The Cedarville Review 2017

i EDITORS’ FOREWORD A CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO ART AND LITERATURE: A VERY SHORT GUIDE TO IMAGES AND TEXTS HOW DO ART AND LITERATURE GLORIFY GOD? The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.” –Exodus 31:1-5 To understand the role of art in the hands of a Christian artist, begin by asking this: How does a bridge, built by a Christian engineer, glorify God? The bridge is a thing well made, trustworthy, beautiful and purposeful in its own way, and crafted by a Christian who can be salt and light in the spheres of influence God gives him. Art and literature glorify God in the same way. Paintings and poems are things well made, the arts a vocational and Spirit filled calling in which Christians can be salt and light. We design and craft, cut and carve, filled with the Spirit of God. A common expectation is that artworks and literature must somehow preach in the same way ser- mons preach: presenting the gospel entirely or explicitly, using Scripture or the Christian walk as a constant subject matter, etc. This expectation is mistaken. To ask an artwork to preach the way a sermon preaches is akin to asking a bridge to preach the way a sermon preaches. Bridges can’t preach, and we don’t expect them to. Bridges are the wrong medium for writing sermons. The same is true for artworks. But that’s not to say bridges and artworks have no evangelical function whatsoever. They simply function differently. For example, the abstract artwork of 21st century artist Makoto Fujimura does little to preach in the sense we often think of preaching. However, his non-representational artwork does speak exceedingly well the language of his medium, the language of artists, and has allowed Makoto—a sincere and vocal Christian—to be salt and light within an international art community that might otherwise have none at all. Makato designs and