Christians have negated the arts as a form of human expression and creativity. That Christians have limited the arts to just be about God and denied the exercise of expression and consequently has taken the church out of the realm of influence in society.
He also addresses the dichotomy of “spirituality” and “secularism”. He states that we have adopted a theology that states that “spirituality” is something separate from the rest of real life. It is above everyday things and not a part of everyday working out of our lives. It became a thing separated from the rest of life. Thus, certain things increasingly were regarded as spiritual and other things as secular.
Franky states that Christians have compartmentalized people’s lives, with things that are spiritual and things that are not. And the arts, creativity, enjoyment of beauty, even enjoyment of God’s beauty were set aside. The arts were regarded as unspiritual, unfit, and secondary to those high spiritual goal now set forth for Christians to achieve.
Franky also states that the church has taken a utilitarian view of people and their talents. That only talents that help the churches efforts, its programs, its church growth etc., are the measure of the talents worth.
He states that we must demand higher standards. We must look for people with real creative integrity and talent, or not dabble in the creative fields at all.
On p.46 is a quote specifically relating to Christian film… “…the same can be said for the efforts of so-called Christian films. They often only have one connection with good films being made, and that is that they use a movie camera and celluloid. Other than that, they have no relationship at all.”
This argument came from a book written 30 years ago! How practical it still is. We have come a long way since then, but I still sense the lack of legitimacy in the church of the arts.
Franky’s discourse on how we have created a dichotomy of “spirituality” and “secularism” and that “spirituality” is separate from the real world, actually helped me better understand the fundamental problem with Christian film. It is the fact that Christian film presents people and issues and situations that are not present in the real world. They create a “spiritual” world and put the characters in it. So consequently the audience does not engage because they spot this removal from reality and spot the fact that even in our movies we live in the “spiritual” world and not in the real world. As Franky stated there is not “spiritual” or “secular” world that we live in, we all live in the same world and that’s it.
PS One of the Chapters spoke specifically to artist, ill copy it and post it when I get some time.
posted by Tim at 1:52 AM
1 Comments:
I like the way he debunks the evangelical fear of anything erotic...
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